New Clinics Bring Services to High-Need Areas

The clinical director of Carmel-based Little Star Center says an expansion into southern Indiana next year will provided needed help to a region "particularly lacking services" for children with autism. Breanne Hartley says new locations in Jeffersonville and Evansville, scheduled to open in January, will result in a total of about 100 new jobs. She says the centers will specialize in "the science of human behavior," which has proven beneficial for people with autism. Little Star currently has locations in Carmel, Lafayette, West Lafayette and Bloomington.

During an interview on Inside INdiana Business Television, Hartley said the new markets will attract the type of employees Little Star is looking to hire.

Little Star opened in Carmel in 2002 with 10 learners and 15 employees. In addition to in-house therapeutic applied behavior analysis services, offerings have expanded to include in-home therapy and community-based programming.

Each new center will have a staff of up to 50. Little Star says openings at each location include center manager, assistant clinical director and therapists with backgrounds in education, child psychology, special education, speech sciences and/or child development. The system is currently accepting applications for both locations.

Hartley says the ABA model focuses on improving skills such as communication, and decreasing behavior including aggression and repetition that can be common in people on the autism spectrum. She says the need for autism services continues to grow, as approximately one out of 46 boys are on the spectrum.