Introduction/ Statement of Area
Psychology is a vast field with several areas to focus on or specialize in as one grows and develops throughout his or her psychological career. One of the most popular fields of psychology is clinical psychology. Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric problems. This field integrates the science of psychology with the treatment of complex human problems, making it an exciting career choice for people who are looking for a challenging and rewarding field. Within this field, there are many specializations, and those who achieve their Ph. D (Doctor of Philosophy) or Psy. D (Doctor of Psychology) can choose from several career options. Many work in hospitals, schools, government jobs, and private practices. Those who achieve a Ph. D in clinical psychology have chosen the most flexible option of the two. A Ph. D in clinical psychology is both scientifically and behaviorally focused allowing those who finish the program can work in clinical, research or educational settings. Whereas, those with Psy. D have completed coursework that is more specifically geared towards counseling in mental health settings. Clinical psychologists often have to diagnose and assess people with mental disorders. There are different tracks within clinical psychology that one can choose to specialize in, such as adult clinical psychology or child clinical psychology. With a specialization of child clinical psychology, a psychologist is responsible for the care and protection of the youngest population of society. Those in child clinical psychology are often the professionals who first encounter and raise awareness of a child’s signs and symptoms of autism

Background on Autism
Three children are diagnosed with autism every hour. In this day and age, there are new medical discoveries every day, whether it is a new sickness, disease or disorder that is discovered or a new cure to a current medical problem. Because of the constant progression, it is imperative that society maintains an awareness of these new discoveries. One disorder that has existed for years, but recently its awareness is rapidly growing, is autism. Autismspeaks.org defines autism as a disorder in brain development that ultimately affects its victims’ everyday social interaction. A more detailed definition was given by Gillian Baird, Hilary Coss, and Vicky Slonims (2003) in their article, “Diagnosis of Autism”:
“Autism is a behaviorally defined disorder, characterized by qualitative impairments in social communication, social interaction, and social imagination, with a restricted range of interests and often stereotyped repetitive behaviors and mannerism (p 489)”
Signs of autism are usually shown in early childhood and are recognized if parents are aware of these signs. If a parent notices these signs, he or she should immediately take the child to a psychologist or psychiatrist for diagnosis and treatment. How fast a parent acts in this situation has a large impact on the remainder of the child’s development.

Signs and Diagnosis of Autism
Many symptoms have been linked to autism, and they are most prominent in three areas: behavior, social skills, and speech. A child’s caretakers can observe symptoms in these areas to help in the child’s diagnosis. Parents lack the professional training that behaviorists have, so they will typically only be able to recognize high-frequency behaviors (Zwaigenbaum et. al, 2008). Children with autism tend to act out more than others in school or daycare, and that could serve as a sign of autism. This behavior makes it difficult to teach the child or to allow the child to be around his or her peers. A study done by Patti LaVesser and Christine Berg (2011) set out to examine the participation patterns in children who were previously diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder versus those children who had not been diagnosed. The Preschool Activity Card Sort was used in this study. It was revealed by the parents that those children with autism spectrum disorder did participate less in preschool activities that dealt with “self-care, community mobility, vigorous leisure, sedentary leisure, social interaction, chores, and education than children with no diagnosis.”
The age of diagnosis for autism varies for each individual, but signs and symptoms are being shown at a much younger age, and there has been a consistent decline in the ages of children diagnosed. However, many of these symptoms coincide with other childhood neuropsychiatric disorders (Liu, King, & Bearman, 2010). There are several ways to identify autism in young children. Two of the most commonly used assessments to measure autism in early childhood is the M-CHAT and BISCUIT- Part I. The first of the assessments is the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), and the second assessment is the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtism Traits Part I (BISCUIT- Part I). However, these tests are not single-handedly used to diagnose autism; they are only used to identify possible signs of autism. These assessments ask questions like “Have you ever wondered if your child is deaf?” and “Does your child understand what people say?” Just because a child scores positive for autism, or ASD, on one of the assessments does not mean he or she will be diagnosed with autism; it simply means that further testing should be done to identify whether or not the child is autistic. In a study done by Kozlowski, Matson, Worley,Sipes, and Horvitz (2011), they used a cohort of 243 toddlers who scored positive for autism on the M-CHAT, but only 141 of those kids eventually received a positive diagnosis for autism.
The testing and diagnosis of autism is a process that may take a good amount of time and money. The dedication necessary during this process often weighs heavy on the lives of the parents of the children being tested. In the study, “Factors associated with parental stress and satisfaction during the process of diagnosis of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders,” performed by Teresa Moh and Iliana Magiati (2011), they examined the stress level of parents during the diagnosis process. In order to understand this, the researchers had 102 parents of autistic children between the ages of 2 and 17 to complete a survey that asked questions pertaining to the time of diagnosis. The results of this study show that the average time lapse between a parent’s first expressed worry and the final, formal diagnosis of autism is one year. This elapsed time is what most of the parents rated as the most stressful portion of the process. Another stress factor identified was the number of professional consulted. Many of these parents were referred to a second doctor, sometimes even a third. This only prolongs the process and the worry that a parent has for his or her child.

