Clements, John - Autism Awareness
Conference speaker John Clements

Clements, John

John Clements is a British Clinical Psychologist, specializing for over 35 years in the field of developmental disabilities in general and autism in particular. After holding senior posts in the UK health and university systems, he established with Ewa Zarkowska the UK’s first independent psychological consultancy dedicated to people with developmental disabilities. In 1996 John emigrated to the USA and worked for the next 10 years as a behavior consultant in the great state of California, returning to the UK in 2006. John is the author of 7 books (the most recent of which is People With Autism Behaving Badly) and over 100 other publications. He retains a persistent delusion that he is a member of the Rolling Stones (not really!!)

Thoughts, Feelings and Behavior: Empathy and Analysis in Working Through the Behavioral and Emotional Difficulties of Children with ASD

The course will argue for identifying our concerns in terms of thoughts, feelings and behavior rather than just behavior on its own. From this starting point the contributors to these challenges will be identified – those to do with autism, those to do with the environment and those to do with the interaction between the two. Approaches to assessment will be considered and an assessment aide provided. This will then lead into approaches to intervention. These will be discussed in terms of some of the common flashpoints:

  1. Requests
  2. Transitions
  3. Denials
  4. Unstructured/ overloading situations

Practical interventions for these situations will be presented and their use illustrated by case studies. If time permits, there will then be a general overview of two central areas of work:

  1. Maintaining social engagement
  2. Promoting personal well being

It is intended that as a result of the day’s work participants will:

  1. Gain greater understanding of the drivers behind the behavioral difficulties that give rise to concern
  2. Have an enhanced ability to assess these difficulties
  3. Take away specific intervention ideas for the people with ASD that they support, in whatever capacity

Clements, John's Past Conference Schedule

March 6, 2010