A Collaborative Approach to Autism Training

A Collaborative Approach to Autism Training

The prevalence of autism has risen in recent years, with rates increasing from 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 children nationwide (and 1 in 22 children in California) as of 2023 (Maenner et al., 2023). While previous research has shown that most officers believe autism-specific training is valuable for their line of work (Christiansen et al., 2021), few officers receive such training (Gardner et al., 2018). The purpose of this brief article is threefold: to describe a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to training development, to report the positive impact of training, and to provide practical takeaways for agencies interested in providing training specific to autism.

In the fall of 2022, the three authors of this article began conversations about developing autism-specific training for law enforcement officers, in collaboration with members of the autism community. Together, our multi-disciplinary team brought together individuals with experience in law enforcement, school psychology, speech-language pathology, applied behavior analysis, and autism. Over the course of a year, we met for multiple rounds of discussion, feedback, and training revision. The result of our efforts was Interaction with Neurodiverse Citizens: Training on Effective Response and Communication (INTERAC), which we piloted in the summer of 2023.

The INTERAC pilot was a 40-minute presentation, offered on seven separate occasions (i.e., seven shift briefings, in which officers attended one of the seven sessions). Results were overwhelmingly positive and lent support for the expansion of INTERAC^[1]. Now a three-hour training session with scenario-based learning, review of body camera footage, and co-presentation by members of the autism community, INTERAC has received California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training approval and has been presented to officers as well as firefighters and emergency medical technicians in our county. Whether the 40-minute or 3-hour version, results have been consistent: trainees report that INTERAC is clear, helpful, and increases their comfort in interacting with individuals with autism^[2]. Additionally, comparison of pre- and post-training scores on the Police Self-Efficacy for Autism (PSEA; Love et al., 2020) scale shows growth across all items. Of note, the items of greatest change in both the 40-minute and 3-hour forms have been: the ability to distinguish autism from other disabilities^[3], the ability to explain three characteristics of autism to another first responder^[4], the ability to modify the environment^[5], and the ability to gather information from an individual who does not use spoken language as their primary means of communication^[6]. In the next section, we present key takeaways from INTERAC with the hope of supporting other agencies in creating effective autism-specific training.

Takeaways

Supporting the differentiation of autism from other disabilities.

While officers are not expected to become diagnosticians, starting with the diagnostic definition of autism provides context needed to support the understanding and awareness of characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorder. First, autism spectrum disorder is not a mental health disorder. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder, with characteristics present in early childhood (though diagnosis can be made in adulthood). As a spectrum disorder, the characteristics of autism vary from individual to individual. However, key features include difficulties in social communication, restricted interests, and/or repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Supporting understanding of characteristics.

Social communication is multi-faceted, referring to social-emotional reciprocity (demonstrated through conversational turn-taking, initiating and exiting conversation, maintaining topic, etc.), the understanding and usage of non-verbal language (e.g., eye contact, shared eye gaze, gesture, facial expression, body orientation, intonation, volume), and the ability to adjust behavior to the social context (e.g., interpreting and applying vocabulary, tone, volume, sarcasm, and colloquialisms to the setting/context). Restricted interests refer to a strong knowledge or passion in a particular area, and repetitive behaviors can include both speech acts (e.g. repetition of phrases) and motor acts (e.g. hand flapping, spinning).

Wallace et al. (2022) call attention to the ways in which characteristics associated with autism can be misinterpreted as signs of guilt or non-compliance. During INTERAC, we show officer body-worn camera footage in which a man responds to the direction, “put your hands behind your back,” by placing his hands slightly behind his hips. Of note, the man’s interpretation/application of “behind” could be considered correct in certain contexts (i.e., a speech therapy lesson) but was not the expected application for his current context. We consider how the interpretation of tone in English is needed to differentiate a question from a directive (i.e., rising intonation marks a question, and falling intonation marks a directive), how question types are arranged upon a hierarchy of difficulty (where yes/no and what questions are generally easier to process than how/why questions, which place greater demand on working memory and language formulation), and how colloquialisms can be reformed for greater clarity (e.g., changing the figurative expression “take a seat,” to its literal form “sit down”). While an individual with a social-communication disorder may not demonstrate difficulty with comprehension during a routine activity, they may have difficulty during an interaction that is unexpected. Therefore, we turn to the recommendations provided by our multi-disciplinary team members below.

