
10 – 10.30

10.30 - 11
Introduction to the project (aims of the day,
objectives, intro to mentoring)
Autism in an historical and social context

11 - 11.15
Tea break


11.15 – 11.45
11.45 – 12.15
A different way of thinking
Sensory perceptions and autism

12.15 - 1
Lunch


1 – 1.30
1.30 – 2
Interaction and communication
Stress and anxiety

2 – 2.15
Tea break


2.15 – 2.45
2.45 – 3.15
Autism and gender
The SPELL framework

3.15 – 3.30
Tea break

3.30 – 4

4 – 4.30

4.30 – 5
Boundaries and recording, risks and
safeguarding
The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI), goalsetting and Personal Construct Theory
Concluding guidance for project
A two-year pilot study to:

Establish a mentoring scheme designed with
input from people on the autism spectrum;

Evaluate its effectiveness in improving the
wellbeing of young adults on the autism
spectrum aged 16-24.

The National Audit Office’s (2009)* report Supporting
People with Autism through Adulthood highlighted the
dearth of services for adults on the spectrum.

At the 2007 forum ‘Successful Futures for Adults with
Autism’ many said that they would benefit from oneone, time-limited, goal-oriented support, akin to life
coaching or mentoring.

Specialist mentoring schemes for people on the
autism spectrum are rare.
*National Audit Office (2009) Supporting People with Autism through
Adulthood. Available at: http://www.nao.org.uk/report/supportingpeople-with-autism-through-adulthood/

An advisory board has input into the design of this training
for mentors of people on the autism spectrum.

A minimum of 12 mentors will receive this training and be
matched with mentees.
 Mentees and mentors will collaboratively come up with goals
for mentoring.
 Mentoring will take place for six months.
 Various measures will be used to assess its effectiveness and
gain the views of mentees and mentors on their experiences of
participating in the programme.

Lead researcher: Dr Nicola Martin

Research assistants:
 Damian Milton
 Tara Sims

What do you hope to gain from today?

Our objectives include:
 Providing you with information on autism, both from a
theoretical perspective and from the viewpoint of people
on the autism spectrum.
 Developing an understanding of the role of a mentor and
the specific approaches and skills involved.
 Guiding you in how the project will run and the
accompanying documentation.
Mentoring and Befriending Foundation (2014):
 A time-limited goal-orientated relationship
 Supports both personal and vocational
learning and development.
 An experienced person providing guidance
and support to another less experienced
person.
 A voluntarily relationship in which goals and
outcomes are directed by the mentee.








Helping with goal-setting and action –
prioritisation and time-management
Helping with change and transition
Helping with challenges in social and personal
interactions
Developing self-confidence;
Providing support in getting to know new
environments or procedures
Offering advice and guidance
Helping explore options for the future
Giving (and receiving) constructive feedback.

Split into groups of three.

Each group to take one of the following: Counselling,
Advocacy, Coaching and Befriending

Decide as a group:
 A definition;
 In what ways it is similar to mentoring;
 In what ways it is different to mentoring.

Feedback to the larger group.

Counselling

Advocacy

Coaching

Befriending
We will match you with a mentee – we will do
this based on:

What they hope to gain from mentoring and how well this
matches with your experience.

The type of mentoring they would like (face-face, telephone,
online etc.) and what you are able to offer.

We will arrange a convenient time for your first meeting
with your mentee

A member of the research team will also attend this
meeting in order to

You will then meet once per week with your mentee for one hour.

Use the goals set and Salmon Line to help plan smaller goals and
monitor progress;

Jointly complete the meeting record sheet during/after each
session;

Individually complete the reflective journal after each session.

You can contact the research assistants at
any point during the six months of the
mentoring, if you have any questions, require
advice or guidance or are concerned about
anything that is discussed in the meetings.

You will be invited to attend a peer
supervision session with other mentors
approximately 3 months into the mentoring.

Complete the Salmon Line exercise again to
review the progress that has been made towards
your mentee’s goals.

