Why Donate

How your Donation Helps

The Brown Center for Autism is dedicated to serving the needs of our young children with autism in Middle Tennessee.

The CDC currently estimates that 1 in 110 children are diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (1). ASD begins before the age of three, and while it lasts throughout a person's life, the outcomes for individuals with ASD vary greatly---from extraordinarily gifted to severely challenged (1).

While research continues to work toward helping us better understand autism, past research has shown early intensive intervention to be key to affecting dramatic positive change in the lifelong potential of these individuals (2).

Unfortunately, to date few insurance companies provide adequate coverage for the level of intensive therapy required for young children with autism to make meaningful gains. In order to be truly effective for the majority of children affected by ASD, early intervention must be intensive, comprehensive, extended over time, individualized, and delivered directly (3).

This type of programming is not only intensive for the child, it is also professionally labor-intensive--and therefore costly.

The Brown Center not only provides young children with autism the highest quality intensive early intervention, it provides families with the necessary training to truly maximize a child's learning, while also reducing the cost of care for each child. Children receive fully integrated services which promotes streamlined programming across all disciplines required to make each child's individualized programming as successful as it can be.

The Brown Center is also unique in its consideration of the needs of each child's family as it struggles to adapt to a diagnosis of autism. Informal statistics state that the divorce rate of families with a child diagnosed with autism is 86% or greater. To us, this is a tragedy. It is our belief that true success for a child also means helping each child's family not only remain intact during its adjustment---but also experience growth and a realization of its full potential as it adapts.

The fair market value of an effective and intensive behavioral program for a young child with autism can range anywhere from $75,000-$100,000 per year--a large portion of which is not covered by the majority of today's traditional insurances. This figure does not take into consideration the additional necessary services that a child requires, such a speech and language and occupational therapy. While most insurances provide some coverage for these services, the majority place a restrictive cap on the number of sessions per year a child may receive--a restriction that causes a child's therapeutic experience to almost always fall far short of "intensive intervention".

For the average American family, the cost of coordinating truly intensive and effective therapeutic programming for their child is entirely out of reach.

Donations from generous individuals like you, allow us at The Brown Center to continue to offer life-changing comprehensive services to families, as well as family counseling, at a fraction of the cost.

Please contact us today with your gift...and forever change the course of a young child's life.

Sources:

(1) The Centers for Disease Control, Dec. 18, 2009,  http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5810a1.htm

(2) McEachin, J. J., Smith, T., Lovaas, O. I. (1993). Long-term outcome for children with autism who received early intensive behavioral treatment. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 97, 359-372 .

Lovaas, O. I. (1987). Behavioral treatment and normal intellectual and educational functioning in autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 3-9.

Green, G. (1996b). Evaluating claims about treatments for autism. In C. Maurice, G. Green, & S. Luce (Eds.). Behavioral intervention for young children with autism: A manual for parents and professionals (pp. 15-28). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

(3) Guralnick, M.J. (1998). Effectiveness of early intervention for vulnerable children: A developmental perspective. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 102, 319-345.