Last spring, two Japanese dignitaries visiting the University of Kansas came upon CMC psychology professor Marjorie Charlop-Christy's 1997 treatment manual, How to Treat the Child with Autism: A Guide to Treatment at the Claremont Autism Center, at the campus bookstore. They read about a tiny facility at a liberal arts college that was using a small staff of student researchers and a shoestring budget to treat children with autism—with very positive results. Impressed, the foreign dignitaries got in touch with the professor and arranged a trip to the center before their flight home.

The Claremont Autism Center may be but a blip on the campus map, occupying the few modest rooms on the first floor of Seaman Hall that comprise the Leon Strauss Foundation Autism Clinic, but its sphere of influence is large. It is the only such center in the country housed within a liberal arts college, and one of the few in the nation conducting both treatment and research. What defines it, however, is the staff of college students who participate through practicum courses, working directly with children with autism.

It's a warm afternoon in the cramped "office" Charlop-Christy shares with the center—children's toys are scattered across the floor, and their artwork lines the walls. A few of the enrolled children play with stick ponies and chalk outside the main door while an older, "high-functioning" child (implying unusually good communication skills) entertains the staff with make-believe stories.

Charlop-Christy has been involved in researching autism for three decades. She began as a sophomore at UCLA in a behavior modification course with autism expert O. Ivar Lovaas. "Everything he said about autism fascinated me," she recalls. "So I did something similar to what I offer my students. I enrolled in his practicum class and worked with autistic kids, and I have been working with them ever since, here for 17 years."

At any time there are about nine children enrolled at the center, starting no later than age 6. "As a general rule, the earlier you can get to them, the easier it is to treat them," she says. Treatment lasts about three years, with emphasis on speech and communication, socialization skills, and motivation to learn. "If we can make a dent in those areas," says the professor, "then the child is well on his way to learning in a natural environment."

"There is a lot of latitude in what an undergraduate can do here," says Grace Werner '02, a psychology major. "I do therapy with the kids myself, and with the added supervision and mentoring in a clinical setting, you're turned into a paraprofessional, which is phenomenal."

Charlop-Christy grabs a project made by a student: cardboard displaying glued-on coins, and the value of the coins inked in black. It's much more than an elementary math tool built by a particularly CMC-trained mind, she explains. It's first and foremost a communication tool. "By nature, children with autism are not social beings. They don't play with others, and they don't communicate. This forces kids to learn how to interact with new people, and people with different personalities.

The autism center's Jennifer Snyder with a young client.