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
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!
Construction is underway and we cannot wait for the center to be completed!
Find an Autism 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.
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!
Construction is underway and we cannot wait for the center to be completed!
Find an Autism 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.
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!”
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.
Portage Autism Center Exterior clinicPortage Autism Center EntryPortage Autism Center – Autism Learning CenterPortage Autism Center – Play-based Therapy
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
Child and clinician working with positive reinforcements. Clinician engaging child’s interests to make learning fun!Naturalist play-based therapy helps children with socialization along with many other skills.
Play-based ABA Therapy
Lighthouse Autism Center offers beautiful, play-based environments. With an innovative ABA therapy model called Lighthouse Fusion ™, children make greater progress, faster, all while having fun. Together speech and ABA fuse into one comprehensive program. Children are immersed in imaginary spaces where they can naturally explore their interests, engage in sensory experiences, and practice language. Each child’s progress can be seen in smiles and laughter because we know children learn best when they’re having fun. The therapist follows the child’s lead to find out what he or she enjoys. At every opportunity, the therapist tries to enhance an activity’s fun quotient with their presence. The goal is that the child will want to work for the therapist and will, therefore, be an active, happy, and engaged learner.
Tailored Autism Treatment Plans
A therapist may be highly qualified, and the treatment plan may be exquisitely tailored to the child’s needs, but if the child refuses to engage with the therapist, then efficient learning won’t occur. Lighthouse Fusion is an enhanced program with an innovative clinical model that delivers better outcomes, faster. Our naturalistic play environment allows each learner to develop readiness skills, simulating real-life situations, all while having fun. Each object in the pay centers were strategically selected with an intended purpose. Some toys may help with the development of social skills, while others are intended to help with speech and language development. Lighthouse Autism Center strives to create a welcoming, comfortable environment that provokes natural learning and fun.
Fusing ABA and Speech Into One Enhanced Therapy Solution
Lighthouse Fusion ™ was developed by a team of dually certified clinicians at Lighthouse Autism Center is an enhanced therapy solution that blends the best practices of ABA and speech therapies into one comprehensive program. At Lighthouse, we are committed to bringing together compassionate care and clinical excellence to unlock that potential and help each child achieve the possible. We believe each child has unique and unlimited potential.
ABA has long been the gold-standard for autism therapy. Research shows that building motivation and rewarding success is effective in delivering superior outcomes for children. Lighthouse Fusion ™ applies these same principles to speech development in a one-of-a-kind therapy program. Developed by a team of dually certified clinicians at Lighthouse Autism Center, some of only a handful in the entire country, the program brings together experts in the fields of speech and ABA to collaborate on goal development, deliver therapy, and celebrate each child’s progress.
Integrated therapies: Fusion brings together speech and ABA into one comprehensive program.
Collaborative team: Each child has a behavior analyst, speech therapist, and registered behavior technician working together to support their progress. Three clinicians, one goal.
Enhanced Progress: an innovative clinical model that delivers better outcomes, faster.
How Lighthouse Uses Integrative Therapy
At Lighthouse Autism Center, we offer the highest quality therapy in a beautiful, play-based environment. With an innovative ABA therapy model called Lighthouse Fusion, children make greater progress, faster, all while having fun. This is where compassionate care meets clinical excellence. Children are immersed in imaginary spaces where they can naturally explore their interests, engage in sensory experiences, and practice language. Each child’s progress can be seen in smiles and laughter because we know children learn best when they’re having fun.
To learn more about Lighthouse Fusion, click here.
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.
It’s hard to believe that it has been a full decade since Lighthouse Autism Center first opened its doors. From humble beginnings of just serving four families in Mishawaka, Lighthouse Autism Center now provides autism services to over 500 families across three states. On May 21, 2012, Lighthouse Autism Center opened its very first center in Mishawaka, Indiana. With a handful of clients and a small team of clinicians, we began providing ABA therapy services to the Michiana community.
Over the past ten years, Lighthouse has grown into a leading center-based provider of ABA therapy for children on the autism spectrum, with a network of centers across Indiana, southwestern Michigan, and Illinois. As the largest ABA provider in the state of Indiana, Lighthouse has a reputation for bringing together compassionate care with clinical excellence, with autism therapy programs supported by a beautiful play-based environment that supports the best possible outcomes for children with autism. To think that Lighthouse stated with just one center and has now grown to over twenty centers is truly incredible.
When Gregg and Sandy Maggioli pursued their dream of providing the highest quality autism therapy services to families in Mishawaka, they never could have imagined just how big and how far that dream would come ten years later. Through a passionate team of individuals dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families with autism, Lighthouse Autism Center has impacted hundreds of clients and thousands of individuals across the state of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan serving as not only an ABA provider, but an advocate and support for special needs families.
We are grateful to all of our clients, families, staff, physicians, advocates and individuals who have been a part of the Lighthouse family for the past ten years and look forward to what another year will bring!
Follow us on Facebook to see all the exciting activities we will be doing in May, to celebrate 10 years of Lighthouse Autism Center! Click here: https://www.facebook.com/LighthouseAutismCenter
Lighthouse Autism Center plans to take this month to celebrate those with autism through awareness, acceptance and understanding that each individual is as unique and different as each of our fingerprints.
Lighthouse is celebrating through activities that staff and children can participate in such as spirit week, a South Bend Cubs sensory friendly game, a sensory film with Yes Cinema, craft days, friendly center competition with creative autism awareness displays, and so much more!
Autism Awareness and Acceptance
Autism Awareness is special to our Lighthouse team and this month we have committed to celebrating everything that makes autism so wonderfully different.
If you would like to see Lighthouse’s Autism Awareness activities during the month of April, please follow us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/LighthouseAutismCenter
Lighthouse Autism Center Celebrates Autism Awareness and Acceptance Day
Sunday, April 10, 2022, 2:05PM at Four Winds Field in South Bend, IN
Lighthouse Autism Center and the South Bend Cubs are partnering to host an Autism Awareness Day with the South Bend Cubs. Gate opens at 12pm. First pitch is at 2:05pm. Home Plate Suite will be open as a sensory room.
Congratulations to the t-shirt design winner, Tracy Galicia, Registered Behavioral Therapist!
Checkout Tracy’s design below! This design will be featured on the South Bend Cubs special edition Autism Awareness shirts and hoodies, for the month of April!
Every two years the Association for Behavior Analysis International hosts an international conference during which behavior analysts from all over the world converge to share research and ideas. This year’s conference will be held in Dublin, Ireland. Three Lighthouse Autism Center speech-language pathologists: Samantha Farber, Emily Sears and Janine Shapiro will be in attendance and Lighthouse Autism Centers’ paper was accepted for presentation.
Janine Shapiro will be demonstrating effective behavior analytic speech techniques to address common speech concerns of behavior analysts.
We’re excited to bring our Lighthouse Fusion tricks to an international stage so we can help learners and practitioners near and far!
Janine directs Lighthouse Fusion, an enhanced therapy solution that blends the best practices of ABA and speech therapies into one comprehensive program. Developed by a team of dually certified clinicians at Lighthouse Autism Center, some of only a handful in the entire country, the program brings together experts in the fields of speech and ABA to collaborate on goal development, deliver therapy, and celebrate each child’s progress.
At Lighthouse Autism Center, we offer the highest quality therapy in a beautiful, play-based environment. With Lighthouse Fusion, children make greater progress, faster, all while having fun.
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Lighthouse Autism Center offers ABA therapy for children with autism. Contact us to learn how our innovative clinical model can help your child make greater progress, faster, all while having fun.
