Center for Autism & Developmental Disabilities at Touro University Nevada

Pediatric ABA Therapy

Early Intervention is Key When Your Children are Not Meeting Milestones

Your child deserves the opportunity to reach their potential. The Sharon Sigesmund Pierce and Stephen Pierce Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities at Touro University Nevada (The Pierce Autism Center at Touro) is here to help with an evidence-based, team-centered approach. Located in Henderson, Nevada, the center offers applied behavioral analysis services to Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada area.

Applied Behavioral Analysis Services

The Pierce Autism Center presently offers applied-behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy to children aged 18 months up to 18 years of age, treating patients from all demographics. ABA therapy helps us understand and improve socially significant behaviors, reducing problem behaviors and increasing social and communication skills.

Learn more about our ABA therapy services

About Us

Woman doing sign language with young girl

According to the Center for Disease Control, 1 in 36 children are born on the autism spectrum. This means approximately 800 children are born each year in Clark County Nevada on the autism spectrum (based on calculation: worldpopulationreview.com and healthysouthernnevada.org). The demand for services within Clark County, Nevada far exceeds the services available in the area. The population for which the Pierce Center for Autism is supporting are the families and children diagnosed with autism and/or a developmental disability.

In 2007, the Touro University Nevada senior leadership seized the opportunity to provide autism services to young children and hired an Occupational Therapist thereby launching a clinical autism center at Touro University Nevada in December of that year. Also in 2007, the State legislature passed a bill whereby autism spectrum disorders were to be covered as a medical benefit as opposed to a behavioral benefit.

The center for autism was the first to contract with Health Plan of Nevada in 2008 to cover autism as a medical benefit. The need for services for children with disabilities grew quickly and additional providers were hired in the areas of speech and language pathology, neuropsychology, and behavioral therapy. This created Nevada’s first multi-disciplinary center for autism and developmental disabilities.

On June 29, 2016, Touro University Nevada’s autism center unveiled its new name with newly renovated space. The autism center was renamed the Sharon Sigesmund Pierce and Stephen Pierce Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (Pierce Autism Center) in honor of the major donors.  

The mission of the Pierce Autism Center is to provide our patients and their families with the support and services they need to reach their full potential using an evidence-based, team-centered approach.