Autism as a developmental disorder: diagnostic criteria and early behavioral characteristics

Autism is a developmental disorder as it is marked with pervasive and severe impairment revolving around areas of development such as communication, imagination, reciprocal interaction and behavior. The diagnostic criteria for autism as incorporated by the DSM IV TR includes symptoms such as impairment in the use of nonverbal behaviors like eye contact, gestures, bodily postures during the normal routine social interaction, the inability to form good peer relationships, delay or lack in the development of the language being spoken, failure to start a conversation despite an adequate ability to speak, restricted and repetitive behaviors and stereotyped behavior patterns, interests and activities. Many of these symptoms along with few others are supposed to be present in an individual by the age of 3 years in order to be diagnosed as autistic. As a matter of fact, even if the parents notice something wrong or abnormal in their child during infancy, the symptoms of autism are not obvious or diagnosed before 18 months (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

Many of the children who are autistic are often diagnosed with mental retardation, hyperactivity, temper issues and other behavioral symptoms. The level of intelligence may vary from one autistic individual to the other and this may also be true for their special skills or their ability to decode, calculate or excel in other verbal skills. Studies reveal that approximately 5 out of 10,000 people are seen to suffer from the autistic disorder. As mentioned earlier, the onset of this disorder is just before 3 years. However, parents might often report and show concern for the child to be lacking in social interaction from the time of birth. Moreover, this interaction pattern may vary according to the age as well as the developmental level of the child. For instance, autistic infants would not cuddle or show indifference to affection, they would fail to respond to the voices of their parents and refrain from eye contacts. This reaction may often make the parents think that the child is deaf. On the other hand, young individuals with autism might depict a different behavior as compared to the infant. They would cling to a specific person and they may be more directed to the hand of their parent thereby avoiding an eye contact.

The Impact of Autism on the Public School

Autism is a condition which may be attributed to a number of known and unknown causes. Among them, studies suggest that Autistic Disorder is more likely to be caused by the brain dysfunction due to which it is often referred to as a neuro-developmental disorder. At times, there is also the genetic component which could be a determinant for such a condition. Receiving, perceiving, processing, learning and interpreting are some of the ways of processing information which results in behavior deviations common in autistic individuals (Zander, E. 2005).

It is difficult to completely cure autism but with special assistance programs along with a favorable environment, autistic children can develop in an effective manner. This is possible through a well planned educational setup where children can learn to deal and thereby do well with their behavioral impairments. These educational approaches must focus on providing unique learning strategies whereby which children are able to learn (McCabe, H. 2003).

Identification along with the assessment and diagnosis are amongst the first initial steps when it comes to working on the condition of autistic children. Following this, it is essential to provide the appropriate information and knowledge to the parents and the care takers of the child who is suffering from autism. Both of these steps would play a significant role in the development of the child. Similarly, a special and specific school and schooling practices are a necessity for autistic children. In addition to the education being provided, the home environment as well as the routine activities also influences the development of people who are autistic (Zander, E. 2005).

Although, educating autistic children is an important step in aiding their development process, providing them the right education is a matter of concern. This is because of the fact that children with autism are in simpler language classified as children with disabilities. For this reason, there is a huge difference in providing education to the normal children and to the kids with disabilities. The major problem in this context is the level of awareness which varies from one educational institute to the other and from one part of the country to the other. Studies put forward the idea that many autistic children are kept out of the special as well as the regular schools due to a number of reason. One of the reasons is the idea that approximately 75% of the autistic children also suffer from cognitive impairment (Gray, 1998). In contrast, researchers say that public schools have greatly improved in their learning programs and the way they educate children with disabilities. As conspicuous in China, such children attend a special school as the education of the general schools is not designed to accommodate such students. In contrast, there are times when even the special school fails to educate and address the needs of autistic children and those having other problems along with autism. This is because of the fact that these special schools are actually established for children with physical, visual, hearing and other moderate speech or cognitive disabilities. Therefore, these schools are unable to provide the required education to the autistic children.

While examining the case of China, it could be seen that the country faces a substantial percentage of autistic children who suffer from a number of disabilities. They continue to be institutionalized and are kept at a distance from the normal community life. However, with time especially after the Education Law, the State Department of Education has put in a number of efforts in increasing the amount of students with disabilities in public education. In order to achieve this target, Suiban Jiudu is being practiced. It is a practice which promotes receiving education in regular classrooms and in public schools (Deng & Manset, 2000). This idea was first implemented in the rural areas of China to promote the 9-year mandatory education for children. However, one of its major goals includes the task to increase the number of children with disabilities being enrolled at the public school. Ironically, Suiban Jiudu is more focused upon maintaining the quantity of students attending school rather than taking up steps to improve upon the quality of education being provided. The underlying truth is the fact that this program does not guarantee the right quality education for children having disabilities. This makes it different from the educational practices of the West. Suiban Jiudu does not include parental involvement when it comes to education and it is also not interested in implementing the Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs). This strategy may be beneficial for the rural remote areas of China but it is not catering the needs of autistic children. Therefore, the approach adopted by Suiban Jiudu towards the children with disabilities cannot be replicated in public schools or by the educational programs across the world (McCabe, 2003).

