Autism Spectrum Disorder

Hello all :) My name is Molly Davis and I am currently a graduate student at Michigan State University. I plan to complete my master's degree in education with a concentration in special education in December of this year!

So, why do I have an interest in autism?

Formerly a general education classroom teacher, I recently made a career change and am a behavior therapist.
I work with children who are on the spectrum on a daily basis and am very interested in learning more about autism.
As a professional in this field, it is my responsibility to be as knowledgeable on this topic as possible and to share this knowledge.

Why should you learn about Autism?

With the increase of inclusion of children with disabilities in the general education classroom, it is ideal for all educators and professionals who work with children to have knowledge about autism ("Including Students with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms," 2002).

From 1992 to 1997 there was a 173 percent increase in the number of children with autism in public schools and this number is only climbing (Sicile-Kira, 2014).

The Autism Research Journal discusses many important facts about the increase of autism prevalence. They state, "Increased recognition, understanding, and awareness of autism in the last few decades have been, in part, driven by the significant growth in research evidence (Elsabbagh et al., 2012)."

Let's check out some of this research:

The prevalence of ASD has shown a steady increase from 1 in 166 people in 2004 to a staggering 1 in 59 people in 2018 ("Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)," 2018).

In relation to gender in 2018, boys are 4.5 times more likely to be diagnosed than girls due to the fact boys show more identifiable signs than girls ("Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)," 2018).

Looking at these numbers, it is our responsibility to play a role in this recognition, understanding and awareness of autism!

*More data on autism research can be found on this page of my site*

What is a Behavior Therapist?

Behavior therapists work in homes, schools and centers one on one with children who have autism. They use Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to support the following skills as listed on the Center for Autism Website ("ABA Resources, What is ABA?") The goals are:

to increase desired behaviors,
to teach new skills (life, communication and social),
to maintain behaviors,
to generalize or to transfer behavior from one situation or response to another,
to restrict conditions under which interfering behaviors occur,
and to reduce interfering behaviors such as self-injury.

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