The Linear Autism Method for treating autism has been developed by Tim Wahlberg, PhD, and has clinically proven to be effective over the past 27 years in private practice.

LAM training details the linear nature of the autistic mind and provides interventions that help to shift that thinking to a more abstract and social perspective, thus helping the individual with autism become more functional, more successful in life, and more satisfied with day-to-day living.

LAM recommends working collaboratively with the client, family, and school for continuity of progress and success within the home and community. While the term ‘child’ is referenced throughout the training, this program is equally applicable to verbal individuals of all ages.

Training for Professionals Serving Clients with ASD and Their Families

Class 1: The Perspective that Works: Introduction to the Linear Autism Method

This class provides introductory principles and frameworks on autism for mental health practitioners working with ASD diagnosed children and adults.

You will gain specific perspectives that will serve as a guide and assist you to more easily establish a protocol that will support your client’s success, increase your confidence in working with and support an individual with autism in your practice, and help you to leverage therapeutic strategies to support the individual’s growth. 

Class 2: Understanding and Managing Autistic Behavior

This class provides the basics of how autistic brain neurology is linked to the behavior and the thinking of the person on the autism spectrum. 

Neurological regulation supports the person with autism’s ability to stay calm and regulated emotionally. 

This is the 2nd class in the series of 9, and will lay the groundwork for you in understanding and managing behavior through neurological regulation, as well as to help you to create more effective interventions to change behavior and ultimately create more success for your client. 

Class 3: The ASD Clients View of the World: Strategies for Effective Connection

The purpose of this class is to provide an understanding of common thinking patterns that arise as a result of the neurological architecture of the brain of children with autism, and through which their understanding of the world is filtered. 

We will discuss how these ways of thinking shape behavior. This will serve as a guide for you in understanding and managing behavior in your office, and help you create effective interventions.

Class 4: Managing the Problems of a Social Disability

This class is designed to help you understand the pervasive types of social difficulties prevalent in individuals with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as how those social challenges develop, and how they influence behavior. 

This class will also teach strategies to help the individual overcome those challenges. 

Class 5: Motivating Children with Autism

This class will provide a clear understanding of why individuals with autism are not motivated like those without autism, as well as offering strategies to motivate the individual with autism to comply with requests, complete tasks, and follow the rules. 

This will support the therapist’s efforts to stimulate interest and participation, gain cooperation, and increase compliance in general.

Class 6: Understanding and Conquering the Executive Functioning Deficits

The purpose of this class is to help you recognize the pervasive nature of the executive functioning deficit of individuals with autism, the many ways it influences behavior and success, and also serve as a guide for you in establishing treatment strategies that will increase your ASD clients’ success in therapy and in their life.

This will support you by boosting your confidence and success in working with a client with autism in your practice. 

Class 7: Why Communicating Effectively is so Difficult and How to Make it Easier

This class will provide strategies for effective communication, tips about how to teach abstract concepts, and an explanation of why meaning gets lost in the minds of individuals with ASD.  

Implementing these approaches will increase the likelihood that the client’s overall comprehension will be better, thus improving their ability to respond appropriately, which will help the individual become more functional in all environments.

Class 8: A Successful Therapeutic Model For Autism Treatment

The purpose of this class is to define the therapeutic model that is successful in treating autism, and discuss how autism treatment may differ from conventional treatment models. 

Class 9: Diagnosing Autism

The purpose of this class is to support the clinical practitioner, or those in a position to diagnose autism in an individual, in recognizing the subtle signs that an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis would be more appropriate than other diagnoses. 

Higher functioning individuals are often mis-diagnosed, especially younger children in whom it is difficult to tease out the social difficulties, or receive several other diagnoses when a diagnosis of ASD would serve their treatment needs more effectively.