While talking about educating the autistic child, the foremost area of concern is the educational approach that is being adopted along with the place where it would be implemented. In other words, special schools vs. The public schools have long been a debatable issue. This is due to the fact that at times parents with autistic children are not satisfied with the education being provided in the special school. In contrast, often there are parents who complain about the inappropriate education being provided by the public schools. This suggests that neither the public schools nor the special schools are designed in a manner to completely meet up to the requirements of children with autism. Therefore, there is a dire need to improve upon the quality of education and environment being provided by the educational institutes so that instead of suffering, the autistic children start to improve. In this regard, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which was amended in 1997, emphasizes upon providing appropriate education to children as well as the youth having disabilities thereby encompassing the age group of infancy to 21 years. In addition to the public education, the act is also designed to cater to the needs of these individuals and help them prepare for employment along with independent living. Furthermore, The United States Department of Education have clearly outlined the six major measures of IDEA which include free and the right/appropriate public education, the development along with the implementation of the individualized education program (IEP), proper evaluation, placement in such an educational environment which is least restrictive, the provision of student as well as parental participation when it comes to decision making and the enactment of the safeguards (Volkmar, F. 2005).

IDEA gives high preference to the involvement of parents especially in the process of decision making because it holds the view that parents having children with disabilities are well aware of the needs, stenghts and shortcomings of their child. In this way, they can play an influential role when it comes to the implementation of an education plan as per the child's requirements. However, the role and participation of parents may vary on the basis of their own expertise, educational background, the time they take out and other various factors. At many occasions, parents often lack the knowledge about their child because of which they might be unable to communicate or help even in the case of their dissatisfaction with the learning approach being adopted. For this reason, in order to deal with the legal difficulties which arise between parents and the school, IDEA has included the provision of providing procedural safeguards which was made a part of the act at the time when several children with disabilities were left out of the public schools. As a result, many people view IDEA as a legislation which would readdress the issue of denying the basic right of public education to children with disabilities. Therefore, if the family of the disabled child is of the opinion that the school districts are not providing the appropriate education to their child or violating the requirements as stated by the law, the procedural safeguards as mentioned previously, gives them a right to readdress these issues via hearings and a proper judicial process (Volkmar, F. 2005).

The provisions of IDEA also hold true for children with the autistic spectrum disorder. As a matter of fact, the procedure of early identification and the provision of services play a crucial role for the development of these children. It could be seen that before 1990, majority of the local school districts as well as the states did not adopt and implement the specific educational policies which would focus on children with autism. However, things have changed since 1990 as educating the autistic children has become an issue of concern for the school districts. This change of concern may be attributed to determinants such as the increased level of awareness and identification of children suffering from autistic disorder, the educational and learning strategies being publicized and thereby being advocated by the parents, the cost associated with providing special extensive services, and the shortage of expertise. Consequently, these factors along with other causes, the policies and the practices of the local educational agencies along with the state have emerged and directed their focus in meeting these new evolving educational needs and the associated parental concern.

The provisions of IDEA incorporate the task of identifying and evaluating the child with disabilities on the basis of eligibility criteria. In other words, these children would get free and appropriate education if they meet the eligibility criteria as stated by the act. For this reason, in order to receive the education, a child must meet the defined criteria of having disabilities due to which he would qualify for the special education and other essential required services.

IDEA states almost 12 categories of disabilitiy out of which Autism is one of the disabilities which is referred to as a developmental disability that affects the verbal as well as nonverbal communication along with social interaction. However, according to the act, this developmental diability adversely affects the educational ability of the child and the disorder is noticeable by 3 years of age. This definition as stated by IDEA also includes a number of other characteristic features which identify Autism. Due to these laid characteristics, LEAs as well as the courts are of the opinion that these diagnostic features hinder the services being provided to autistic children who pass the age of 3 years. As a result, another provision was added in the act in 1997 which clarified that those children who were not diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder till three years of age, were eligible for the services if they met the other parts of the Autism definition. However as a matter of fact, IDEA doesn't elucidate the services which a child would receive as the LEA has not prescribed a specific list of services for children with autism or other disabilities. Instead, the team in charge must analyze and evaluate the individual needs of the child and then provide the right services. In this regard, the children who meet the eligibility criteria as set by IDEA would ultimately receive their Individualized Education Program (IEP) which is a specially designed learning program in order to meet their specific needs. They would also receive the related services such as the corrective, developmental and other services which are required for the child with disabilities. There are a number of services which are present in the IEP program such as the psychological services, the physical therapy, parent counseling and many others. These might vary according to the disability of the child. For this reason these services are not fixed or exhaustive and are determined by the team of IEP. For instance, the Autistic children may require art or music therapy to aid in improving their social skills. Even the United States Supreme Court has clearly analyzed IDEA and the courts consider the act to provide the basic level of special service and education to children with disabilities (Volkmar, F. 2005).

