Lighthouse Autism Center Opening in South Bend, Indiana

Lighthouse Autism Center (LAC) continues to expand, now with a network of centers in three states – quite a journey from its humble beginnings serving four families in one building to now serving hundreds of families across three states for nearly a decade. It is truly amazing.

Additional Services will be Available for Local Families with Autistic Children

Our state-of-the-art children’s autism center is slated to complete renovations in the late fall of 2022 and will provide additional autism services to 21 children and their families and create over 27 new jobs in the area. 

With a mission of providing the highest quality autism services to children and families through our facilities, LAC has sought to do just that in South Bend, IN. As the need for ABA services continues to grow, LAC seeks to fill that need by expanding services to accommodate a larger capacity of learners, helping more families and children with autism, reach their goals.

Lighthouse Autism Center is the Midwest’s leading autism therapy provider

With beautiful autism clinics that promote natural and play-based learning, and a team of highly trained and compassionate clinicians, Lighthouse Autism Center brings together compassionate care and clinical excellence to offer the highest quality ABA therapy to children with autism.

With a unique clinical model called Lighthouse Fusion, children at Lighthouse are making greater progress, faster, all while having fun. While other ABA centers typically keep ABA and speech therapies separate, Lighthouse Fusion brings these two therapies together into one enhanced therapy solution. We invite you to learn more about how this innovative clinical model is helping to unlock each child’s potential. 

To learn more about Lighthouse Autism Center or enroll your child, contact our Family Outreach Coordinator at 574-387-4313.

South Bend Center contact information

1827 E Ireland Rd

South Bend, Indiana 46614

Family Outreach Phone: 574-387-4313

Don’t see an autism treatment center listed near you? Contact us and let us know the area you are in, and we will notify you when we have a center opening near you!

Lighthouse Autism Center Opening in Springfield, Illinois

Lighthouse Autism Center (LAC) continues to expand, now with a network of centers in three states – quite a journey from its humble beginnings serving four families in one building to now serving hundreds of families across three states for nearly a decade. It is truly amazing.

The State Capitol is Getting its Very Own LAC

Our newest state-of-the-art aba therapy center in Springfield, Illinois is Lighthouse autism Center’s third children’s autism center to open in Illinois. It is slated to open in the winter of 2022 providing autism services to 30 children and their families and create over 40 new jobs in the area. 

With a mission of providing the highest quality autism services to children and families through our facilities, Lighthouse Autism Center has sought to do just that in Springfield, IL. As the need for ABA services continues to grow, Lighthouse seeks to fill that need by expanding into facilities that can accommodate a larger capacity of learners, helping more families and children with autism, reach their goals.

Lighthouse Autism Center is the Midwest’s leading autism therapy provider

With beautiful facilities that promote natural and play-based learning, and a team of highly trained and compassionate clinicians, Lighthouse Autism Center brings together compassionate care and clinical excellence to offer the highest quality ABA therapy to children with autism.

With a unique clinical model called Lighthouse Fusion™, children at Lighthouse are making greater progress, faster, all while having fun. While other ABA centers typically keep ABA and speech therapies separate, Lighthouse Fusion brings these two therapies together into one enhanced therapy solution. We invite you to learn more about how this innovative clinical model is helping to unlock each child’s potential. 

To learn more about Lighthouse Autism Center or enroll your child, contact our Family Outreach Coordinator at 217-295-2491 or visit our website.

Springfield Center Contact Information

614 N 6th Street

Springfield, Illinois 62702

Family Outreach Phone: 217-295-2491

Don’t see an autism treatment center listed near you? Contact us and let us know the area you are in, and we will notify you when we have a center opening near you!

Lighthouse Autism Center Opening in Decatur, Illinois

Lighthouse Autism Center (LAC) continues to expand, now with a network of centers in three states – quite a journey from its humble beginnings serving four families in one building to now serving hundreds of families across three states for nearly a decade. It is truly amazing.

Decatur Autism Center Coming this Winter of 2022

Our newest state-of-the-art aba therapy center in Decatur, Illinois is Lighthouse autism Center’s second children’s autism center to open in Illinois. It is slated to open in the winter of 2022 providing autism services to 25 children and their families and create over 40 new jobs in the area. 

With a mission of providing the highest quality autism services to children and families through our facilities, Lighthouse Autism Center has sought to do just that in Decatur, IL. As the need for ABA services continues to grow, Lighthouse seeks to fill that need by expanding into facilities that can accommodate a larger capacity of learners, helping more families and children with autism, reach their goals.

