More than 8,000 families are registered with the Center for Autism and Related Services at the University of Central Florida, but experts say there are many undiagnosed throughout Central Florida.
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According to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 68 children in the nation fall somewhere on the autism spectrum.
Jonathan Eichenholz, 9, always gets a warm welcome at Nemours Children's Hospital. Jonathan was diagnosed with autism at age 3. Like many autistic kids, he has difficulty in social settings, but his biggest struggle was learning to talk, something his mother says did not come easily.
"He understood things, but he couldn't express it," said Robyn Eichenholz. "He really yearns to be social. He wants to talk to people."
This month, Nemours Children's Hospital launched an Early Autism Intervention program with $667,000 in funding from the state.
That money will be used to provide evaluations and then a roadmap for the necessary therapies.
The money will also yield evaluations for 100 Central Florida children regardless of the ability to pay, and it will train therapists and physicians outside of Nemours as well.
Child Neurologist Dr. Laufey Sigurdardottir said the grant will give 600 local autistic children an intensive regimen of at least 20 hours a week of applied behavior analysis, also known as ABA therapy.
"We most often will recommend ABA therapy, which is a proven comprehensive autism treatment program," said Sigurdardottir. "It turns out that you have to push them a little bit, and it's intensive therapy, so it's many hours a day working one-on-one with a child to get their attention."