Modifying the Environment.

Members of our multidisciplinary team, both individuals with autism and support staff, provided recommendations for officers that were consistent with findings in previous research (e.g., Railey et al., 2019). In order to modify the environment in a way that promotes a sense of calm, members recommended that officers consider ways of approaching that minimize sensory overload (e.g., turn off lights and sirens and approach with fewer individuals, when possible), and use strategies to assist comprehension (e.g., a slowed speech rate, provide ample time between questions, reword colloquial phrases, and provide visual information- such as symbol boards- to supplement spoken information). To assist individuals experiencing sensory overload with self-regulation, we recommend that officers have access to sensory bags with sunglasses, noise cancelling headphones, tactile objects (e.g., fidget spinner, stress ball), as well as symbol boards.

Gathering Information Using Alternative Forms.

Augmentative and alternative forms of communication (AAC) encompass a variety of communication tools and systems. Within our training, we provide examples of common voice output apps (e.g., Proloquo2Go) and symbol boards (for reference, please see the “Police Symbol Board” from Widgit Health). In addition to the sensory items listed above, we recommend that sensory bags include items to assist in communication. We provide a laminated yes/no card, a card with health symbols and visual directions (e.g., icon for “sit down”), and a blank card with a whiteboard marker so that an officer can tailor communication as needed. As noted by our team members, visual/symbol boards are commonly used in the school setting to prompt information sharing, state expectations, explain a sequence (“First we will do this, then we will do this.”), and therefore may be familiar to the individual with whom the officer is interacting.

Moving Forward

We believe results from INTERAC show both the promise of autism-specific training as well as the benefit of bringing multiple stakeholders together to meet an identified need. The training we began together in 2022 has since developed into a 3-hour course, which has been presented to law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians in our county. While the 40-minute training was found to have a statistically significant impact on officer self-efficacy scores (Holke et al., 2025), a comparison of the most recent 3-hour training data from Spring 2025 with the pilot data from Summer 2023 provides a preliminary look into the advantages of extended training; participants of the 3-hour training demonstrated larger gains on PSEA items than participants of the 40-minute training version, and more often reported the training to be helpful and to have increased their comfort in interacting with individuals with autism. While more data is needed to better understand the relationship between training length and training impact, we theorize this relationship to be mediated by the in-depth discussion of characteristics and strategies using real scenarios and the inclusion of members of the autism community as co-presenters. To conclude, we believe the receptivity of multiple audiences for autism-specific training reiterates the desire for and importance of such training. Additionally, we believe that there is a need and benefit for autism-specific training, and we encourage those interested in creating training for their departments to do so.

Acknowledgements

We thank Officer Mathew Aragon for his work in developing and advocating for the sensory bags described above. 

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5 (Fifth edition. ed.). American Psychiatric Association.

Christiansen, A., Minich, N.M. and Clark, M. (2021), “Pilot survey: police understanding of autism spectrum disorder”, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 53 No. 2, pp. 738-745, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04968-z.

Gardner, L., Campbell, J.M. and Westdal, J. (2018), “Brief report: descriptive analysis of law enforcement officers' experiences with and knowledge of autism”, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 1278-1283, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3794-4.

Holke, K., Cosier, M., Green Kaustinen, E., Scherer, C., Wall, A. (2025), “Autism awareness training for law enforcement officers: a pilot study”, Policing: An International Journal, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-02-2025-0042

Love, A.M.A., Usher, E.L., Toland, M.D., Railey, K.S., Campbell, J.M. and Spriggs, A.D. (2020), “Measuring police officer self-efficacy for working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder”, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 1331-1345, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04613-1.

Maenner M.J., Warren, Z., Williams, A.R., et al. (2023). Prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years- Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites, United States, 2020. MMWR Surveillance Summary, SS-2, 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7202a1

Railey, K.S., Bowers-Campbell, J., Love, A.M. and Campbell, J.M. (2019), “An exploration of law enforcement officers' training needs and interactions with individuals with autism spectrum disorder”, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 101-117, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04227-2

Wallace, D., Herbert, J., McGhee Hassrick, E. and Kabourek, S.E. (2022), “The frequency and clustering of autism-related behaviors during encounters between the police and the autism community”, Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 45 No. 3, pp. 403-420, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-10-2021-0141.