Lighthouse Autism Center is the Midwest’s leading autism therapy provider

With beautiful facilities that promote natural and play-based learning, and a team of highly trained and compassionate clinicians, Lighthouse Autism Center brings together compassionate care and clinical excellence to offer the highest quality ABA therapy to children with autism.

With a unique clinical model called Lighthouse Fusion™, children at Lighthouse are making greater progress, faster, all while having fun. While other ABA centers typically keep ABA and speech therapies separate, Lighthouse Fusion brings these two therapies together into one enhanced therapy solution. We invite you to learn more about how this innovative clinical model is helping to unlock each child’s potential. 

To learn more about Lighthouse Autism Center or enroll your child, contact our Family Outreach Coordinator at 217-295-2491 or visit our website.

Decatur Center Contact Information

427 East Ash Road

Decatur, Illinois 62526

Family Outreach Phone: 217-295-2491

Don’t see an autism treatment center listed near you? Contact us and let us know the area you are in, and we will notify you when we have a center opening near you!

Lighthouse Autism Center is partnering with Dinosaur Adventure to offer tickets to children with autism and their families, as well as a sensory hour 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on both days of the event. The tickets will be offered to families currently enrolled at Lighthouse Autism Center.  

Dinosaur Adventure offers a prehistoric exhibit with big dinosaurs and massive family fun. For two days only, guests will have the rare opportunity to travel back 65 million years to experience the thrill of the prehistoric age. While giant dinosaurs are the “meat and bones” of the event, Dinosaur Adventure also features baby dinosaurs with which guests can interact.  

Other activities at the event include a realistic fossil search, Jurassic jeep races, prehistoric themed obstacle courses, dinosaur rides, and more.  

The event is open to the general public from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 3 and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 4 at the South Bend Century Center, 120 Doctor M.L.K. Jr Blvd. Guests can expect the average adventure to last two to three hours. Tickets start at $25 and should be purchased in advance at www.dinosauradventure.com/south-bend. Most activities, except for the mining area and face painting, are unlimited with each child’s admission.   

Lighthouse Autism Center is currently the largest ABA provider in Indiana with a network of locations across Indiana, southwest Michigan and central Illinois. Autism spectrum disorder is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the United States.  

Autism Parental Support Group

Lighthouse Autism Center and the Autism Society of Indiana are partnering to host a free Parent Support Group for parents of children who are newly diagnosed with autism. The support group will involve a four-part series that will include a diverse and knowledgeable group of in-person speakers and light refreshments.

This is an in-person, free event! Lighthouse Autism Center in Noblesville, IN. 15755 N Pointe Blvd, Noblesville, IN 46060

Register Here: https://forms.office.com/r/APQiJcFz9j

This is a four-part series.
Autism Parent Support Schedule

Session 1: September 12th
Session 2: October 25th
Session 3: November 30th
Session 4: TBD

For questions or more information, contact abbeyy@lighthouseautismcenter.com

Lighthouse Autism Center is Expanding Services into Castleton, Indiana

Lighthouse Autism Center (LAC) continues to expand, now with a network of centers in three states – quite a journey from its humble beginnings serving four families in one building to now serving hundreds of families across three states for nearly a decade. It is truly amazing.

Castleton Autism Center Coming this Winter of 2022

Our newest state-of-the-art ABA therapy center is slated to open in the winter of 2022 near Indianapolis, Indiana. Our children’s autism center will provide autism services to 60 children and their families and create over 85 new jobs in the area.

With a mission of providing the highest quality autism services to children and families through our facilities, LAC has sought to do just that in Castleton, IN. As the need for ABA services continues to grow, Lighthouse seeks to fill that need by expanding into facilities that can accommodate a larger capacity of learners, helping more families and children with autism, reach their goals.

Natural and Play-based ABA Therapy

Lighthouse Autism Center is the Midwest’s leading autism therapy provider. With beautiful facilities that promote natural and play-based learning, and a team of highly trained and compassionate clinicians, our autism center in Indianapolis brings together compassionate care and clinical excellence to offer the highest quality ABA therapy to children with autism.

With a unique clinical model called Lighthouse Fusion™, children at Lighthouse are making greater progress, faster, all while having fun. While other ABA centers typically keep ABA and speech therapies separate, Lighthouse Fusion brings these two therapies together into one enhanced therapy solution. We invite you to learn more about how this innovative clinical model is helping to unlock each child’s potential.

To learn more about Lighthouse Autism Center or enroll your child, contact our Family Outreach Coordinator at 317-222-1242 or visit our website.

