Caravel Autism Health opens new location in downtown Oshkosh
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Original article: https://www.wbay.com/2022/01/12/caravel-autism-health-opens-new-location-downtown-oshkosh/
OSHKOSH, Wis. (WBAY) – A new resource for families with children on the spectrum is now available in the Fox Valley.
Caravel Autism Health opened the doors to its new location in Oshkosh in early December.
Caravel’s first center was opened in 2009 in Green Bay to deliver applied behavior analysis therapy to children on the autism spectrum. Since then it opened locations in five states, but all in bigger cities. The next closest centers of its kind are in Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Madison.
“We’ve reduced travel time for families that were driving 30-40 minutes one way for treatment in a different city. And for our current families, that has made a world of difference that they are not spending an hour to two hours in the car every day” Abby Amacher, the Director for the Oshkosh center said.
Through applied behavior analysis therapy, Caravel works to help young children on the spectrum with social, communicative, and behavioral challenges by tailoring each lesson to the individual child’s needs.
“When we focus on early intervention, the reason is we can make more gains, send more kids off to school needing less support, and then they can live a more successful independent life,” Amacher said.
Amacher hopes that by having a new center in town, more families can get help. She also hopes it will open up the conversation about autism throughout the greater Fox Valley area.
“I hope that the community overall can learn to embrace the neurological differences a little bit more than we have in the past,” she said.
Today the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 1 in 36 children have been identified with an autism spectrum disability. The disability is also about four times more common among males than females.
