The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Meltdowns? Arguments? Drama? Everyday problems and conflicts provide opportunities to teach communication/social skills to persons with ASD. When parents and teachers respond using the techniques of mediators, conflicts transform into learning experiences, restorative justice can be employed to repair harm and teach persons with ASD to be responsible community members. The skills of conflict mediation and Restorative Justice offer techniques to manage common behavioral, social, and communication problems of persons with ASD. Parents, teachers, and professionals can also teach many of these skills to persons with ASD so they can improve their behavior and social interactions. The efficacy of this approach has been demonstrated at Minnesota Life College, where a Resolution Team handles conflicts and behavioral issues using restorative practices, and the staff employs mediation skills in assisting person with ASD to understand and resolve conflicts. The staff also teaches persons with ASD communication skills (borrowed from conflict resolution) which have proven effective for expressing emotions appropriately and navigating social relationships.

Mary Christianson, a trained mediator and Qualified Neutral under Minnesota law who also has a decade of experience teaching persons with ASD, will present specific skills for parents, teachers, and other professionals to use when working with individuals and groups to resolve conflict and social misunderstandings, along with managing behavioral issues such as meltdowns and arguments. These skills include reframing, restating, navigating social misunderstandings, visual ways of outlining events, and developing action plans. The skills address executive functioning deficits in the areas of impulse control, memory, concrete thinking, response to novelty, sequencing, regulation of emotions, and judgment.

Also presented will be methods for teaching persons with ASD skills for understanding emotions, expressing emotions appropriately, avoiding and resolving conflict, communicating effectively, listening, perspective taking, and problem solving.

The principles and practices of Restorative Justice have been used by the courts to divert individuals from punishment in the criminal justice system, teaching them to accept personal responsibility and repair the harm caused by their actions. The presentation will outline how these practices and methods can be put into practice by schools and supported living communities for persons with ASD; individuals can learn from mistakes, inappropriate behavior, and conflict, and professionals can work in a pro-active manner instead of simply responding when situations and behaviors get out of hand.

Throughout the presentation, the stories of real individuals with ASD, their parents, and teachers and how these skills and methods have worked for them will be related.

Learning Objectives: