Creating an Autism-Friendly Environment
At Autism from the Start, our first and most important aspect of our mission is to make sure the children have a safe and welcoming environment with people they can trust. We know how intimidating places outside the home can be for children with autism and that’s exactly why we do what we do.
That is why we have thoughtfully catered our locations to be the perfect fit for our kiddos. At each location, either in Lenexa, or Shawnee, the children are welcomed with big friendly smiles from our wonderful trusted and professional therapists. Our team features a plethora of talented individuals, each booming with their own personality and dedication for each child to feed energy and positivity from. Check out the “Our Teams” page on our website to learn more about each individual person.
We strive to make our homes feel less like a school, or a chore to go to, and more of a second home for the children. We call our buildings “Children’s Houses” (a term borrowed from Montessori schools) because this is the domain of Children. We want our children to play and learn in a safe space they love. You can tell on their mentality and even their faces that they feel welcomed and want to be there.
How did we create this environment? A big part is experience, whether that be from Dr. Michelle’s education in psychology and neuropsychology, or her early experience developing a smaller group of kids at the beginning of her journey. Over the years, we have grown, expanded, and even built up our locations to perfectly align with our values and necessities for the children. What started as an old house in Lenexa Kansas, we have remodeled/expanded into our 1st beautiful home for operations. While we were remodeling, we moved our practice into a grade school in Shawnee. We fixed up and completely reestablished the inside’s identity to perfectly align with our image to match the feel and environment of the first children’s house. We were so happy with our performance at the temporary location, (accompanied by the fact our services were expanding to more children), we decided to keep the second location all together and permanently add it to our family.
But what makes the inside of these locations so special. At each location you can expect to find:
Large, open areas filled with natural light
Home-inspired design (living rooms, kitchens, patios, backyard playgrounds etc.)
Outdoor classroom and open spaces for social play activities
Sensory play experiences, such as water tables and mud kitchens
Easy-to-access location right off the highway
Highly-trained staff members (we call them family!) who genuinely care about your child
Thoughtful outdoor play spaces with native Kansas landscaping to provide natural sensory experiences
Our “classrooms” are not conventional classrooms you’d see at any school. Yes, our rooms feature desks, tables, whiteboards, etc. Yet most the time you will find us on the floor, playing and engaging with our surroundings, activities, toys, and learning resources which are designed to accommodate real world experiences. Nothing at Autism from the Start is conventional, yet we are in the position for provide our children with the best care and development to prepare them for the real-world.
Learn more about our locations and practices by exploring our website! And you’re always welcome to give us a call to learn more about what we have to offer.