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New center that fuses speech, behavior therapy opens

Times - 7/6/2022

Jul. 6—PORTAGE — Lighthouse Autism Center, an organization that provides speech and applied behavior analysis therapy, has opened a new location in Portage in response to increased demand for its services.

Children who attend the center are able to learn crucial life skills, such as sitting at a haircut, making a bed and coping with social situations.

Clinical Director Megan Davis said staff tries to organize the center around each of the skills, using different rooms depending on what a child should work on.

"We meet children where they are most engaged and try to simulate naturalistic life experiences," Allison Gonyon, marketing manager for Autism Lighthouse, said.

The center has enrolled six children since opening in June but can grow to a maximum of 28. The opening of the center also brought 40 new jobs to Portage.

"There was a strong demand, as there was a long waitlist for our location in Valparaiso," Gonyon said. "We try to provide service to underserved communities."

Gonyon said more parents are aware that their children could have autism these days, leading to more need for the service.

Autism Lighthouse focuses on ABA therapy, which teaches and allows children to develop new skills. The center fuses that with speech therapy, allowing full-time work on speech at no additional cost.

"Parents have been surprised at how much success their children are seeing. They will say, 'My child is saying so many words now,'" Gonyon said.

In addition, the center's speech-language pathologists are dually certified in behavior therapy, allowing a greater understanding of children's issues and how to work with them. Gonyon said, to her knowledge, there are fewer than 400 speech pathologists nationwide who are dually certified.

The center is open to any child younger than 18 but tries to focus more on children who are not yet in school.

"We focus on early intervention, as early as 2 years old. Coming in can take away from the school setting, so we want to address issues before that," Gonyon said.

One of the most significant parts of therapy for autistic children is sensory experiences. Many who are diagnosed with autism also have sensory processing disorder, which means they can get easily overstimulated or understimulated because their brain has difficulty understanding the information it is receiving from the senses.

The center has a specific sensory room to help introduce children to experiences that could be overwhelming or underwhelming.

If parents are interested, they can visit Lighthouse Autism Center's website. However, it is necessary to have an autism diagnosis to enroll.

Lighthouse Autism Center will help connect families with resources to obtain a diagnosis, such as local pediatricians, and also has a psychologist on site that can provide support as well.

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