After the last mentoring session, you will meet
with the research assistants to complete another
PWI form, participate in an interview and give in
completed goal setting sheets, meeting record
sheets and reflective journals.
McGowan B (2007) Practice Briefing Paper No 11: Towards an
Understanding of Mentoring, Social Mentoring and Befriending.
Brighton University: CUPP/EQUAL/University of Brighton Social
Mentoring Research Group Participatory Action Research
Programme EQUAL Brighton and Hove.
Miller A (2002) Mentoring students and young people. Norfolk, UK:
Routledge.
The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation (2014) What is
Mentoring? Retrieved 26/08/14; available at:
http://www.mandbf.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/What-ismentoring-and-befriending-5.8.14.pdf
Western S (2012) Coaching and Mentoring: A Critical Text. London, UK:
Sage.
Damian E M Milton, London South Bank
University (2015)

Write down what you think autism is – or
what you have heard autism is from other
sources, such as the media.

We will then gather feedback and discuss.

Origins of the term – Bleuler, Kanner and Asperger.

How was ‘autism’ defined before it was called
‘autism’?

Changing psychiatric lens – Bettleheim, Rimland and
Wing and Gould.

Parent activism and charities.

The neurodiversity movement and autistic selfadvocacy.

What is autism? A contested terrain.

Psychoanalysis

Behaviourism

Cognitivism and Neuroscience

Sociology and Critical Disability Studies

Autism from the ‘inside-out’ (Williams, 1996)

Models of disability:

Medical: disability as something abnormal and
pathological to be treated.

Social: split between social barriers of disability and
physical/mental ‘impairment’.

Bio-psycho-social: taking into account biological,
psychological and social aspects of disability.

Some theorists also question the assumptions of
‘impairment’ and ‘normalcy’ (see Milton, 2012).

‘Extremes of any combination come to be seen as
'psychiatric deviance'. In the argument presented here,
where disorder begins is entirely down to social
convention, and where one decides to draw the line across
the spectrum.’ (Milton, 1999 - spectrum referring to the
'human spectrum of dispositional diversity').

Impairment, deficit and the ‘spiky profile’.

Embodied, dispositional,
neurological...diversity!

Prevalence rates and changing diagnostic
criteria.

Rates of diagnosis and the gender divide.

Essential differences or social expectations?

Passing, masking, and psycho-emotional
disablism (Milton and Lyte, 2012).
Asperger Square 8 blogsite (2014):
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1vPB2M2IMiI/SucK5Gau3TI/AA
AAAAAACeQ/X8ANAC-forQ/s1600-h/social.model.png
 Milton, D. (1999) The Rise of Psychopharmacology [Masters
Essay – unpublished]. University of London.
 Milton, D. and Lyte (2012) The normalisation agenda and
the psycho-emotional disablement of autistic people,
Autonomy: the Journal of Critical Interdisciplinary Autism
Studies. Vol. 1(1). Accessed from: http://www.larryarnold.net/Autonomy/index.php/autonomy/article/view/9.
 Williams, D. (1996) Autism: An Inside-Out Approach.
London: Jessica Kingsley.

Damian E M Milton – London South Bank
University (2015)

Refers to the ability to maintain an
appropriate problem-solving strategy in
order to attain a future goal.

Yet – there may be a difference within the
way autistic executive processing operates,
rather than an impairment or deficiency?

Refers to problems with processing overall
contextual meanings, whilst simultaneously
having advantages in processing details or
parts of an overall context.

Yet – many autistic people are able to process
gist meaning and whole pictures.

Please read the handout regarding the
‘interest model’ of autism.

You will be shown a clip from the film ‘My
Autism and Me’ – this will be followed by an
open discussion about the clip.

Set mentoring scenario activity about multitasking and/or vagueness and gist thinking?
An exercise in
empathy
Why might Paul
be doing this?
How can you find
out why Paul
might be doing
this?
How might you
help as a mentor?
How will you
know if you are
helping?