Causes of Autism
Often when a child is diagnosed with autism, the parents are wondering what has caused this disorder in their child. Liu, King, and Bearman (2010) discuss that there may be certain social factors involved in children being diagnosed with autism. In their article, “Social Influence and the Autism Epidemic”, the experimenters state that children who live closely to other children diagnosed with autism are more likely to be diagnosed with autism than those children who are not exposed to other autistic children. An environmental cause of this phenomenon is that there may be “an environmental toxicant associated with an increased risk of autism” (p 433). With children living in the same setting, they will be subject to the same risks. Researchers are constantly searching for possible causes of autism, and as time progresses more possible causes are surfacing. One possibility is a “de novo mutation”; this is a mutation that occurs as a result of an error in the transcription a germ cell. Kayuet Liu, Noam Zerubavel, and Peter Bearman (2010) conducted a study, in which they found that de novo mutations are positively associated with the ages of the parents. As the parental age at childbirth continues to decrease, it should be considered that de novo mutations might account for the increase of autism. De novo mutations are constantly being researched as a cause for autism. Over time people are giving the most credit to genetics and heritability as the cause of autism; however, people are beginning to consider environmental causes more and more.

Learning with Autism
Most people assume that autistic children are visual learners; this, however is not always true. Autistic children often behave badly in class because they are not able to retain the information the way it is being taught. Being that autism often impairs how a person acts socially and processes information mentally, it is necessary to consider how an autistic child learns best. Edelson (2007) writes:
One common problem evidenced by autistic children is running around the classroom and not listening to the teacher. This child may not be an auditory learner; and thus, he/she is not attending to the teacher's words. If the child is a kinesthetic learner, the teacher may choose to place his/her hands on the child's shoulders and then guide the student back to his/her chair, or go to the chair and move it towards the student. If the child learns visually, the teacher may need to show the child his/her chair or hand them a picture of the chair and gesture for the child to sit down (32).
In order to teach a child with autism, the teacher should be aware of the different learning styles and apply that to all of his or her students, especially those with autism.
Noticing the difficulties that autistic children have with learning, people have devised strategies to assist them with their learning. First the problems that autistic children generally face when it comes to learning were listed; these were organizational difficulties, distractibility, sequencing problems, inability to generalize, and uneven patterns of strengths and weaknesses. Organizational disabilities refer to the trouble that autistic children have with organizing their thoughts and planning; solutions that have been considered are developing habits and routines. Another problem is that autistic children are easily distracted, and distractions come in many forms. In order to minimize this problem the distraction must be identified and removed if possible. Sequencing problems refer to the difficulties autistic children have remembering the order of events. This can be solved by consistent routines and visual instructions. The inability to generalize simply means that the student cannot apply what he or she has learned in one situation when placed in a different situation. If the parents and teachers encourage practicing what he or she has learned in both settings, then that child will be able to start to generalize the learning. Lastly, autistic children often have uneven patterns of strengths and weaknesses; for instance, an autistic student can have the extraordinary ability to see spatial relationships or understand numerical concepts but be unable to use these strengths because of organizational and communicative limitations. An in-depth assessment of the child’s weaknesses and strengths could help with that (Mesibov, 2004). There have also been plans implemented to improve the learning conditions of autistic students; one of the programs is TEACH (Treatment & Education of Autistic and Relayes Communication of Handicapped Children).
