New autism therapy center opens in Lafayette

For a child being diagnosed autism is increasing rapidly every year.

But with that comes more and more families finding it harder to get the services they need.

News 18's micah upshaw is showing us how a new lafayette autism center is working to combat this issue.

Micah: piece by piece a-b-a therapy autism center leaders say they're here for one reason.

Seth: to service a need of kids that currently aren't having therapy and need our services we provide.

Micah: this new autism center is located on the south side of lafayette.

There are now six autism centers in greater lafayette but this one isn't looking to compete.

Seth: we're not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything crazy lafayette has a lot of great places, tools, resources.

We want to stay not really focused on maximizing our location but really just maximizing the services that we can provide.

Micah: services like no waiting list and offering therapy for all behaviors with no age limit on who they serve.

These are some ways they're working to fill the gaps where the other centers are lacking.

Owners seth parker and meg mitchell partnered to bring piece by piece to lafayette after seeing a need.

Parker is also a parent that has experienced first hand the struggle of getting services here.

Seth: it was just really frustrating when my wife and i were trying to go through the process of getting help and these tools for our five year and our timeline was any where from six months to two years potentially when we could get services.

Micah: all the autism centers including piece by piece are applied behavior analysis based also known as a-b-a.

Meg: a-b-a is proven to be most affective when it's early intervention.

Waiting six months to a year is detrimental when they need services today.

Micah: on parent who traveled to indianapolis for services is happy to be back at home.

Emily: maybe this change will help him, i think it's going to help him tremendously.

Micah: in lafayette micah upshaw news 18.