Paul is working on his computer
on a history project which is
part of his A level course work.
He is spending a vast amount of
time on a small detail of this
project which is worth 10% of
one exam. He is taking four
subjects. Paul needs 4 (grade A
or B) A levels to get into his
chosen university.
Damian E M Milton – London South Bank University (2015)





Sensory integration and fragmentation.
Hypo and hyper sensitivity.
Context and motivation.
Stressful stimuli.
Stress, arousal and sensory overload –
‘meltdown’ and ‘shutdown’.

Synesthesia.

“Aren’t all autistic people visual thinkers?”.
Pattern thinking and Hyperlexia.

Monotropism and the ‘attention spotlight’.

The block design and embedded figure tests.

‘Non-verbal’ intelligence tests (Dawson et al.,
2007)

How many senses does someone have?

What would ‘hyper’ and ‘hypo’ sensitivity in
these senses be like?

What may help someone with such
sensitivities?

Brief explanation – followed by a mentoring
scenario activity (a cluttered noisy poorly-lit
environment at a meeting?).
An exercise in
empathy
Why might Jean
be doing this?
How can you find
out why Jean
might be doing
this?
How might you
help as a mentor?
How will you
know if you are
helping?

Jean has recently started a clerical job
in an open plan office which is hot,
noisy, crowded and has strip lighting.
Her bus was late, she stood up all the
way and arrived late. Her supervisor
said ‘what time do you call this’ . Jean
looked flustered and the supervisior
said ‘nevermind-just finish that stuff
off from Friday chop chop’. Jean went
to the toilet and locked herself in.
Fifteen minutes later she was still
there.

Dawson, M., Soulieres, I., Gernsbacher, M., and Mottron, L. (2007) ‘The
Level and Nature of Autistic Intelligence’. Psychological Science. Vol.
18(8): 657-662.
Damian E M Milton – London South Bank University (2015)

The ability to empathise
with others and imagine
their thoughts and
feelings, in order to
comprehend and predict
the behaviour of others
(also called ‘mindreading’ and
‘mentalising’).

A case of mutual incomprehension?

Rather than seeing the breakdown in
interaction between autistic and non-autistic
people as solely located in the mind of the
autistic person. The theory of the double
empathy problem sees it as largely due to the
differing perspectives of those attempting to
interact with one another.

Add in stuff from communication section...
Damian E M Milton – London South Bank University (2015)



An exploration of factors that influence the
levels of stress experienced by autistic
people, and how this can produce a negative
worsening cycle.
How continuing high levels of stress and
alienation can lead to mental ill-health.
Finally concluding by looking at what can be
done to reverse the negative spiral of stress
that can blight the lives of autistic people.



As with the rest of the population – great deal
of diversity in personality and temperament.
Often with differing responses to stressful
experiences when encountered.
The ‘fight or flight’ response – ‘meltdowns’
and ‘shutdowns’.




The ‘meltdown’ response and
misunderstandings of it.
‘Challenging behaviour’.
No choice in the matter.
Non-autistic people meltdown too – e.g.
road rage.




Noticing the less obvious such as more passive natured
autistic people and the
'shutdown' response.
Characterised by withdrawal.
Often unable to think clearly
or to express oneself at all.
Again – no choice in the
matter.


Shutdowns that are infused with emotional
content and/or confusion can lead to a panic
attack response.
This can be characterised by
hyperventilating, and in a worst case scenario
– passing out unconscious.



Once in such an overloaded state,
confusion reigns and communication
becomes largely impossible.
Do everything you can to reduce the stress
in order to help.
Do not ask ‘are you alright?’ – as one
blatantly is not!



The ‘monotropic’ focus (Murray et al. 2005,
Lawson, 2010, Milton, 2012).
Multi-tasking, integrating information, and
fragmentation.
Interruptions to the ‘attention spot light’.

“95% of people don’t understand me”.

“Friends are overwhelming”.

“Adults never leave me alone”.

“Adults don’t stop bullying me”.

Quotes taken from Jones et al. (2012).


How others see you and how you see
yourself. Emotional disjuncture and ‘identity
crisis’.
‘Exposure anxiety’ (Williams, 1996).