It is a known fact that autistic children tend to have behavior problems. In a study by Susan Mayes, Susan Calhoun, Richa Aggarwal, Courtney Baker, S. Mathapati, Robert Anderson, and Christopher Pearson, they observed and compared the behavior of children with autism and children with other disorders, such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), anxiety disorders, and brain injury. All of the subjects in this study were between the ages of 6 and 16. They used 1606 subjects, and they were scored on the variables of explosive, oppositional, and aggressive behavior. The results of their study showed that children with autism had no significant difference in scores between them and children with ADHD-C and/or depression. However the autistic children did have relatively higher score than the children with ADHD-I, anxiety, brain injury and typical development. One of the other focuses of the study performed by Susan Mayes, Susan Calhoun, Richa Aggarwal, Courtney Baker, S. Mathapati, Robert Anderson, and Christopher Pearson was ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder). ODD showed up more frequently in the children suffering from autism and depression than in the children with ADHD-I, anxiety, brain injury, and typical development. Those children with ADHD-C were the only subjects to have more occurrences of ODD than the children with autism and the children with depression. These findings show just how frequent aggressive behavior is in autistic children, and depending on the severity of a child’s case of autism, it may be hard to break these bad behaviors. However, there is a technique that has proved effective in helping with behavior called applied behavior analysis. The goal of this technique when applied to children with autism is to provide a solution in the early stages of autism to “address the social skills deficits that inhibit children with autism from benefiting from integrated environments” (Rossenwasser & Axelrod, 2001, p. 674). In an applied behavior analysis program, the child will be placed on a personalized plan that targets certain behaviors. This is how many autistic children learn normal habits and practices. The earlier the program is implemented the earlier the child will learn the behavior, hence the reason why parents should try to gain an understanding of basic symptoms.

Conclusion
Like with most disorders, autism cannot be identified in one day or through one test. The diagnosis of autism is a process, a process that weighs heavily on the child, as well as the family of the child. It is a scary time for all of those people who are involved, and following a positive diagnosis for autism, life does not get much easier. Because of their disability, autistic children are faced with hurdles in life that normally functioning children do not have to deal with. Children with autism have to learn in completely different ways; this can add more stress to the parents, because they are forced to find someone who has the technique and understanding to educate a child with autism. This is someone who can create and implement behavior plans for the child to go by on a daily basis. Working with an autistic child is not an easy task for family members, friends, or educators; it requires a strong sense of responsibility and dedication. However, provided a strong support system and a detailed plan of study, many autistic children could have normal and fulfilling lives.

Discussion
The investigation and understanding of autism is continuing to make progress. Autism has been around for centuries, but the society is just recently beginning to gain an understanding of what it is and how it affects the autistic, as well as the rest of society. Before science produced relevant information on autism, society saw it as a disease punishing its community with cruelty and other forms of punishment. Since then, society and its awareness of autism have grown. We, as a society, are becoming more acceptable and understanding of the autistic community. Furthermore, children with autism are being afforded more opportunities than they ever were before. As professional continue to understand the different learning styles and capabilities of each individual, they help autistic children to embrace who they are and advance in life. Scientists will continues to search for routes to make the lives of the autistic easier, trying to give them as normal a life as possible.

References

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