Emily's Autism Entry

The presentation last week touched my heart. Frankly, the statistics scare me horribly as a future teacher but also as a future parent. I have had only one experience with an autistic child but have had a couple of learning experiences about autism.
The first time I really heard any information about autism was at a child development conference and the keynote speaker talked about it. I believe he was a doctor from U of M and his theory was that people are getting smarter and people who are smart marry people who are smart so their smartness combined causes autism. He had data to support it, but of course I don't remember it exactly. This was about 4 years ago and the statistics then were less but still high.
Then, I work at a daycare center over the summers in the school aged program. I love it and we have a blast. A couple of summers ago we had a eight year old boy with autism join us. From his appearance you would never be able to tell. He liked to play on his own for the most part and especially with his Bionacle figures. He did befriend a little girl who seemed to understand him and they got along well for the most part. His autism showed through mostly during transitional times. He needed plenty of warning that we were going to go outside or get ready for a fieldtrip so he could prepare himself. Even still it was difficult. When he got upset, he got really upset. He would scream and run out of the room. The other kids in the program often got nervous and just stared at him. They didn't understand why he did what he did. We worked with him a lot over the summer and he did somewhat improve his behavior. The thing that I keep thinking about is that we had two of us teachers and about 15-18 children in the classroom and it was during the summer so it was more laid back and academics were not strongly pursued. However, I just wonder how it is for him in the mainstream classroom where there is one teacher and about 24 other classmates. Also, the pace of the elementary school day is intense with many quick transitions. I often wondered how he handled himself and what techniques did his teachers use to help him through the day.
I talked with my CT about autism in the classroom. She has never had an autistic child in her room but she has had a little boy with Asperger's. He was incredibly smart she told me, but he struggled socially. Like the little boy I worked with, he struggled with schedules and not staying within a routine. My CT taped a schedule onto his desk so he could see exactly what they were going to do each day. I asked her if she knew the statistics within the school of how many children had autism. She did not know, but she does know there is one boy in third grade who is autistic. It is interesting that all of the children I have been mentioning are boys and Josh said last week that boys are four times as likely to be autistic than girls.
After Josh's talk last week, I actually saw a HBO documentary about autism. I don't remember the name of it but it interviewed several families of children with autism. It was incredibly interesting to see the differences between the children. There was a 14 year old girl who was very chatty but she tended to repeat what everyone said. She had a difficult time creating her own original speech. There was another little boy who had imaginary friends because he said they were the only kids who understood him. The parents talked about how difficult it is financially because a lot of insurance companies to help pay for therapy. How sad.
My biggest questions, which I have yet to find the answer to is why all of the sudden (within the last 10-20 years) has there been this outburst of autism? Is it just being diagnosed more or what is going on? Many parents, including on the video, believe it has to do with vaccines children receive as infants.