Lighthouse Autism Center Schedules Plymouth Community Interest Meeting

Parents of youngsters with autism are encouraged to attend a community meeting this evening in Plymouth to gauge interest in the establishment of an Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy center in Marshall County. Lighthouse Autism Center currently has facilities in Warsaw and Mishawaka. Co-founder and Controller Sandy Maggioli says they offer intensive, one-on-one therapy for children with autism.

“Typically a child will receive between 20 and 40 hours of therapy per week. There is no age requirement, but typically we try to get to children who are in the preschool age of three to four years old to prepare them for school, but we also see clients that are in school as well,” Maggioli said. “We may pull them out of school for a period of time to get intensive therapy and then transition them back into the school environment.”

Therapy is provided in an outpatient setting, and youngsters either spent a half or a full day there. Therapists address deficits in areas like communication, social and behavioral skills. The center is staffed with certified Applied Behavioral Analysis therapists who evaluate each child and tailor a treatment program for them.

Maggioli adds tonight’s meeting will gauge what age groups could be served by a facility in Marshall County and the needs of their prospective patients. She says they’ve gotten calls from people in the Knox, Monterey and Culver areas who are not able to drive back and forth to Warsaw or Mishawaka each day but would like to get their children into a treatment program.

Tonight’s meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. EDT in the Pearl Conference Room at LifePlex, 2855 Miller Drive in Plymouth. Additional information about the Lighthouse Autism Center is available online at http://lighthouseautismcenter.com/