Lighthouse Autism Center Now Offering Speech Therapy

Lighthouse Autism Center Now Offering Speech Therapy

Lighthouse Autism Center is excited to announce speech therapy at all Indiana centers.

Many children at Lighthouse receive other services outside of ABA , including speech therapy. This can be hard on the child and hard on the parents. The child is missing out on important time away from ABA therapy and parents face the difficulty in finding transportation to and from services.

Lighthouse is continuing to follow their mission of putting children and families first. Lighthouse will begin to offer speech therapy in the spring of 2019.

To learn more about speech therapy at our Indiana centers contact:  Maria Kurzhal at (574) 387-4313.

Together, we can unlock your child’s potential

The Heart of the Matter

A word from our Executive Director

The holiday season is a wonderful time to reflect on our many blessings and seek ways to give back to others who may be less fortunate. Each year, Lighthouse Autism Center participates in a community service project. Past projects have included: sponsoring a Christmas dinner and gifts for few local families, providing a day of free child care for families who attend Lighthouse Autism Center, and working with local nonprofit organizations to collect whatever donations they may need.

This year, our newest center, in Portage, MI, organized their own community project.  Angel Tree Toy Drive helped provide “angel tags” to the employees at our Portage center.  Each Portage center employee purchased gifts for a member of a local family. The gifts were dropped off to the Salvation Army in local Kalamazoo and Portage area to families in need.

Gregg Maggioli

Executive Director

Together, we can unlock your child’s potential

Lighthouse Opens Sixth Center in Granger, Indiana

New center to open in Granger, in January of 2019.  We will immediately begin serving children with autism in the Granger area. As with all other centers, the idea for a Granger location has driven primarily by the needs for increased ABA services in that community.

Many current Lighthouse families live in Granger, and many families on the waiting list for other centers also reside in this community.

With a high demand for quality, center-based ABA services, Lighthouse sought to fill this gap in services. the community asked, and Lighthouse listened.

This new Granger center will also include speech therapy services, along with all other Indiana Lighthouse centers, in the spring of 2019.

Find a Center Near You

Interested in finding an autism center near you? Click Find a Center below to view a full list of current autism therapy centers.

Staff Spotlight

Madelyn Horvath, ABA Therapist

Lighthouse Autism Center would not be the fun and caring center it is without our talented and dedicated staff. Our Staff Spotlight, Madelyn Horvath, is one in particular that has truly made an impact on the lives of our children. Madelyn stated, “My favorite thing about working at Lighthouse is that it doesn’t feel like work. I genuinely love coming here and being with these kiddos.”

Madelyn graduated from Valparaiso University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. She began her career at Lighthouse in February 2016.

Madelyn has put her heart and soul into her work and it shines through. she said one of her favorite and most fulfilling parts of her job is when a child reaches their goal. she said, “I love having expectations be blown out of the water when a kid surpasses a goal that at the start seemed unlikely to be successful. I love telling a parent at the end of the day something their child did awesome and seeing the parent’s face light up like i just told them their child won the lottery.”

Additionally, she has card for her two autistic brothers since she was 16. She said, “I have a very special place in my heart for these kids. I love that when I talk about my job to people who have no idea what i do that when i’m done talking, they go “wow, I can tell you like what you do.”

Ready for a career where you can make a difference?

Shining Examples

Cloe Herr has grown tremendously in her time at Lighthouse Autism Center.

When Cloe started at Lighthouse, she spend more than half of her day engaging in self-injurious behaviors. She ha no skills to communicate in any form and could not respond to any directions.

Sine then, Cloe has learned to use communication software to ask for more than 50 preferred items and can vocally ask for more than twenty items with full words.

Cloe can also follow more than 20 different, vocal, multi-step directions. Furthermore, she can sit in a group setting independently with her peers and answer simple questions from the group leader during these group sessions.

It’s truly inspiring to see the improvements that Cloe is making her at Lighthouse Autism Center.

“Words cannot express how thankful we are for every single person at Lighthouse Autism Center,” said Cloe’s parents. “They’ve become a second family to us and it’s such a blessing to havve them right by our side for every milestone Cloe reaches- no matter how big or small. Cloe’s progress has amazed everyone, and we cant wait to see what she does next! There’s no doubt in our minds we have Cloe right where she’s supposed to be.”

At LAC, we are seeing incredible progress made by our learners every day.

Clinical Corner

Why Vaccine-Autism Myth Started and Why it Still Endures Today

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” -Mark Twain

Andrew Wakefield, a former British doctor, falsely linked the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine to autism in a prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, on February 28, 1998. The paper was eventually retracted, and Wakefield was de-licensed. Unfortunately, Wakefield and the vaccine-autism myth persist.

Though Wakefield was exposed as a fraud, his vaccine-autism myth was persisted, causing confusion and harm globally. The myth was particularly effective in Western societies, where countries like the United Kingdom experience decades-long setbacks to immunizations rates, rates which contributed significantly to the over 12,000 cases of measles experienced by UK families after the Study’s publishing.

“As a family physician with four decades of experience fighting preventable disease around the globe and a professor of anthropology risk, and decision science studying global vaccine confidence, we’ve seen the deadly harm that fraudulent science and unfounded claims can cause. We must vigilant if we are to avert epidemics that would have been prevented were if not for vaccine denial, ” said Jonathan D. Quick, MD, MPH and Heidi Larson.

To read the full article please visit  https://bit.ly/2QnO4el

Together, we can unlock your child’s potential

Brilliant Benchmarks

ABA therapy allows Lighthouse therapist to tailor an individual program for each child, with goals that are developmentally appropriate and that help them learn new skills. Here are three wonderful examples of how ABA therapy leads to positive achievements.

Jack:

  • Went from not responding to his name or making eye contact to independently sustaining eye contact with peers and adults while responding to his name.
  • Increased his communication skills by using a picture exchange communication system to answer yes or no questions and request preferred items.
  • Went from being unable to sit independently in a group setting to being able to sit independently for more than 15 minutes in a group setting and follow the group leader.

Annabelle:

  • Increased her communication skills by using full sentences to express wants and needs.
  • Went from showing many bad behaviors when asked to do preferred activities to performing several non-preferred activities with no behaviors!
  • Went from refusing to perform activities outside of those she preferred to consistently selecting other activities when her preferred activity is not an option.

Bentley:

  • Increased his communication by using a picture exchange communication system to request wants and needs.
  • Went from having minimal appropriate play skills to playing proficiently with nearly all toys.
  • Went from being unable to feed himself to using a spoon independently and has nearly mastered using a fork.

At LAC, we are seeing incredible progress made by our learners every day.