As mentioned before, the Individualized Education Program must be developed for each child with disabilities who is eligible for receiving the free approporiate education. In this regard, IEP is basically the framework of the education of child as it entails his current level of performance and emphasizes on the objectives which would actually help the child to do better in a general education environment. IEP should also focus on the specific education and the supplementary services which the child would receive. However, these services must play an influential role in a way that the child is able to progress and achive his goals along with being efficient at living up to the requirements of the general curriculum and also excelling at the extracurricular activities. He must be moulded in a way that he is able to participate with other children who are disabled and those who are not. Therefore, the IEP accommodates these children so that they can completely benefit from the learning program being provided to them. It also accommodates children with disabilities in the district as well as in the statewide assessments. The IEP must actually be based upon the unique and specific educational needs of each and every child rather than fitting them to a general program which is predetermined or universal. The team which is in charge of formulating the service and making decisions usually include the parents of the disabled child, the general education teacher as well as the special education teacher, the child if he is receiving education in a general education environment, the experts and other qualified individuals. The Individualized Education Program (IEP) also gives the space to a student with disabilities to study according to the general education classroom while he is placed in a special education setting. Regardless of the provisions and the formulation of laws, these classrooms are in actual quite overcrowded having children of different ages with various different needs. Regardless of the fact that the special education teachers have a more idea and training about educating children with difficulties as compared to the general education teacher, it is quite difficult for the special education teacher to cover the curriculum with having a number of different students to deal with (Melisa, D. 2005).

However, while talking about the IEP of an autisitic child, a problem arises as the parents of the autistic child are not completely included in making the educational decision. Although IEP is a part of IDEA which stresses on the importance of parent involvement, LEAs do not have the permission to include parents when conducting the routine discussions or the informal meetings. The parents can only be involved in the formal meetings. Furthermore, another provision of IDEA is the least restrictive environment, a term which says that the state must ensure that the children with disabilities to study with the children without disabilities in a general public school environment. In addition, the idea of separating these children from the regular school environment thereby creating special schools would only occur if the nature of the disability is to such an extent that the child requires the supplementary aid and services which would not be properly gven in a regular school (Fouse, B. 2000). For this reason, the parents as well as the teachers must continuously review the progress and the condition of the child with disabilities because on its basis he would be placed in a regular school, a special classroom or a school, at home, or at other institutes. These placement decisions must be reviewed at least on yearly basis in accordance with the IEP. It must also be ensured that the child is accommodated at such a place which is near to his home as this distance plays an influential role in the child's learning and improving (Volkmar, F. 2005).

An autistic child could do well in the public school setting as well as in the special school environment on the basis of the severity of the disorder and the individual need of the child with disabilities. As a matter of fact, there are many laws and state policies which ensure about the education of an autistic child. However, these laws must have been formulated but are not completely implemented at several places. In contrast, there are many institutes which are providing the best learning environment for children with autisim and this is obvious from the increased improvement in the child (McClannahan, L.E. & Krantz, P.J. 1999). No matter how much a school is popular for its quality education or highly qualified and well trained faculty, there many challenges which these schools have to deal with when planning and implementing specific education strategies for the autistic. In this regard, there are many different teaching options and approaches which help school in providing the best education for the children suffering from autism. One such technique is the Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) which includes the idea that changing the environment of an autsitc child would automatically enable him to deal with his illness in a more efficient manner. This technique also encompasses the idea of letting the child do, decide and choose instead of instructing him at each step. Conseuqently, the choices made by the child are then linked to their environment (Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., & Heward, W.L. 2007). For instance, if the child likes an ice cream, he would be required to say its name or ask for it. As a result, it would be given to him and would be made a part of his environment. In other words, ABA is all about creating such a fruitful environment where the autistic child is motivated and also encouraged to take actions and progress. For instance, on way of learning to speak and communicate with the help of environment would be through the likes of the child. If he likes a particular toy, the teacher can place it at a distance so that he learns words like up and far or is able to say please give it to me or can I have that? In this way, the environment would shape up and polish the skills of the child (Wilson, D. 2010).

