Educating the Autistic

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by a cluster of behaviors that has rapidly became more prevalent in recent years. With the increase of children on the autism spectrum and the severity of their diagnosis becoming more pungent, public schools have found themselves braced in finding methods to educate autistic children. A complex disorder needs complex help. The idea of creating an environment at which every student will be able to meet their highest potential in their education, including those with disabilities such as autism, is existent, but whether or not that doctrine is being applied is in question. There are several appropriate methods, such as providing teacher assistants and enhancing special education programs, that schools can take to see that children with autism are being educated in a manner that is applicable for each individual. Public schools need to invest in adding applied behavior analysis, which is to be known the best and most well-supported method of choice by parents, to their special education programs to create success for students with autism (Winerman).

In the year 2009, the Centers for Disease and Prevention dispatched a statement announcing that every one in ninety-one births in the United States are of children on the autism spectrum, a rise from the previous ratio in 2000 at one in five hundred. “An estimated 50 children are diagnosed with autism every day” (“Autism Prevalence Rate”). Imagining the average middle school may have close to six hundred students, one can determine because of the national prevalence there may be statistically seven students in that particular middle school. Seven students who require an appropriate education just like everyone else.

As of 1997, the Indi...

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