The denigration of
difference (Tajfel
and Turner, 1979).
‘In’ and ‘out’
groups, stigma and
discrimination.




Living with almost constant stress and social
disjuncture, can be even more highly
damaging when unrecognised.
Alienation and isolation, withdrawal from
society.
Mental ill-health – from social anxiety issues
to depression and catatonia.
Remember – the outward manifestation of
stress may be a lack of expression too.







Acceptance of the autistic way of being, work with the
autistic person and not against their autism.
Watch out for ‘triggers’ in the environment (although
sometimes these cannot be avoided – e.g. the dreaded fire
alarm!).
Explore interests and fascinations together.
Having strong rapport and building mutually fulfilling and
trusting relationships.
Encourage autistic companionship.
Encourage understanding of non-autistic people and
culture, rather then teaching how to poorly mimic what
one is not.
‘Low arousal’ is not ‘no arousal’ – many sensory
experiences are fun!






Jones, G., English, A., Jones, G., Lyn-Cook, L., and Wittemeyer,
K. (2012) The Autism Education Trust National School Standards.
Autism Education Trust.
Lawson, W. (2010) The Passionate Mind: how people with autism
learn. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Milton, D. (2012) So what exactly is autism? Autism Education
Trust.
Murray, D., Lesser, M. and Lawson, W. (2005) ‘Attention,
monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism.’ Autism.
Vol. 9(2), pp. 136-156.
Tajfel, H. and Turner, J. (1979) An integrative theory of
intergroup conflict. In D. Langbridge and S. Taylor (ed’s) Critical
Readings in Social Psychology. Milton Keynes: Open University.
Williams, D. (1996) Autism: An Inside-Out Approach. London:
Jessica Kingsley.

Mentoring scenarios involving someone
having a meltdown and someone having a
panic attack (perhaps for the exact same
reasons – and groups swap feedback?).

Jean is still in the toilet after half an hour. She is sitting
on the floor, feeling hot, anxious and frightyened. She
is very quiet and preoccupied and is not sure how to
get herself out of the situation. Her supervisor is
asking office staff where she is. Jean can hear him.

Jean is still in the toilet. She is running the taps,
splashing water on her face and flicking water around
the room. She is saying over and over again ‘oh no, oh
no, oh no’. People in the office can hear her and a
colleague is banging on the door and saying ‘what’s
going on in there?’
DO…
 Be aware of your own personal boundaries.
 Avoid getting into situations that could be misinterpreted.
 Think before you say, "Yes".
 Maintain focus on assisting the mentee with their goals.
DON’T…
 Give out your home telephone number or address to your
mentee.
 Take your mentee to your own home or meet in their home.
 Get involved in a relationship with you mentee that crosses
professional boundaries.
 Give or lend your mentee money.

Complete the mentoring agreement during the
first meeting to agree the following:
 Mentoring is once per week for one hour.
 Always meet in a public place where you both feel
comfortable - never mentor or mentee’s home.
 Contact between meetings only for the purposes of
altering details about the next meeting.
 Only cancel a meeting if absolutely necessary and
make sure you give your mentee as much notice as
possible.

Read the lone worker guidance and follow this at
all times when meeting your mentee.

Ensure that any information about your work as a mentor,
which you share with family, friends or colleagues, is
restricted to general information only.

Be very careful what you talk about so that you don't reveal
personal information about your mentee to anyone outside
the project.

Do not promise your mentee you will keep secrets – make
them aware that if you believe they or someone else are at
risk you will have to share the information with project staff.

Speak to project staff if you have any concerns for the safety
of your mentee or anyone else following something your
mentee has disclosed to you.

Get into pairs.

Read your scenario and between you discuss the
following:
 How you would respond according to your own personal
boundaries
 How you would respond according to the boundaries of the
mentoring relationship
 What you would consider in terms of:
▪ Your own personal boundaries
▪ Confidentiality
▪ Lone working

Feed back to the group.

