One of the spaces in the Frankfort Plaza that had long been empty is now full again as Piece By Piece Autism Center is now occupying the former Comcast building at 1429 E. Wabash St. This is now the second Autism Center in the area as this group has a facility at 602 Ransdell Road in Lebanon.
What exactly is Piece By Piece? It is a locally owned family-run business that puts each child and family first. They also believe in empowering parents and helping each child reach their full potential by using evidence-based practices in applied behavior analysis (ABA).
Owner and board certified behavior analyst Megan Mitchell said they are an autism center.
“We are a mental health facility that will bill under insurance and do therapy all day usually,” said Mitchell. “Typically the way it starts is our kiddos will come in for an initial evaluation. All of our clients have to have an autism diagnosis at first.
“Once that happens, they come in and do an evaluation that’s parent and kiddo portion,” she continued. “Usually that takes about an hour where the parent is interviewed to discuss what their problems are that their kiddos is having. Any behavioral deficits, developmental delays, eating problems, sleeping problems, medication uses or communication problems.”
The Center uses ABA therapy which is individualized one-to-one therapy used to develop various skills and deficits, as well as to teach socially significant behaviors. They work on developing skills to help transition children to lesser intrusive environments.
Mitchell says a child is typically being trained 20 to 40 hours per week and they are re-evaluated every six months to see what kinds of progress are being made.
“We play into their strengths and weaknesses,” said Mitchell. “Our goal is to transition them back into schools and be more independent whether that be an inclusive classroom or the special education classroom or the gen-ed classroom.”
Mitchell says they currently have between 15 and 20 children between the ages 3 and 13. She added they have no middle school or high school age children, but would be willing to work with them if they are diagnosed with autism.
The Piece By Piece Autism Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.