Family Support Center opens new Pueblo location as local need for autism services grows

After outgrowing its central Pueblo location due to an increased demand for services, the specialized autism support services provider Family Support Center has opened a second office in north Pueblo to help meet the community’s needs.

The center, which works with children of all ages who live with autism spectrum disorder, will continue to run its original practice at 1026 W. Abriendo Ave. and can now accommodate nearly 200 additional patients at its new location at 805 Desert Flower Blvd.

“We got to the point where we were definitely like, ‘We are full,’” Clinic Manager Melissa Smith said of the decision to open the new location.

“Which is crazy that, even throughout the pandemic, we were still growing, because the need is there. Kids don't stop having problem behaviors when a pandemic hits.”

Family Support Center specializes in treating people with autism spectrum disorder — a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person perceives and socializes with others, often causing problems in social interaction and communication.

In a 2021 analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC found as many as 1 in 44 children in the U.S. is affected by autism.

“That’s a high rate,” Smith said. “So we know that with those kinds of numbers, there's definitely a lot of need."

Smith said the new Pueblo center will provide patients with the same speech and occupational therapies, and applied behavior analysis therapy the center specializes in, though with additional capabilities, staff and patients in a building nearly double the size.

Applied behavior analysis is “essentially a science focused on learning and behavior,” Smith said; it helps people gain skills in whatever areas they need to be successful in their everyday lives, whether those are independent living skills, communication skills, school-readiness skills, or others.

“ABA focuses a lot on what's called single-case design, where we're going to look at this one kid and see if this works for this one kid. And then, with research, you can replicate that,” Smith said.

“With autism, being such a spectrum, we need to analyze things very individually. So, I think a couple of those things make it very unique.

"One of the other things that makes it unique is we are very focused on what's observable and measurable. So maybe you go to a psychology therapy appointment — when you're talking about your feelings, a lot of our kids can't do that. And so we focus on what's observable and measurable: What are we looking at? What are they doing? And then we're analyzing the environment: What happened before that occurred? What happens after?

“So we see if there are patterns and are able to really target where the deficits are and what we can do to help.”

Amy Corsi, the Human Resources Director for Family Support Center, which has three locations in Colorado Springs in addition to its two in Pueblo, said the north Pueblo center will employ between 70 and 100 staff members and can accommodate as many as 200 patients.

In addition to ABA therapy, the center offers an early intervention program called Early Explorers and will feature services for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and a program that works to build social skills.

The center's team of ABA therapists, occupational therapists, and its speech-language pathologist work together to come up with comprehensive, individualized plans for each patient.

“That'll be great where (parents) can kind of have that one-stop-shop for all of those kinds of needs that their kiddo has,” Smith said.

The new center held its grand opening on June 15.

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Pueblo family shares its experiences with ABA

When Pueblo mom Tracy Thatcher brought her son Jack to the Family Support Center, it marked a return to ABA therapy after Jack was introduced to it at about 5 years old but didn't seem to respond to the process.

Jack, who’s now 17 years old, has a dual diagnosis of Down Syndrome and ASD and Thatcher said Jack’s first go-round with ABA just didn’t seem to “be clicking for him.”

“It brought him more anxiety than growth, I’d say,” Thatcher said. “So we just stopped that for a while and continued with public school and different therapies, a little bit of speech therapy and then whatever the school offered.”

When Jack was between the ages of 11 and 12, Thatcher said she heard about the Family Support Center and saw it as an opportunity to give ABA another shot.

She said since Jack has worked with the center, she’s seen him make significant strides forward, especially in his tolerance of social situations.

“The growth that we saw with him was definitely increasing that ability to be social and him wanting to be in a group, in a crowd,” Thatcher said.

“The ABA just helped him … kind of expanding his confidence for him to not be so afraid or so anxious. Just like with anyone who may be a wee bit anti-social or an introvert, social situations make them anxious and with kids with autism, it’s (multiplied by) 20 million. They pick up on everything.

“So it just helps him cope with the environment, which can be overwhelming for anyone and definitely kids with autism.”

Thatcher said ABA has also helped Jack make breakthroughs in potty training, which he’s struggled with most of his life.

Sometimes, Jack’s progress even presents itself out of the blue.

“There would be times I’m helping him get dressed in the morning and he just goes and grabs things and puts it on himself. And I’m like, ‘Whoah! I’ve never seen you do that. When did that happen?’ And I would attribute most of that to the repetition and consistency of ABA, just helping with simple life skills that we all take for granted.”

For more information on the north Family Support Center, visit fscautism.com.

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Chieftain editor Zach Hillstrom can be reached at zhillstrom@gannett.com or on Twitter @ZachHillstrom

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Family Support Center opens new location in north Pueblo to meet autism needs