Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is widely recognized as a safe and effective treatment for autism, Down Syndrome, and other diagnoses. Recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate a 178% increase in school-age children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from 1 in 150 in 2002 to 1 in 54 in 2016″. This statistic highlights the growing need for effective treatment environments.
As more families seek out centers to help improve the lives of their children who are neurodivergent, including those with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome, it’s essential that organizations are able to provide a customized and low-stress environment for individuals of all ages.
Thoughtful autism therapy center design can play an important role in helping centers create a positive setting for their patients and employees alike. However, did you know that using custom theming can enhance your organization’s business practices as well? Custom theming can become an all-in-one solution to address your organizational goals, whether it be through increasing patient experiences and building retention, expanding your organization’s marketing campaign, or finding ways to build your donor list.
Let’s get into how applying custom theming can address each of these goals.
Enhance Patient Experiences and Build Retention in Your Autism Therapy Center
ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, can be a difficult struggle for children, making the environment and atmosphere in which they receive treatment incredibly important for their overall experience.
Custom theming has become widely popular as an effective way to create a stimulating atmosphere for ASD patients. By using unique decor and furnishings of specific colors, shapes, textures, and sizes that may be beneficial to ASD individuals, centers can truly create a warm and inviting space focused on their individual needs.
Furthermore, certain activities such as crafting, playing games, and reading books are personalized to their interests while different aromatherapy techniques like scent diffusing can also have calm and revitalizing effects on ASD kids. Themed centers can make the patient experience more enjoyable and effective for ASD kids allowing them to focus on the genuine care being provided by the staff.
By improving patient experience, you are directly showing your kids, and especially, the parents, that you genuinely care about how the child feels when they’re at your facility.
Custom theming can help enhance not only the experience of their time at your facility but also the outcomes through the practical uses provided by it. In turn, the parents will recognize the effort being put in and be less likely to want to transfer their child to a different location. These parents may also become advocates for your organization and create new potential clients to come to your facility.
Expand Your Organization’s Marketing Campaigns Through Custom Theming Strategies
Custom theming can be an effective way to strengthen the marketing campaigns for autism centers, as it adds a personalized touch that resonates with ASD clients and their families. By carefully considering the tone, logo, visuals, and messaging in their campaign designs and content, ASD centers can create cohesive experiential campaigns that — when paired with content tailored to ASD stakeholders — provide an effective, meaningful approach to outreach. Not only does this help ASD centers build relationships with those they serve, but it further shows commitment to everyone involved in the effort.
Custom theming is not only tied to the marketing efforts of the organization but can provide an opportunity for organic marketing growth, specifically when it comes to user-generated content.
User-generated content is made up of photos, videos, or public comments made about your organization that visitors have made online. These can provide organic branches for your marketing campaign to help promote your organization, especially if your facility has built-in photo ops within its space. A fun environment can invite parents to take photos of their child within your space and share it online for others to see and potentially tag you within their posts. This can help grow your organization’s marketing effort and provide eyes to your facility.
Ultimately, custom theming offers autism centers a way to differentiate themselves from competitors; create a unique identity; increase brand recognition; maximize engagement; and drive success for both short-term and long-term marketing goals. This leads to our next point…
Enhance Fundraising and Donor Engagement for Autism Support Centers
If your organization is dependent on the charity of others, this is especially important. Having an increase in funding can allow your organization to improve its resources, provide more opportunities, and most importantly, create an all-in-all better experience for your clients attending your facility.
With custom-theming provides a quality patient experience and pairing that with the marketing potential of having a themed design can provide, it can heavily improve the image that your facility outputs. Having a healthy and attractive image will give potential donors a reason to notice and provide support to your facility. Especially showing the amount of effort being put into the betterment of your clients, donors will recognize your hard work and the outcomes that come out of it.
This attention doesn’t stop at only potential donors but can create a spotlight for potential sponsorships from other organizations to help your facility. These sponsorships can create new branches within your marketing campaigns and feed into the cycle of new eyes, new donors, and new improvements to your facility.
The Impact of Custom Theming on Autism Therapy Centers: A Summary
No matter what size autism center you’re running, the importance of creating a space that considers your individual clientele can have a tremendous amount of positive impact. A comprehensive study found that early intervention programs for very young children with autism, some as young as 18 months, significantly improve IQ, language ability, and social interaction.
Custom theming can provide patients and families with comfort and therapeutic benefits while also furthering your organization’s marketing efforts, and donor list, and building customer retention. Investing in custom theming is an investment in the patient experience and can pay off greatly; just make sure to keep the focus on your key demographics needs when designing your space.
Here at Imagination Design Studios, we understand that custom theming isn’t always easy, so if you’re having a hard time visualizing how this might come together for your autism center or build out work within a budget visit our website to speak to one of our creative consultants today! We are here to help you create an innovative, therapeutic, and welcoming atmosphere for all those utilizing your services.
Dave Nolan, the President of IDS, is a father of two sons, one of whom has autism. While navigating dental and medical appointments, he noticed the heightened stress and anxiety his son experienced when entering unfamiliar environments. This observation led him to wonder, “There must be a way to improve this experience for children in similar situations.” At Imagination Design Studios, our “Why” is driven by our deep belief in the transformative power of positive, welcoming neurodivergent-friendly environments in a child’s development.
Interested in learning more? Check out these related resources on themed environments and their benefits:
5 Ways to Improve Pediatric Patient Experience in Your Medical Clinic
Pediatric Therapy Facility Decor Inspiration
Keep Guests on Track with 7 Types of Fun Wayfinding Signage for Pediatric Healthcare Spaces
