Help us bridge the gap for kids and families in need of quality autism care.

Current estimates put a lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism at $3.5 million. And due in part to the complex history of autism as a diagnosis, insurance companies don’t cover many proven interventions. This is stunting children’s development and putting a burden on families to cover the cost of specialized, high-quality care.

More children have autism than all childhood cancers, juvenile diabetes, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy combined. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 1 in 36 (2.8%) 8-year-old children living in ADDM Network sites were identified with ASD in 2020. These children deserve happy and productive lives.

The progress we’ve made so far is just the beginning. The world we imagine, where all vulnerable children have the resources they need to fulfill their promise, is truly within our reach.

We rely on your support to help make breakthrough discoveries for kids with autism. In order to keep making extraordinary strides in our quest to better understand the disorder, we need your help.

We lead the way in innovations and research

Innovation starts with one child. What we learn from our patients turns into new clinical practices bolstered by evidence. Your support ensures the lessons children teach us about living with autism are captured and used to maximize the possibilities for all children.

Early detection of autism is the difference between a life of limitations and a child’s ability to reach her full potential. Marcus Autism Center leads the way in early detection and intervention starting at the very first signs of developmental delay.

Our neuroimaging research is mapping brain and behavior in newborns and infants. Unless we can learn how the brain grows in this crucial time of development, we’ll never get the answers we need to effectively target therapies for autism.

Currently, our eye-tracking technology is teaching researchers what babies look at –and what they don’t. This has informed our work that will help diagnosis autism early in infancy.

With our efforts and through collaborations with premier academic institutions nationwide, we’re turning groundbreaking research into practice for children and families affected by autism.

We’re focused on children

Kids are who we see, all day every day. Everything we do is child centric. From our facility dog, Flip, to our playground and parent support groups, our center and its philosophy is designed around kids.

Our expert clinicians and researchers are relentless in their pursuit of diagnostic methods and processes to help children earlier. As a result, we are one of the few centers in the country that has a strong record of diagnosing autism in children as young as 18 months. By diagnosing at the earliest sign of developmental delays, we’re able to treat children before associated symptoms of autism progress.

We share our discoveries

Not every child can be treated at Marcus Autism Center, that’s why we’re going beyond our walls to share and disseminate our findings to other doctors, researchers and clinicians throughout the world. Sharing our research and standards of care with the global community will help families receive top-quality, evidence-based care no matter where they live.

Our outreach programs in schools and communities raise the bar for educating children with autism. By equipping teachers and paraprofessionals with cutting-edge educational techniques, we’re helping children with autism learn more effectively and build important peer relationships with their classmates that will lead to a better quality of life.

We’re strategic

At Marcus Autism Center we take our donors seriously, and we work hard to use their gifts in the best, most effective ways possible. We use our resources in ways that maximize our sustainability. Sound financial operations are critical to achieving our goals.

More than 75 percent of our yearly funding comes from community support. Your gift, no matter the amount, makes a difference.