Autism services – can we move mountains?

I often hear parents say that they would move mountains to help their child thrive. But if you begin to suspect autism, what do you do? And how would you move mountains if the Appalachian Mountains stood between your child and an autism specialist?

You’ve heard about the signs of autism — perhaps your child is not making eye contact when someone walks in the door, not smiling back when others smile at them, not interested in playing pat-a-cake or peek-a-boo. Parents may turn to their pediatrician or their local school, who can then refer them to a specialist. But what happens when those resources are hundreds of miles away?

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), or autism, reflects an array of neurodevelopmental differences that impact one’s perceptions and responses to the social world. In the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control published in May 2025, about 1 in 31 children (3.2%) in the United States were identified as on the autism spectrum, reflecting an increasing trend over the last two decades as awareness and diagnostic tools have improved.

People are also reading…

Yet residents of rural communities across the United States remain significantly underserved, with community providers reporting that they have limited autism training, time, and funding.

Our research through the Virginia Tech Autism Clinic & Center for the Autism Research (VTAC/CAR) shows that Southwest Virginia is no exception. In our early work, we partnered with Mount Rogers Community Services (MRCS), which serves a large rural community of five counties and one city. This region is designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration as a “Health Professional Shortage” area for general mental health and medical providers. If specialized providers were also considered, the needle would likely move from a “shortage” to nearly a “desert.”

With MRCS, our research team conducted focus groups with parents of autistic children. They reported access barriers related to geographic isolation, limited transportation options, and costliness of services, resulting in a longer time to diagnosis, if ever diagnosed, along with delays for supportive interventions. In response, our research projects are designed to increase service accessibility, parent advocacy, and educator capacity to serve autistic people in rural communities.

Our group studies innovative ways to break down these barriers to increase access to affordable evidence-based services and to build upon the capacity of rural schools. We do this in three ways: 1) mobile services, 2) telehealth, and 3) professional development for general educators, while training the next generation of researchers and service providers.

In 2018, VTAC/CAR launched an innovative service delivery mechanism called the Mobile Autism Clinic. Graduate student clinicians travel to partner locations in Southwest Virginia to offer free, on-board autism assessments. For parents whose child receives an ASD diagnosis, we offer additional sessions with extensive feedback, recommendations, and information about best practices. Our program evaluation data showed that after receiving our mobile services, parents felt more knowledgeable and empowered to advocate for their child. Our telehealth assessments and Zoom-based teacher training projects in rural Virginia further aim to use technology to widen the reach of these services.

Our hope is that all people, no matter where they live, will have access to the services they need. In the end, we may not be able to move those mountains, but together with partners across Virginia, we can find better ways to move the services to you.

Angela Scarpa is professor of psychology and the founder and director of the Virginia Tech Autism Clinic and Center for Autism Research at Virginia Tech.

Catch the latest in Opinion

Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}