Autism Clinic

two therapists working with child on iPad

WIU's Autism Clinic of Excellence (ACE)

Autism Clinic Services
Contact & Staff
Steps for Parents
Speech-Language Hearing Clinic
Psychology Clinic
Resources
WACE Grant Funding
Research

Autism Clinic Services

Psychoeducational Evaluations

WIU's Autism Clinic of Excellence (WACE) provides FREE autism evaluations for children between 0-8 years. The primary focus is for children who have not yet received an evaluation elswhere. If your child is school-aged we recommend you see our resources for other steps to take.

WACE is grant funded thanks to the generous contributions of the Fellheimer Funds which helped us launch our clinic operations in Fall 2023. The continued support of the clinic at this time is provided by the Tracy Family Foundation and UMC Fellheimer Fund. Due to this, our funding supports residents in the following counties: Adams, Brown, Cass, Greene, Hancock, McDonough, Morgan, Pike, Schuyler, and Scott counties. If you are a resident from another county, please contact us directly for more information.

The process for an evaluation is two parts consisting of a two-hour screening appointment which will consist of a hearing screening, behavior observations, parent interview, and language sampling. The screening appointment will provide families with a brief written report and guidance on next steps.

For families that are advised for further testing, a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation will be scheduled. This assessment will include a cognitive assessment, full speech and language evaluation, autism specific evaluation, and review of adaptive and behavioral functioning.

All appointment will be conducted by a team consisting of at least one speech-language pathologist and one school psychologist with graduate students in training. The estimated time for an evaluation is 2-3 hours but varies by age and cooperation.

Parent(s)/Guardian(s) are required to be present.

*WACE does not conduct full psychological evaluations or evaluate for other potential clinical diagnoses.

ECHO for Autism

We are excited to announce we will be launching ECHO for Autism in January 2026! This is an exciting new endeavor that will support early childcare providers and educators through a case-based learning model with virtual access across Illinois.

How it Works

- Educators learn through de-identified case presentations through an interactive virtual format
- Learn and share best practice approaches for early intervention and educational strategies for supporting neurodivergent children.

Meet your Hub Team:

- Nicole Pierson, Speech Language Pathologist (nm-pierson@wiu.edu)
- Leigh Ann Fisler, School Psychologist and BCBA (la-fisler@wiu.edu)
- Keri Devolder, ECHO Project Facilitator (autism-clinic@wiu.edu)
- Drew Leathers, Occupational Therapist
- Nicole Wikoff, Special Education Teacher
- Carolyn Hoffer, Social Worker and BCBA
- Getty Opoku-Mensah, Parent

ECHO Schedule

Mondays beginning January 12th from 3:45-5pm (and running for 8 weeks).

If you are interested in signing up for the ECHO for Educators group with WACE, please submit your interest via this form.

Parent Groups

Weekly parenting groups will be offered during the Fall 2025 semester. The commitment for the groups is participation for 9 weeks with groups meeting on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 5:30-6:30pm. Snacks and childcare will be provided.

Groups will meet on the following dates:

September 25th (Thu)
October 2nd (Thu)
October 7th (Tue)*
October 16th (Thu)
October 23rd (Thu)
October 28th (Tue)*
November 6th (Thu)
November 13th (Thu)
November 18th (Tue)*

If you have questions, our preferred method of contact is by email: autism-clinic@wiu.edu.

Location

Memorial Hall (2nd floor) - Macomb Campus

Hours

Appointments are held on Fridays between 9:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m during the academic year.

Schedule an Evaluation

If you are interested in an evaluation of autism for your child, please complete and submit the following intake form (Jotform). Once we receive this form, we will respond within within 5 business days to complete an initial screening to determine next steps in the evaluation process. Please allow for additional time if a request is submitted over a weekend or holiday break. The University (and Clinic) will be closed for the Fall break the week of November 24th and will return calls from the break in December.

Contact & Staff

Contact

Please contact the Autism Clinic by email at autism-clinic@wiu.edu or if you have not heard a response within two weeks please contact us through the Speech Clinic at (309) 298-1955. We do anticipate longer than normal response times during the summer and winter breaks; please be patient with us as we have limited staff available during this time.

Staff

Leigh Ann Fisler, PhD, BCBA, NCSP
Associate Professor, School Psychologist and Behavior Analyst

Dr. Fisler completed her B.A. in Psychology from Syracuse University and a PhD in School Psychology from University of California, Riverside. has worked with children and young adults with autism for 16 years. During this time, she has provided early intervention services, behavioral support, family consultation, conducted psychoeducational evaluations, and provided group social and life skills training. Dr. Fisler completed her post-doctoral training with experience at UCLA with the PEERS® program and continues to provide college and career support for autistic young adults.