With time, the number of children with autism is greatly increasing. While focusing upon the education of these children, private schools and special schools do well when their quality of education is compared to the one provided by public schools. However, as time passes and the autistic cases increase, public schools have also put in an effort in increasing the quality of education they provide. Sara Wright, who is a mother of an autistic child is of the opinion that the services being provided by public schools are now being improved. According to her, previously they used to babysit the children but now things have changed. She has enrolled her child in one of the public schools; the May Institute, and is satisfied by the progress of her kid. Her child is able to clap, run and participate with his cousins acting like a normal kid. However, this education is quite expensive because of the time being given to each child. The teachers are showed videos and tutotials which help them better deal with the autistic children in their own classrooms instead of sending them to private institutes. These teachers often use strategies of constant repetition and reinforcing the child's behavior so that the desired improvement is received (Abramson, L. 2007). Similarly, the number of children and the severity of autism is increasing in public schools. Due to this, the public schools have to cater to the needs of each and every child. However, these schools are surely putting in an effort as for instance in the Newton public school, teachers are putting in a lot of effort in the regular classroom because of which students with autism improve. One such student; Alex who never used to speak when he was enrolled in the second grade, actually started to lead the middle school program after years of attending the regular school. Experts agree that the sooner the autistic child receives help, the better chances are there to improve his developmental skills. Usually, children learn one specific skill and than apply it to different situations. However, autistic children must learn discreet skills through repetition as well as one on one instruction to get a better grasp of it. As a matter of fact, this idea is a big and a difficult task for the public schools which are already busy with their work. Consequently, it is seen that since a long time it is obvious that school systems educate the special children in private schools as they believe that public schools would unable to deal with the aggressive, fluctuating and an unpredictable behavior of children with disabilities. This is a challenge which the public schools have to face who are now focusing on educating the children with disabilities on their own by trying to meet the federal law's requirement of providing a least restrictive environment to educate autistic children (Abramson, L. 2007). On the contrary, while talking about the special education school and the general education classroom, it might be correct to think about the need behind enrolling an autistic child in a general education environment where the teacher is not even completely equipped to accommodate such children with disabilities. Studies suggest that schools are not completely fulfilling their responsibility when it comes to educating the child with disabilities such as a student with autism. In this regard, there are many professionals and scholars who are of the opinion that schools do not meet the emotional and social needs of the children with autism (Bryson, Rogers, & Fombonne, 2003).

While analyzing the role and the importance of educating the autistic child, the public schools must provide the most appropriate intervention for children with autism as they are spending a considerable amount of time at the school. The intervention should focus on the betterment of the socialization and the communication skills of the child with autism. In addition, if this learning strategy is accompanied by parent education than the child could greatly improve (Norris, C., & Dattilo, J. 1999). However, providing these services is a challenge for the public schools. The number of children with autism enrolled in public schools in USA is increasing where out of every 110 students, 1 is diaognosed to have autism spectrum disorder (Wilson, D. 2010). These students lack forming strong social relationships especially with their classmates and the teachers thereby struggling to communicate. Consequently, these children are also seen to indulge in harmful, destructive and aggressive behaviors which pose a greater challenge for the public schools to deal with. Despite these concerns faced by the public schools, the individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act state want the schools to apply the research-based practices in the general education classroom which is stated as the least restrictive environment (LRE). Since in the LRE, the classroom teacher takes the lead role (Fisher & Meyer, 2002), the implementation of effective intervention would greatly depend on the teachers and the extent to which they are ready to excecute the research-based practices (Boardman, Arguelles, Vaughn, Hughes, & Klingner, 2005). As compared to other children, kids with autism tend to engage more in challenging behaviors which hamper their academic learning and social interaction (Sigafoos, J. 2003). Without a proper intervention, these behaviors continue to persist as a challenge throughout the life of the child (Murphy, G. 2005). Studies have taken the approach of understanding the environment of the chld which would then help in dealing with the challenging behavior. Once the environment is completely understood, interventions are designed in order to improve the condition of the autistic child. This is done through the Functional Behavorial Assesment (FBA) and is then followed by the function-based interventions. The FBA focuses on finding out the reason and the determinant behind a student's challenging behavior. Simialrly, the function-based interventions usually incorporate strategies such as differential reinforcement, working on communication and modifying the schedules so that a child is able to deal with his challenging behavior. Research based intervention practices can greatly improve the communication as well as the social skills which the autistic children usually lack (Ogletree, B.T. 2007). The different school personnel focus on the several facets of communication. These include the psychologists at the school, the special speech therapist and the teachers (Locke, W.R., & Fuchs, L.S. 1995). Autistic children usually face the troube of the montone speech, they are often restricted to a particular prioritrized topic and at times they do not speak at all. Autsitic children who do not communicate verbally at all are another great challenge for the public schools (Arthur-Kelly, 2006). Since the communication deficits are a truth about almost every autistic child, interventions are implemented to improve verbalization, and the use of language. Therefore, working on the communication skills of the autistic child should be the goal of the public schools. One way of doing this is by providing the child with more opportunities to communicate during his day at school (Chiang, 2009) so that his skills are polished. Similarly social skills can also be enhanced in children with ASD through research-based practice by using techniques of inovling them in social activities, by relying on peer involvement and through a number of other intervention approaches (Haring, T.G., & Breen, C.G. 1992).