Some people embrace A.S./disability identity but
others don’t and consequently avoid associated
services

Diagnosis is necessary to access the mentoring service

Adult diagnostic services and post diagnosis support
are scarce

'A diagnosis would have helped so I didn't feel my lack
of social skills was a deficit of mine‘. (ASPECT)

‘Having a diagnosis of AS in school means, as an adult,
you feel like you can never actually participate
normally in everything with everyone else‘. (Student)

Mental health is a fluctuating state, dependent on various factors (Samaritans 2006).

People on the autism spectrum are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems (Tantam & Prestwood
1999).

It is important to feel comfortable having exploratory discussions with people who express despair or suicidal
thoughts.

The majority of people who express suicidal thoughts are unlikely to carry through their thoughts to action,
but you must take it seriously when somebody expresses despair or suicidal ideation (Samaritans 2005).

If your mentee expresses despairing thoughts or thoughts that could be described as potentially
suicidal:
 Respond in a compassionate, proportionate and timely manner;
 Make sure they are aware that you may not be able to keep everything they say confidential if you are
concerned for their safety or the safety of somebody else.
 Keep discussions brief to avoid thought getting “stuck in their head”
(Cole-King et al 2012)

For advice or support you (and your mentee) can contact:

Local mental health crisis services: 0800 731 2864

Samaritans: 08457 909 090
If you are ever in doubt about a boundary, confidentiality
or disclosure issue, speak to one of the project research assistants:
Tara: simst@lsbu.ac.uk;
Damian: miltond@lsbu.ac.uk
Brewer AM (2011) Positive Mentoring Relationships: Nurturing Potential. In S Roffey
(Ed.) Positive Relationships: Evidence Based Practice across the World. London, UK:
Springer Science and Media.
Cole-King A, Walton I, Gask L, Chew-Graham C and Platt S (2012) Suicide Mitigation
in Primary Care. London, UK: RCGP/RCPsych Primary care Mental Health Forum.
Headspace (2009) MythBuster: Suicidal Ideation. Victoria, Australia: OrygenYouth
Health Research Centre.
Milton, D. (2012a) ‘On the Ontological Status of Autism: the ‘Double Empathy
Problem’. Disability and Society.
Samaritans (2005) The Listening Wheel. Surrey, UK: The Samaritans Enterprises
Limited.
Samaritans (2006) Sliding Scale. Surrey, UK: The Samaritans Enterprises Limited .
Tantam, D. and Prestwood, S. (1999). A mind of one's own: a guide to the special
difficulties and needs of the more able person with autism or Asperger syndrome. 3rd
ed. London: National Autistic Society
Damian E M Milton, London South Bank
University (2015)

Activity: please fill out a personal wellbeing
index.

Then if you like you can fill out a the ‘wheel’ in
the handout (instructions on the handout).

In pairs, set three goals...
The starting point for PCT is the idiosyncratic
ways in which people make sense of the world
and how this influences their actions.
 PCT attempts to approach issues through the
viewpoint of the individual experiencing them,
rather than fitting them into preconceived
models.
 Rather than seeing any interpretation as
‘correct’, one should look pragmatically at how
useful such a framing is to one’s purposes.

On the lines below, please mark how satisfied you are with your current level of attainment of each
of your goals for mentoring
Goal 1:____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
1
Completely dissatisfied
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Completely satisfied
(Adapted from Salmon 1988*)
The person is asked to place him/herself on the line in relation to their perceptions of how they are performing in this
area currently. Ideas for progressing towards achievement can be generated in small, achievable steps.
For each aspect of life that is chosen, it is represented on a continuum with one end representing satisfaction in that area
and the other representing dissatisfaction.
Salmon P (1988) Psychology for Teachers:
An Alternative Approach. London: Routledge

A mentee identifies that their goal is to have a better relationship
with their parents.

Ask the mentee to give their view on what the bottom end of the
continuum looks like and what the top end of the continuum looks
like.

Ask the mentee to mark on the continuum where they are
currently and what this looks like.