Castleton Center Contact Information

7526 E. 82nd St

Castleton, Indiana 46256

Family Outreach Phone: 317-222-1242

Don’t see an autism treatment center listed near you? Contact us and let us know the area you are in, and we will notify you when we have a center opening near you!

Lighthouse Autism Center Opening in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Lighthouse Autism Center (LAC) continues to expand, now with a network of centers in three states – quite a journey from its humble beginnings serving four families in one building to now serving hundreds of families across three states for nearly a decade. It’s truly amazing.

Kalamazoo Autism Center Coming Late Summer of 2022

Our newest state-of-the-art children’s autism center is slated to open in the late summer of 2022 and will provide autism services to 28 children and their families and create over 30 new jobs in the area. 

With a mission of providing the highest quality autism services to children and families through our facilities, LAC has sought to do just that in Kalamazoo, MI. As the need for ABA services continues to grow, LAC seeks to fill that need by expanding into facilities that can accommodate a larger capacity of learners, helping more families and children with autism, reach their goals.

Lighthouse Autism Center is the Midwest’s leading autism therapy provider

With beautiful facilities that promote natural and play-based learning, and a team of highly trained and compassionate clinicians, Lighthouse Autism Center brings together compassionate care and clinical excellence to offer the highest quality ABA therapy to children with autism.

With a unique clinical model called Lighthouse Fusion, children at Lighthouse are making greater progress, faster, all while having fun. While other ABA centers typically keep ABA and speech therapies separate, Lighthouse Fusion brings these two therapies together into one enhanced therapy solution. We invite you to learn more about how this innovative clinical model is helping to unlock each child’s potential.

To learn more about Lighthouse Autism Center or enroll your child, contact our Family Outreach Coordinator at 269-249-1490

New Kalamazoo East Center Contact Information​

3744 Gull Rd.
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49048

Family Outreach Phone: 269-249-1490

Don’t see an autism treatment center listed near you? Contact us and let us know the area you are in, and we will notify you when we have a center opening near you!

Autism Success Stories: The “Proof is in the Paddington”

This week, Lighthouse Fusion Director, Janine Shapiro, CCC-SLP/BCBA, and Lighthouse Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Jessica McCuen, traveled to London.  Tourist sightseeing, international cuisine, and West End shows were not on the itinerary.  Instead, the focus was Hannah*, a doe-eyed, 5-year-old girl with autism secondary to a very rare genetic condition.  In short, Hannah represents another Lighthouse success story, but she also serves as the inspiration and proof of concept for the entire Lighthouse Fusion approach to integrated ABA and speech-language therapy.

A Video Gives Hope

In 2019, Access Behavior Analysis (which has since been acquired by Lighthouse Autism Center) created a video documenting the speech development of a female toddler in Indianapolis with a rare genetic condition.  Given the severity of communication deficits of most individuals with this disorder, this young girl’s gains proved shocking to her family and professionals in the medical community.  The video highlighted the benefits of an integrated ABA and speech-language approach with the goal of providing hope to families traveling the same uncharted road. Not long after the video posted, Hannah’s mother stumbled across it, recognized similarities between the child featured and her own, and reached out to the dually certified practitioners with a plea for help.

Virtual Therapy Success

Local client and family obligations precluded an immediate trip to London, so Jessica and Janine scheduled a virtual intake via Skype.  Hannah initially presented with very few sounds and never produced them in an imitative context.  Jessica and Janine virtually coached Hannah’s mom how to leverage the principles of behavior in combination with speech prompting techniques to teach Hannah to imitate a variety of sounds.  Six months following the first email, Janine and Jessica finally met Hannah in person.  By the end of the three-day international consultation, Hannah was producing a variety of vocal words to request her favorite items and activities.  Here again was a child given a very low likelihood of ever developing more than a few vocal words defying the odds with behavioral speech techniques, and this time, most targets were achieved virtually!  Janine and Jessica left promising to return soon, but just a few months later, the world shut down. Virtual sessions resumed and progress continued.

Lighthouse Fusion™

Meanwhile, Lighthouse Autism Center wanted to offer all of its learners the opportunity to benefit from therapy with practitioners who were dually certified as speech-language pathologists and Board Certified Behavior Analysts.  Often referred to as “unicorns” these practitioners are as effective as they are rare.  Lighthouse also envisioned a more collaborative model with its BCBAs and SLPs working together with the learners, rather than simply housing speech and ABA under the same roof.  The experience with Hannah demonstrated the power of behavioral speech strategies within a virtual format.  Though instead of a parent taking direction, Lighthouse’s talented BCBAs develop objectives and implement therapy alongside the speech-language pathologist.  This is the Lighthouse Fusion approach to ABA therapy, and it takes place every day at every Lighthouse Autism Center.