Thus, there are numerous studies which talk about the difference between special education schools, the private and the public schools. Literature presents a detailed analysis of the laws stated in safeguarding the rights of children with disabilities and the ways education can be improved. Regardless of these provisions, there exists an inconsistent view about the quality of education being provided by the public schools and studies do not present in depth findings about the treatment of autistic children in the different schools. Therefore, this study would address the gap in literature and would propose different learning strategies which focus on the equal learning of children with autism.

Learning Needs of Students with Autism

Autism is a neural developmental disorder as it affects the brain and its function of processing information. In actual, the Autism alters the working of the nerve cells by affecting the connection between the nerve cells and their synapse. As a result, autism has an impact on the way an individual thinks, the manner in which he learns and experiences his world. Moreoer, Autism is considered to be a spectrum disorder as it is usually referred to as the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) because of the difference and variation in the disorder which is experienced by the various individuals. In other words, every child who suffers from Autism is different from the other.

Since Autism hampers the communication and the social skills of an individual, it results in trouble in the areas of communication, social kills, the repittive behavior, the sensory information processing and the learning style of the individual. In contrast, those children who do not suffer form autism or any other disability start to learn without intervention. The environment and the surrounding in which a child is born is typically considered to be right because of which the child automatically learns the new social skills along with language. This is the condition at the time of his birth. As he grows with time, he needs a proper structured environment in the form of a school to continue advancing his learning process. In contrast, the children with autism are actually able to learn very little from their environment. In order to learn, these children actually need a proper structured environment (Grandin, T. 1988)

To successfully and efficiently support a child with autism, there is a dire need to understand his unique characteristics and how these impact his life at different areas such as his home, at school and in the society. For this reason, the strategies adopted to improve the life of an autistic child must be based on the individual needs as these same approaches could not be applied to every autistic child. Therefore, the learning process of a child with Autism requires structure, attention to the behavior, minimum level of distraction and visual cues. These are in other words, the learning needs of an autistic child which are to be met in a quality manner in order to help him improve his skills and ultimately his life. A structured environment would result in lesser behavior problems, anxiety and reduces stress. With the help of a structured environment, behavior is predictable whereby which the challenges associated with the troublesome, destructive and aggressive behavior is minimized. Not only this, a structured environment also helps to build the strengths of a child including the desire to follow a routine, the ease of repetitive tasks and their need to complete tasks. Ultiamtely, structure and organization would help the autistic child to be independent. A structure could be created and maintained in a number of ways out of which few are listed below:

By making a daily schedule for the child

Making use of schedules, calendars and to-do list for the child so that he is able to learn the order of the activities being carried out

Incoproating visual cues such as photographs, check lists and more

Ensuring that the activities are not really time consuming and it ends without frustrating the child

It is true for the autistic child to think in the terms of picture instead of a language which is common for the normal children or the kids without disabilities. For this reason, visual aids and cues play an essential role in their learning process. Therefore, pictures are the first language of these children whereas words could be referred to as their second language. In addition, thoughts are a part of their imagination and they take the form of a videotape. Since they think and learn in the terms of images, they are able to grasp one thing over the other. For instance, autistic children may easily learn Nouns because they are able to understand that word by forming a picture of that Noun in their mind. Some of the ways of visual learning are as follows:

The use of flash cards / picture cards having a word on it

To demonstrate verbs with the help of examples or showing objects. For example to teach 'up', the instructor can show an aeroplane going down.

Role playing

Autistic children can easily be distracted which results in losing their level of concentration. This in turn affects their abilitiy to learn. Children with autism can easily be drawn towards a certain specific thing. Smell, sound, and light are examples of things which can easily distract an autistic child. Therefore, the abilitiy to concentrate without getting distracted is one of the major learning needs of autistic children. For this reason, their learning environment must be free from these distraction which can be minimized by organizing furniture and other materials, by making the child sit near the teacher, using study cubicles, and by ensuring that the environment is free of distractions before commencing any activity (Qian, Z. 1992).

