Autism center opening in April in Bloomington

Jennifer’s son, who was diagnosed with autism at a young age, spoke few words and didn’t like to be around others until he started treatment through the Little Star Center in Caramel, Ind.

In a video testimonial, Jennifer claims her son now “speaks in sentences, has an excellent vocabulary and loves to play with others.”

The Little Star Center will expand to Bloomington, and the center will be at 3109 Canterbury Drive, and the organization is starting to receive applications for prospective employees and children.

“Our initial center will open with six children, then we’ll have a one-month waiting period so we get the center up and running,” said Mary Rosswurm, executive director at Little Star. “We don’t want to overwhelm the staff because quality is really our first priority.”

Eventually, the center will take on about 15 children, which includes the initial six.
Little Star specializes in daily applied behavior analysis for autistic children. Applied behavior analysis is endorsed by the United States Surgeon General. This method seeks to either increase or decrease a specific behavior of a given child.

“Say we have a child who is not toilet trained or not talking,” Rosswurm said. “We want to increase these behaviors, so we work on increasing those behaviors. But say we have a child who screams and bites, some kind of unwanted behavior. We look at decreasing those behaviors.”

The center is not residential and accepts children of all ages. Some children spend 35 hours a week at Little Star while other children only spend 20, Rosswurm said.

Little Star Center is not a replacement for school either.
Instead, applied behavior analysis treatment is covered under health insurance. The program is geared toward getting children into more typical school settings so they can be successful.

Little Star hopes to get the center up and running by April.

“If a family has a very young child with a diagnosis, they should really come and check us out,” Rosswurm said. “For young children it’s wonderful because they have time on their side, so by the time they’re ready for school, they’ll actually be ready.

“Even families with older children should come, because we’re experts. We do autism all day every day.”

Follow reporter Kate Starr on Twitter @kastarr7.