Overview

International epidemiological studies have documented a tremendous increase in the number of individuals identified with autism during the past decade (Tidmarsh & Volkmar, 2003). Therefore, today's school psychologists and other educational professionals are more likely to identify and be asked to serve students with autism than in years past. Supporting this assumption are results form a recent electronic survey (Kohrt, 2004), which found 95% of the school psychologist respondents reported an increase in the number of students with autism being referred for assessment. In the United States alone, there has been a 600% increase in the number of children with this disability being served in special education programs (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Given these statistics, it is essential that school psychologists and other educational professionals better understand autism and become better prepared to assess, identify, and serve these students within the school context. Facilitating attainment of such knowledge and readiness will be the primary goal of this volume. In this practitioner-focused book, the authors will provide school psychologists and other educational professionals with the information they need to be more fully prepared to serve students with autism. After providing a brief introduction to the topic of autism spectrum disorders and an overview of the book, chapter 2 will offer an exploration of the complex etiology of autism and chapter 3 will provide the reader with a review of epidemiological issues. Perhaps most important, chapters 4, 5, and 6 will review information essential to the identification of autism. Finally, chapter 7 will present a summary oftreatment research. To our knowledge, there is no other recently published book on this topic that is specifically directed toward school psychologists and other educators. On April 25, 2005, using the search terms autism, autistic disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder, a PsycINFO database search for books published in the last five years identified 91 publications. From a review of database abstracts, only three of these books (Ozonoff, Rogers, & Hendren, 2003; Wahlberg, Obiakor, Burkhardt, & Rotatori, 2001; Zager, 2005) provided an examination of the entire autism spectrum (i.e., did not focus on only one pervasive developmental disorder), specifically addressed diagnostic assessment, offered treatment guidance, and discussed educational interventions. However, none of these edited volumes were specifically oriented toward school psychologists and other educational professionals, and none addressed the psycho-educational evaluation, which is critical to determining whether the student with autism qualifies for special education assistance.

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