Furthermore, one of the most important learning needs of an autistic child is communication. These children have impaired communication skills because of which they have to face a great difficulty. Their behavior is a medium through which their feelings can be understood. It also provides a clue as to what they are trying to say. As a matter of fact, communication is a two way process. For this reason, the teacher or the caregiver must not assume that the autistic child is able to understand them. Instead, they should observe these kids in order to see their learning behavior (Robertson, K., Chamberlain, B., & Kasari, C. 2003). This would rather be a way of allowing them to teach their caregiver a way to teach them. This communication process can be assisted by a number of ways. Some of them include the idea of preparing a behavior list for the child, making use of rewards to reinforce the favourable behavior, use of role playing to demonstrate approporiate social activities, paying close attention to the things which they like and dislike, informing the child the timings of an activity or before touching them and teaching the autistic child to learn flexibility (Wagner, S. 1998).

In order to understand the way an autistic child learns, it is essential to first get to know the deficits and shortcomings present in the child which obstruct his process of development. The learning characteristics of autistic students include attention difficulties, the problem of learning via imitation and observation, issue of with planning and sequencing, auditory impairment, difficulty with the concepts of time and many more. Looking at this, it may be correct to say that the learning needs of one autistic child differs from the other. Therefore, schools are required to design their curriculum in a manner which is in accordance with the differences in children with autism (Broun, L. 2004).

Autistic children face sensory input in a number of different ways. The sensory processing difficulty hampers their learning process and steps must be taken by the educational institutes and by the parents to ensure a progressive learning process. The child's sensory needs could be accommodated and an occupational therapist could greatly help in suggesting the ways in which these needs could be met. However, this difficulty can be eased by providing visual aid as suggested previously in order to minimize the difficulity with the auditory processing in a child with autism (Hodgdon, 1995). Studies suggest that many Autistic children are intelligent readers. Therefore, providing them with rules and regulations and written instruction can increase their participation in the classroom. These children also face the problem of processing the meaning behind requests. The use of breaks and pauses can produce fruitful results. Similalrly, some autistic children have a need to exercise (Callahan, K., & Rademacher, J.A. 1999). By giving them time to run, swim or jump can actually make them more organized and reduce their level of anxiety. Moreover, Autism is characterized as a developmental disorder where the person suffering has a difficulty interacting with others. This deficiency can be addressed by pairing the autisitic with a child without disabilities. This peer tutoting method provides an opportunity for the autistic child to observe the behavior of his partner and model it. Many schools and scholars have created a kids club for such children where they are provided with more extracurricular activities. Role playing and conducting plays based upon the daily life and social situations help children with autism to understand and therefore apply the basic skills of life such as shopping, grocery and more (Gray, C.A. 1998).

In order to deal with and compensate the sensory, social and the communicative impairments experienced by an Autistic child, the learning environment must be modified. This can remarkably enhance the effectiveness of the education program. There are a number of ways to address to the needs of the students with autism that would eventually improve their learning. Some of the strategies to meet the learning needs of autistic children include the idea of providing a friendly and welcoming environment, formulating predictable routines but also making use of timers and bells to aid the process of transition from one task to the other, give time to the children to respond, make use of visual cues and creative strategies, empower them and treat them with kindness similar to the treatment given to children without disabilities.

Autism impacts the learning of a student and his functioning in the social and academic settings. The different behavior as well as weak social interaction makes the learning process of an autistic very troublesome. They are less engaged in an educational setting and merely for this reason there are often kept away from the academic activities (Kluth & Darmody-Latham, 2003). These children do not take part in group activities and get one-to-one instryction. Such instructions require a good and a trained staff. Therefore, educating an autistic child requires a complete know how about their learning needs and their deficits. On the basis of this knowledge, learning strategies could be formulated and implemented by a well trained staff in order to ensure developmental progress in children with Autism.

The existing studies address the learning needs of the autistic children in coherent manner and suggest a number of techniques which should be adopted by teachers to cater to these needs. However, since studies also put forward the idea that teachers are often incapable of providing such an education which would improve the condition of every child with disability, this research would talk about transforming schools into a Professional Learning Community where the teacher is trained in such a manner that the maximum number of learning needs of the children with disabilities is met.

The use of progress reports

Similar to the evaluation plan, teachers are also responsible for designing the grading plan of each child with diablitiy. he/she can do this in a number of ways such as by assigning points to each academic task, converting effort and behavior into grades, the improverment over the time period could also be graded and including the performance of the student with disabilities on IEP as the part of the course grade. These strategies are not fixed for a particular course or for a specific child with disabiltiites. Instead, these are examples for a general education teacher who is responsible for evaluating and grading the child in his/her general education classroom (Haring, T.G., & Breen, C.G. 1992).