Discuss with the mentee where they would like to be on the
continuum at the end of the six months mentoring and what this
would look like.

Then explore participant’s beliefs about how they can move along
the line from where they are now to the point they would like to
be.
‘People need to get over the idea that the 'neuro typical way is the right way and
any other way is wrong. The AS way is just as valid, in fact better in some
respects. We should be accepted in our own right, and the emphasis should be
on educating NT's not to be so discriminatory, and to get over the absurd and
offensive idea that they are better than anyone else. People with AS don't need to
be cured, or trained how to be 'normal'. It's the 'normal' people who need to learn
that, contrary to what they think, they are not the pinnacle of God's creation and
there is, in fact, a lot they could learn from Aspies. They need to be taught not to
be prejudiced and discriminatory, and to accept and accommodate us for who
we are’ (ASPECT)

Get into pairs.

One person from each pair to choose an area of their life they would like to develop in /
work on (in role of mentee).

Mentor to lead a discussion about what being on the bottom end of the continuum
would look like and what being at the top end of the continuum would look like (what
would be happening, how people would be feeling, the consequences of this etc.)

Mentor to ask mentee to mark on the continuum where they are currently and explore
with them what this looks like.

Mentor to discuss with mentee where on the continuum they would ideally like to be
and explore their beliefs about how they can move along the line from where they are
now to the point they would like to be.
 Prompts that can be used:
▪ What are they doing/have they done in the past that allows them to be at this point in
the scale (and not further towards the dissatisfied/underachievement end of the scale)
– can only do this if people have not positioned themselves right at the bottom.
▪ What do they think would help them to move closer towards the desired position on
the scale?

Swap roles and repeat.
Your pack contains the following documents for recording
during mentoring:

mentoring contract

reflective diary sheets

session recording sheets
The mentoring contract will be agreed with your mentee in the
first session and referred to as necessary throughout the
relationship.
The other two documents will be completed after each session to
act as a continual record of the mentoring relationship.

Complete the self-referral form, demonstrating
how you meet the criteria outlined in the person
specification.

If you meet the criteria you will be invited to an
interview with project staff.

We will then try to match you with a mentee –
this may not be possible (even if you meet the
criteria) – in that case we will keep you on a list
of “reserve mentors” and may request your
participation at a later date.
We will match you with a mentee – we will do
this based on:
What they hope to gain from mentoring and how well this
matches with your experience.
 The type of mentoring they would like (face-face, telephone,
online etc.) and what you are able to offer.

To facilitate this, we require you to:


Fill in a mentoring referral form
Attend a 15 minute one-one discussion about the role
We will arrange a convenient time for your first meeting
with your mentee – a member of the research team will
also attend this meeting in order to:

Facilitate completing consent forms;

Complete/collect your PWI forms;

Facilitate Filling in the mentoring agreement form;

Facilitate Goal setting using the Salmon Line;

Ensure you are both confident with the paperwork that requires completing after
each session;

Make sure you both have the contact details of project staff;

Answer any questions either of you may have;

Facilitate setting future meetings.

Once per week for one hour in way agreed (faceface/telephone/online)

Guided by the mentee regarding what they wish to discuss or work
on;

Use the goals set and Salmon Line to help plan smaller goals and
monitor progress;

Jointly complete the meeting record sheet during/after each
session – this is really important as it will tell us how often and for
how long you and your mentee met;

Individually complete the reflective journal after each session.

You can contact the research assistants at any
point during the six months of the mentoring, if
you have any questions, require advice or
guidance or are concerned about anything that
is discussed in the meetings:
 simst@lsbu.ac.uk
 miltond@lsbu.ac.uk

Peer supervision session with other mentors
approximately 3 months into the mentoring –
date tbc.

In your last meeting with your mentee, you will
complete the Salmon Line exercise again to
review the progress that has been made towards
your mentee’s goals – a research assistant can
facilitate this session if you would like.

After the last mentoring session, you will meet
with the research assistants to complete another
PWI form, participate in an interview and give in
completed goal setting sheets, meeting record
sheets and reflective journals.