Janine, Jessica, (and Paddington) returned from their second trip to London thrilled with Hannah’s progress and energized for the week’s Lighthouse Fusion co-treatment sessions with learners in Indiana, Michigan and Illinois.  Lighthouse practitioners will soon be packing their bags again, this time for Ireland, where they will share Lighthouse Fusion techniques at an international ABA conference.  As Janine and Jessica joked on the flight home from London, the proof was “in the Paddington!”

* Name has been changed for privacy.

ABA Therapy Center is Now Open in Portage, Indiana!

Lighthouse Autism Center (LAC) continues to expand autism clinics, with a network of centers in now, three states – quite a journey from its humble beginnings serving four families in one building to now serving hundreds of families across three states for nearly a decade, it’s truly amazing.

Our newest Portage autism center opened on June 6, 2022 and will provide autism services to 28 children and their families, create over 40 new jobs in the area.  This children’s autism center is the 25th Lighthouse Autism Center to open it’s doors and provide quality ABA therapy services to children with autism. To learn or more or inquire about enrollment, visit www.lighthouseautismcenter.com.

With a mission of providing the highest quality autism services to children and families through our facilities, Lighthouse has sought to do just that in Portage, IN. As the need for ABA services continues to grow, Lighthouse seeks to fill that need by expanding into areas of high demand, helping more families and children with autism, reach their goals.

Lighthouse Autism Center is the Midwest’s leading autism therapy provider.

With beautiful facilities that promote natural and play-based learning, and a team of highly trained and compassionate clinicians, Lighthouse Autism Center brings together compassionate care and clinical excellence to offer the highest quality ABA therapy to children with autism.

Autism Center for Speech and Language

With a unique clinical model called Lighthouse Fusion™, children at Lighthouse are making greater progress, faster, all while having fun. While other ABA centers typically keep ABA and speech therapies separate, Lighthouse Fusion™ brings these two therapies together into one enhanced therapy solution. We invite you to learn more about how this innovative clinical model is helping to unlock each child’s potential.

To learn more about Lighthouse Autism Center or enroll your child, contact our Family Outreach Coordinator at (574)-387-4313

New Portage Center Contact Information​

3125 Willowcreek RD
Portage, Indiana 46368

Family Outreach Phone: (574)-387-4313

Congratulations to our 2022 Autism Awareness Scholarship Recipient

In 2020, Lighthouse Autism Center established the Lighthouse Autism Center Autism Awareness scholarship. This scholarship is intended to provide financial assistance to an individual enrolled at a college or university as an undergraduate student in their junior or senior year, preferably in an area that we currently serve. While we had many impressive applications, Heather Hilliard was selected as the awardee for this scholarship.

Autism Awareness Scholarship Winner

Heather Hillard is a senior undergraduate student at Ball State University. Heather is pursuing a bachelors in speech pathology with a minor in educational psychology. She is a first-generation college student who strives to make her goals of achieving a master’s degree in speech-language pathology, into a reality.

Heather chose this major for many reasons, but the biggest one has been the incredible speech-language pathologists that influenced her in her own early development. Heather was a child who experienced a slow speech development and was diagnosed with apraxia of speech.  She had surgery for tubes to be placed in her ears at 2 years-old, and she knew it was something she was going to be dealing with for a while, with many speech therapists to come.

Shortly after that, Heather found herself at the young age of three, working with an at-home speech-language pathologist, followed by a year in the Pals Program at the local high school, a year of Head Start at an elementary school, and finally working with another elementary school’s SLP during her kindergarten year.

This really resonated with Heather as she started researching her options for a college and a field of study, since this was a challenge that she faced as a child. Heather knew that in her heart it was right where she needed to be in order to get speech therapy to kids as young as possible to reach their unlimited potential.

Heather has worked in prior roles as a substitute teacher as well as a Registered Behavior Technician. She attributes these experiences to creating the pathway for her to pursue a career in speech pathology. Heather enjoys working with children and finding creative ways to make speech activities effective and fun. She has worked with children with a variety of disabilities, nonverbal and limited speaking abilities.

Heather is a responsible student who values and practices hard work and rigorous study. She has maintained an impressive 3.9 GPA and has been named on the Dean’s List every semester at Ball State University.  Heather plans to apply to Ball State’s graduate program upon completing her undergraduate degree and will work towards earning her SLP-A certification. She hopes to provide speech services to Central Indiana and surrounding communities to continue giving back to the state that has allowed her to flourish into the young adult that she has become today.

Congratulations Heather!