Abstract
As the diagnosis increases at an alarming rate for children with autism, are the teaches and education personnel keeping up with the demands of this neurological disorder that is still not understood by so many professionals? Some say that the environment and genetic factors are playing a huge part but with so many unanswered questions about the developmental disability, there are not many places for the teachers who teach these inclusion students to turn to. They have more questions than there are answers to and they are now speaking up and wanting to know more.
One main problem that faces our general education teachers is having autistic inclusion students in their classroom without the teacher having the tools and knowledge to properly deal with their disability. Autism is a complex disability that effects the development of a child, which is usually diagnosed during the first three years of life. This disability is a result of a neurological disorder that affects from 1 in 500 to 1 in 166 children and it effects boys 4 times as many as girls (CEC 2011). The autism spectrum encumbers such a wide variety of students with each student having different characteristics and different severity levels of autism. “Its prevalence rate makes autism one of the most common developmental disabilities. Yet most of the public, including many professionals in the medical, educations and vocational fields are still unaware of how autism affects people and how they can effectively work with individuals with autism” (CEC 2011). This is where the teachers struggle because there is not a definite answer or way to deal with each student. Without the teachers knowing a whole lot about the disorder, it is hard to know how to handle each situation due to each child being so different from the next one who has the same label. The disorder makes it hard for students to