Southern Utah Autism Conference 2025

In this session, we will talk about best practices for healthy marriages with a special emphasis on how to do this with autistic children. We will talk about focusing on what we can and can't control, reframing negative thoughts and decreasing resentment towards our partners, and setting aside adequate time for the marriage. I have a Master's degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development and I used to teach healthy relationships classes for the USU Extension Office before my child was diagnosed with autism. So I knew a ton about how to have healthy relationships, but keeping a marriage alive with a severely autistic child is hard! I have learned so much the last 7 years on how to keep the marriage functioning while dealing with autistic children and I would love to share what I have learned with you.

Lack of communication is the number one reason for problem behavior. In this session we will discuss how to identify what a child's problem behavior is telling us about their need for communication and how to teach them to communicate the things they need. When children know that the are understood and that there communication is honored, much of their problem behavior goes away and growing blossoms.

An autism diagnosis can often cause strain on relationships with family members. Autism causes many families to totally change how they do life and those changes can be hard for other family members to accept. In this session, we will talk about how to foster good relationships with these family members who don't understand autism or who are not supportive. We will talk about communication, setting appropriate boundaries, and regulating our emotions around these people. We will discuss being intentional about how we want to react to unthoughtful comments from family members. I have a Master's degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development and I have a lot of personal experience in navigating these tricky relationships with my own family.

DEVELOPING A LEGO THERAPY PROGRAM FOR SOCIAL, COMMUNICATION, and IMPULSE CONTROL SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN BOTH SCHOOLS AND HOMES

Lego Therapy is a research-based intervention for individuals on the Autism spectrum that is under utilized and can be implemented effectively in a home or school environment. This session will address how to create a Lego Therapy Program and support implementation in homes or schools; specifically how to do Lego Therapy; the specific social, emotional, impulse-control, and communication skills that Lego Therapy targets; the current data on Lego Therapy effectiveness; and how to incorporate it into Tier 2 School Intervention/SpEd programs and home environments. Participants will get a hands-on demonstration of a Lego Therapy session as well as the informational materials needed to get started on Lego Therapy in their home or school.

Underdeveloped skill in back-and-forth communication is a core diagnostic feature of autism. Teaching effective interpersonal communication goes a long way to reduce tantrums, frustration, and other concerns. Knowing that, how do we effectively teach interpersonal communication to children, youth, and young adults on the autism spectrum? This workshop will draw from social skills training (PEERS), and  Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to do just that.