If you have a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or if you think your child might have ASD, the Autism Spectrum Center at Boston Children’s Hospital is here to help. We partner with families:
- to diagnose ASD as early as possible
- to provide the best integrated care for children at every age
- to support the best possible quality of life for children with ASD and their families
- to help children with ASD reach their full potential
- to create new models of coordinated, autism-friendly clinical care and training
- to develop earlier and more accurate diagnostic tools
- to discover the causes of ASD and find new treatments through one of the most active autism research centers in the world.
Boston Children’s approach to autism
We provide comprehensive, family centered diagnostic and care services for children with autism spectrum disorder, together with strong family support. Depending on your child’s needs, we can coordinate visits with autism specialists such as developmental behavioral pediatricians, child neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, geneticists, and gastroenterologists, as well as physical, occupational, and speech and language therapists. If you already have a health care provider you like, we can provide any medical services you need to fill in the gaps.
Autism Spectrum Center services
Families and providers can get information and access all our services through our one-stop phone line: 617-355-7493. Learn about scheduling and the intake process. Our ASD services include:
- diagnostic evaluation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- neurologic and developmental evaluations
- ongoing management of ASD symptoms
- specialty care for conditions related to autism, such as epilepsy, gastrointestinal disorders, and genetic and neurogenetic conditions
- recommendations and referrals for autism-specific developmental, educational, communication, and therapeutic services
- assistance with feeding, toileting, sleep, and other difficulties
- speech and language evaluations and treatments through our Center for Communication Enhancement and Autism Language Program
- medication management and psychopharmacology consultations
- occupational and physical therapy
What sets Boston Children’s Hospital Autism Spectrum Center apart?
Children can be seen by a provider in any three specialty areas for diagnosis and ongoing care: developmental pediatrics, child neurology, or psychology. All are equally trained and follow the same clinical guidelines. Our Center for Communication Enhancement has a specialized Autism Language Program that supports families with communication needs.
Help children with ASD
With more and more children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, it’s important to find effective treatments and other ways of improving quality of life now and into adulthood. There are many ways families can join us in this effort:
Participate in ASD research
Learn about current studies on our research page. We also welcome you to add your family's information to our Research Participant Registry. Doing so does not commit you to join a study; it simply allows us to notify you when an appropriate study comes up. (On the form, please specify “autism” or “ASD” in the field asking for “any other information we might need to know.”) For more information, please contact our recruitment associate at 857-218-3011 or email brainworks@childrens.harvard.edu.
Contact the Autism Spectrum Center with ideas for future lectures
These presentations given by our expert faculty and guests cover a wide variety of topics on autism that are important to our families.
Support our work
For information on making donations to the Autism Spectrum Center and its research, contact Melanie Torosyan (melanie.torosyan@chtrust.org or 617-355-4102).
