Erin Rubio blamed herself when her son, Christian, stopped talking at age 20 months and began throwing tantrums and banging his head on the floor. She thought she was a bad mom, that she had done something wrong.

"He was the best baby," she said. "He never cried. He was learning some words -- mommy, daddy, no and go. Then he just suddenly stopped talking and everything changed. Holding him was such a struggle."

At age 3, Christian was diagnosed with low-functioning autism.

Now, at age 6, he is talking again, even asking for things. She attributes the change to help she received through the Tooele County School District, which created a dedicated class for severely autistic children at Stansbury Elementary that began at the start of the 2007-08 school year.

Last year, Rubio and other members of Action 4 Autism -- a group of local parents and family members with autistic children -- sought help from the school district, asking for the special classroom.

Mike Johnsen, superintendent of Tooele County schools, said cases of autism have become more and more prevalent in Tooele schools, making it necessary to dedicate a special classroom to children with the most severe cases.

"Our goal is to have youngsters in class with their peers," Johnsen said. "Last year we had some parents who were concerned that the district wasn't being as supportive as it should. They voiced their concerns and we listened. A class was formed for those youngsters who would have the most difficult time in a regular class."

Research shows that autism -- a developmental disorder characterized by being self-absorbed and having severe social, communication, and behavioral problems -- was once a rare disorder with only about five in 10,000 children diagnosed as autistic. However, since the 1990s, diagnoses of autism have increased dramatically. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta reported in 2007 that one in 150 children are being diagnosed with autism.

Stansbury Elementary principal Xenia Young said she had an empty classroom and welcomed the class.

"They need a lot of supervision and specialized instruction that really can't be done in a regular classroom," she said.

Jenni Hitesman, an early intervention special education teacher, and Michale Berryhill, a special education teacher for the school district, teach the class of eight students. About four teacher aides and several of the students' parents help out in the classroom daily. The children are bused to Stansbury from all over the county.

As plans for the new classroom began to take shape, the Granite School District in Salt Lake City provided special training in the area of autism by flying in training experts from Oregon. Hitesman and Berryhill attended the training.

"We both have a lot of background in educating children with autism, but we were able to add new information to our arsenal of knowledge," Hitesman said.

A specialized curriculum was one important tool that came from the training. Besides reading, writing and math, students in the classroom learn methods for understanding language and using language to express themselves. They also learn sensory skills and basic functioning routines.

Berryhill and Hitesman said children with autism have to learn each step of a task, like hand washing. They have to learn to turn on the water, get the soap, rub soap on their hands, rub their hands together, put their hands under water to rinse, get a towel and rub their hands on the towel to dry.

"Children with autism don't do what they see their parents do. They have to be taught to imitate," Berryhill said. "It takes thousands of repetitions before they are able to pay attention to what they are doing."

Rubio said she experienced a "first" with Christian on Tuesday while helping in the classroom. He asked her for a hug.

"I thought he would never talk," she said. "Now he is talking, joking and asking for things."