two therapists working with child on iPad

WIU's Autism Clinic of Excellence (ACE)

Autism Center 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 Galesburg Community Foundation, the Community Foundation of West Central Illinois and the Tracy Family Foundation. Due to this, our funding supports residents in the following counties: Adams, Brown, Cass, Greene, Hancock, Knox, McDonough, Morgan, Pike, Schuyler, Scott, and Warren. 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. 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 spring break and not conducting referral and intake calls between March 8th- March 16th 2025. We will respond to any requests submitted during the spring break upon our return the week of March 17th.