Autistic children usually adopt a challenging behavior, lack social interaction and struggle communicating. For this reason, the general education teacher must be well aware about the leanring needs of the child with disabiltiities which would eventually help the teacher in adopting such a teaching strategy that the condtion of the child improves. In order to this, the teacher must make use of a number of approaches. One such approach which is previously mentioned is the Functional Behaviorial Assessment whereby which the reason behind the challenging behavior is investigated. The teachers can make note of the enviroenemntal changes which occur befro the challenging behavior takes place. They must also note down the consequences which follow the behavior. this would automatically help the teacher to get to know the behavior outcome contingencies on the basis of which an intervention plan could be designed. Furthermore, in order to deal with the communicative shortcomings of an autistic child, the general education teacher can provide the child with more opportunities to communicate and encourage him in the process. For instance, the teacher must motivate the child to speak up and request for something which he wants. Another method of aiding the communication trouble faced by the autistic children is by providing them with choices. In other words, the teacher can ask the student to whether he wants a red color pencil or a blue one. This would encourage the child to speak up and be indeoendant in making decision and choices. The students must also be encouraged to take intitiatives in tasks, learn to organize and manage things and understand the life activities via role plays. These strategies would help develop his social skills (Kincaid, D. 1996).

Thus children with disabilities are enrolled in either special education schools or they study in a general education classroom. Regardless of the place where they are accommodated, they have a dire need to be educated in order to deal with their shortcomings and to improve the quality of their life.

This is made possible via a number of federal and state laws along with the efforts put in by teachers and parents of the children with disabiltities. Although the main task of a teacher would remain same in whichever educational institute she teaches, there is a difference between the special education teachers as compared to the general education teacher. This difference is on the basis of children they are dealing with. In a special education enviroenment, the teacher is supposed to educate only the special children. On the other hand, in the general classroom enviroenment, the teacher has to address the needs of the regular students without disabiltiites and would also be required to cater to the needs of the children with disabiltities. The general education teacher might at first fear the change in the students he/she would be teaching, but would gradually overcome the discomfort through the help of training and other assistance programs. The general education teacher influences the life of the students with and without disabiltites. For this reason, he/she must come up to the expected role and the assigned duties and responsibiltiites.

Thus, the role of the general education teacher is to understand the disabiltiites of a child and how it affects him, to get to know his IEP, to design the general education curriculum, to provide one on one instructions to the student wth disabiltiites, to evaluate the child's performance and progress, attend meetings, implement interventions and aid the child in the learning process. If these repsonsibiltiites along with other teaching strategies are appropriately implemented, then the children with disabilities would greatly improve.

Hence, when it comes to the education of children with disabilities, the expected role and responsibilities of the general education teacher greatly increases. Although many previous studies done previously address the ways of training teachers so that they successfully educate the student with disabilities, research also highlights the fear of these teachers and the difficulties to manage time, complete the content of the lecture and to improve the learning of children with disabilities. For this reason, this study would draw light upon the effective use of PLC to educate the children with disabilities especially autistic children.

The effective use of PLC

Professional learning community (PLC) is a learning opportunity which promotes collaborative learning and organization amongst the collegues in a work set up. It is usually used in a school set up as it helps to systematize the teachers into work groups. Through PLC, the classroom is made a part of the community or in other words, the community personnel is involve in the working of a school. PLC is also regarded as vision of running a school in such a manner that everyone contributes in improving the performance of the students (Roberta, L. 2012).

When it comes to the promotion of professional development of the educators and instructors, the Professional Learning Community (PLC) tends to gain popularity (Dallas, 2006;Schmoker, 2005; Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, & Thomas, 2006). This is merely because of the fact that it is different fro the traditional approach of professional development in which the teachers used to attend conferences and workshops conducted off-site. The offsite activities do not really inspire the teachers to alter their thinking or their way of teaching. For this reason, the Professional Learning Community (PLC) is becoming famous as it includes on-site teacher training and is a form of collaborative professional development. While DuFour (2005) is of the opinion that PLCs are basically the group of educators sharing similar beliefs, vision and values who are working together, Little (2003) says that the Professional Learning Communities are working groups where new knowledge specifically encompassing instruction and content is being created. Little (2003) also suggests that PLCs is also a place where the existing knowledge, assumptions and beliefs about teaching, learning, community and education are challenged and criticized. Regardless of the views upheld by Little (1993), Hargreaves (1994), a collaborative environment is spontaneous, task oriented and voluntary, a mechanism which must be embodied by PLCs.

