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Business & Tech

Easter Seals Opens Autism Center in Stamford

Easter Seals Coastal Fairfield County has a new home in Stamford and will be working with the community to fill some critical gaps and provide the best services possible to individuals with autism and developmental disabilities and their families.

Easter Seals Coastal Fairfield County recently on Summer Street — a center that will provide evaluation and treatment services to fill some critical gaps in our area. With their new location close to downtown, Easter Seals Coastal Fairfield County is optimistic about what they can accomplish with increased visibility and a center in Stamford.

The number of autism resources available in Fairfield County have long lagged behind New Haven or Hartford. While other regions had established programs in the early 1990s, Fairfield County did not and continues to lack the necessary number of professionals working in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).  Seeking to fill this gap, the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Center will offer both evaluation services and treatment services.

“There’s a gap in the number of providers who can do the evaluations,” Dr. Thomas Zwicker, BCBA-D, Director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Center, said. “We’ll have people from Yale who can do them here so parents don’t have to make the trip to New Haven.”

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The evaluation process takes two full-days or four half-days and consists of psychological, psychiatric, and speech evaluation. Following diagnosis, the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Center can be instrumental in treatment, connecting parents with resources at school and at home, providing home-based ABA services and support for parents and educators.

In addition to diagnosis and treatment resources -- The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Center will be able to educate families, schools, and pediatricians.

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“We want this to be an ongoing education center — if a family member gets that diagnosis — where do you go? What do you do?” Leslie Chambers, Executive Director of Advancement at Easter Seals of Coastal Fairfield County, said.

One of the earliest workshops they hope to offer will help families navigating insurance for treatments. They will also be working with area schools to create and improve upon internal programs for children with autism. Within the medical field, partnering with pediatricians can provide an opportunity to reach families early on.

“Right now the average age at diagnosis is three years, if you could intervene at eighteen months, you could have a significant gain,” Zwicker said. “We can inform them that there is a way to detect it early and that it does matter, you’d have more time to make up the difference and put them on a great trajectory.”

For Zwicker, the importance of his work was only magnified when it hit close to home.

“My son didn’t get diagnosed until he was three and he was misdiagnosed at eighteen months,” Zwicker said. “I used to walk away from parents and think, “Why don’t they want to do this treatment all day long? Don’t they know how important it is?” Now that I'm a parent, I know they’re just tired! It’s exhausting.” 

Easter Seals of Coastal Fairfield County has a busy year ahead in Stamford — they’ll be hosting their first Caregiver Appreciation Luncheon on Valentines Day and planning for Walk With Me, a one—three mile non-competitive awareness walk to will take place in April. Volunteers are needed for these events and for others at the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Center in the future. For more information on how to get involved, contact Leslie Chambers at (203) 388-2192.

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