Nicole Pierson, EdD, MS, CCC-SLP/L
Speech-Language Pathologist, Instructor, Internship Coordinator

Dr. Pierson earned her EdD in Educational Leadership in Organizational Justice, Equity, and Inclusion as well as her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Western Illinois University. Dr. Pierson has experience working with preschool- 4th grade students with a variety of speech and language impairment and is committed to pro-neurodiverse approaches to intervention. This means that neurodiversity is valued and each child honored as a person.

Graduate Assistants

Cassidy Fawcett, 1st year School Psychology graduate assistant
Kelsey McClallen, 1st year Speech Pathology graduate assistant
Vanessa Mojica, 2nd year School Psychology graduate assistant
Jennifer Yoon, 2nd year Speech Pathology graduate assistant

Steps for Parents to Take

NOTE: The information below is intended for general informational purposes only, and is not an endorsement of the organizations or services listed. The information provided is not intended to nor does it constitute legal or medical advice. Please consult a lawyer or doctor if you require legal or medical advice. Reasonable efforts have been exercised to provide current information for the resources given.

If you think your child might have autism or a development delay, refer to the following.

Under Age 3

Early Intervention (EI) services provide a developmental evaluation to determine if your child is eligible for supports and services.

Regional Office of Education (ROE) 26

ROE 26 Early Beginnings provide developmental services for Fulton, Hancock, McDonough, and Schuyler counties.

Main Office Phone: (309) 575-3226
View additional contact information.

Parent & Child Together (PACT) for West Central Illinois

PACT provides home and center based developmental services for ages 0-5.

Macomb Office Phone: (309) 298-3143

Ages 3 and over

Request a School District Assessment by submitting a written request for an assessment to your principal or special education director.
The school has 15 working days to respond to the request and may confirm or deny the request. This process will often be conducted during what is called a Domain Meeting. If they confirm the request, they will create an assessment plan and send it to you to sign.
When you return the signed assessment plan, the district has 60 working days to complete the assessment and set up a date to meet with you about the results in a formal Individual Education Plan (IEP) meeting.
If you child qualifies for services: an Individual Education Plan will be created.
- If your child does NOT qualify for services: You should speak to your district about options and accommodations or you can request an evaluation outside of the school district.

Speech-Language Hearing Clinic

Services

Speech and Language therapy (individual and group)
Parent support groups
Audiological services
Child based activities

Learn more about the Speech-Language Hearing Clinic.

Psychology Clinic

Services

Comprehensive psychological testing for adults ages 18 or older
Individual psychotherapy for children and adults
Couples and family therapy
Group based support
Consultation

Learn more about the Psychology Clinic.

Resources

Stay Informed, the Facts about Autism- WACE discourages misinformation about autism and values the importance of neurodiversity. We encourage connecting families to resources and appropriate evidence-based interventions and supports. For more information, we encourage families to read through the various resources shared here: https://updates.apaservices.org/autism

The Autism Program of Illinois- serves autistic individuals and supports families through a network of providers.
https://tap-illinois.org/

Autism Navigator- To help with the early signs of autism, family resources, and professional courses.
https://autismnavigator.com/

American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA)- and the Importance of understanding the challenges with communication and social skills for autistic children.
https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/autism/

Child Mind Institute- What is Applied Behavior Analysis with clinical experts Dr. Susan Epstein and Dr. Catherine Lord
https://childmind.org/article/what-is-applied-behavior-analysis/

Wrights Law- Navigating the IEP Process
https://www.wrightslaw.com/info/iep.index.htm

How To Get An IEP- To help with understanding the process of getting an IEP at a school and understand what is an IEP. https://www.understood.org/en/articles/how-to-get-iep

'Red flags' For Autism- Brief list of poteintal 'red flags' (what to look out for).https://www.tclny.org/red-flags-of-autism

What Does Speech Language Therapy Entail-To help understand what speech therapy is and how it can help.https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22366-speech-therapy

WACE Grant Funding

View the news releases for details.

We are greatful for continued funding from the Tracy Family Foundation (TFF), and the 2025-2026 academic year brings exciting new projects! The first is that we are jumping in to launch an ECHO Autism Hub here at WIU, here's a sneakpeak from our most recent training where we joined 10 other organizations to learn how to support and grow with resources for the autism community.

Research

WACE will regularly post and update available research opportunities for families here. WACE does not endorse any particular research group or experience. Family participation in research opportunities are considered volunteer. However, connecting families with research opportunities helps further the research knowledge available to the autism and neurodiverse community. We hope these resources are beneficial to you and others. If you have additional research opportunities to share, please email the clinic at autism-clinic@wiu.edu

1. Organization for Autism Research (OAR): Available research opportunities

2. SPARK: Simons Foundation Power Autism Research and Knowledge: Semel Institute Research

3. Autism Science Foundation: Various research, search by region and type

4. Autism Research Institute: Various research, updated regularly