Research suggests that PLCs can play an important part in creating a positive impact on the teachers and their instructions which leads to an improved performance amongst students. While investigating the effectiveness of PLC in an urban middle school which executed a change in their format of instruction, Dallas (2006) observed a great level of improvement by analyzing the scores of students on a reading test. Similar to the finding put forward by Dallas (2006), a number of researchers have correlated the efficiency of PLC with the improved student performance. In this regard, the PLC builds a sense of belongingness amongst the collegues who take ownership of the content being provided at the workshop. Consequently, student performance increased and this progress was observed through the teacher's own assessments instead of analyzing the standardized tests (Borrero, 2010).

In order to increase the effectiveness of the Professional Learning Community, the classroom teachers, administration and faculty must adhere to a number of measures to implement PLC. This could be made possible if the teachers join together and discuss the topics which are of common interest. These may focus upon areas such as community, school, family and more. The Professional Learning Community provides an opportunity for the teacher to customize their professional development and promotes the nature of self-directed learning. After the PLCs have been created, the teachers can progress with their work. Another important aspect worth consideration while implementing PLCs is the idea that the education administrators and incharge should regard PLC to be a professional development method for their district. These administrators should also encourage PLCs to be widely accepted as a professional development program which would help teachers to give a new shape to their earning and teachinf method. As a result, the teachers who participate in the Professional Learning Communities are supportive of the administrators who support PLC and provide them with a platform with specific materials and ways to apply new classroom techniques and collaborate with other experts (Halverson, R. 2007). This ultimately results in developing teachers who are self-directed, collaborative and empowered. PLCs can also be successfully established if the school and the university faculty give autonomy to their teachers by providing them the power to make decisions. The faculty can also provide useful resource material to these teachers which would strongly bind the members of PLCs (DuFour, R. 2005).

The Professional Learning Communities model incorporates the idea of learning instead of simply teaching the students. The shift from focusing on teaching to focusing on the leanring mechanism affects schools and their approaches. As soon as the teachers pledge that they would emphasize on learning, a number of changes begin. Consequently, the staff questions themselves as to what practices have been adopted that have resulted in higher achievemtns of students? After consediring this idea, they think over the ways this could be achieved. Once the staff has discussed these thoughts and reached a common ground, the school is ready to take an inititaitve which must be supported by all the professionals and collegues. These people collaboratively start working in the professional learning community addressing the issues such as:

These experts might think over as to what do they want their students to learn, how will they get to know what the students have learned and how will they address the difficulties faced during the learning process.

When out of time, teachers usually face the trouble of either increasing the pace to complete the lecture or to slow down and address the difficultites of students who have not understood the content which has been taught. In the former situation, the students who are already struggling with grasping the information would not learn. In the latter, if the teacher waits to resolve the query of the slow learners, the other efficient students would have to bear the loss. This is a situation normal in many classrooms where the decision is usally left on the teacher. However, when a school functions a part of the PLC, the teachers understand the difference between their commitment of executing the learning plan for every student and the shortcoming of their strategy to give time to students who do not learn. This incongruency is addressed by the staff of PLC by designing approaches which ensure extra time and additional support for the students who struggle with the learning process. For this reason, PLC would be an effective approach in educating the Autistic children as it ensures timely learning which is based on intervention strategies and is directive.

Since PLC provides a collaborative platform, teachers and educators must realize that they are required to collaborate in order to achieve their common goal of providing learning to all the students. However, it is common in several schools that collaboration is often taken in terms of a congenial behavior where teachers either continue to work in isolation or classify themselves in teams which look up to a certain aspect of the school (example discipline or the social activities). Adopting such an attitude might be beneficial to a certain extent but it does not promote professional dialogue which is essential for converting a school into a professional learning community. Therefore, the characteristic feature of professional learning communities is the powerful collaboration whereby which teachers unite and work together to analyze ways to improve the classroom practices. Teachers work in teams engaging themselves in different questions which promote deep thinking and ultimately results in high student achievement. If such teachers teach children with Autism, then these children would greatly improve and their learning process would be enhanced. Through professional learning communities, teachers can discuss about the ways to design curriculum and establish creative strategies to educate Autsitic children by reducing their problems of communication, social skills, auditory issues and other impairments.

The professional learning communities review its effectiveness through the results of the students. Every team unites and participates in identifying the current status of student achievement. After identification, these teams establish and set goals to strengthen the current level of achievement and then work together to achieve the established goal thereby analyzing the student progress. Having atutistic students in such schools would greatly benefit the child because of the learning strategies adopted by the professional learning communities. In this way, the constant progress of the child with disabiltiites would be monitored and continuous effort would be put to enhance the achievement of the student (Boreham, N. 2002).

Since the concept of building Professional Learning Communities is quite new, there isn't much in depth researches which emphasize on this dimension. However, the existing literature shows that PLC is quite effective in training teachers and transforming schools. Looking at its effectiveness, this study would analyze the role of PLCs in the education of autistic children.