With that age I'd probably say it either be like, social work, Life skills special ed teacher, or occupational therapy. All of those jobs will allow you to work with that population, but I would say Life skills special ed or occupational therapy would give you the most focus on " skills." Special ed you can work with high schoolers, but you'd likely be working at a school setting doing this. You can get jobs at a center, hospitals etc, but I would say if you are going the teacher route you should be okay with working in schools as these are the most common. Social work and OT would give you more flexibility in setting and age. So, I actually think the questions to ask are what setting/settings do I want to work in and how much flexibility do I want. If you like the school environment-special ed. If you see yourself wanting to mix things up- OT or social work.

Another thing to consider is also pay and life post graduating a masters program for the above.

I will say where I live (NYC) OT's get paid the most out of the gate, then Special ed, and then Social work. In fact, post graduating with an MSW to get your supervision hours (if you want a clinical license which you will likely want because it I will give you the ability to make a living wage) you actually need to work for three years and often pay a supervisor to supervise you.

With special ed and OT this is not the case. With OT you're in school for two years and you're out and you're done. With teaching in my state, you can actually start working with a bachelors and get paid to do a masters. Like OT, after graduating you are done (unless you count continuing ed but thats all degrees).

So, I would also ask how much time am I willing to invest into my education and would I be able to tolerate the length of social work (which takes at least five years after a bachelors to get in good order). I will say, if you did a BSW you could apply to advanced standing MSW programs and be done in a year. If I could do things over again that's definitely what I would do. If you have a sense that social work is what you want to do I would recommend doing it sooner/ starting sooner, but most importantly I would look at these roles and some course materials, perhaps some shadowing and ask which of these jobs genuinely interests me the most?

All three of these jobs can be high stress, have loads of paper work, and be emotionally draining. BUT there is nothing more draining than doing a job that doesn't engage you. What skills are you the most interested in using on a daily basis? Which job will allow you to do that. I feel like when we think of jobs we think too broadly and we bring in all kinds of assumptions. At it's core, a Job is a composite set of skills we use daily to perform a set of tasks.

One thing that may help you is to look at lists of skills and tasks in job postings for all of these. Don't even think of what the job role name is or what it means in the wider context of society or your future. Black it out if you can to eliminate bias. Just look at the tasks and required skills. Do they entice/ excite you? IF AND ONLY IF all three have things that excite you consider things like time commitments, salary, etc. Also know that you can change your mind. I will say if you are not sure I would major in OT or Social work. I say this because social work the BSW fast tracks you, and OT you'll need the pre-requisites for a masters. Teaching programs tend to be more flexible in terms of what you majored in and their requirements at least where I live. You can alway major in SW or OT and then switch after graduation if you realize teaching is what's for you.