PROGRESS: Pier Center for Autism settles into new space

Officials with the Pier Center had initially hoped to have the new, 11,600-square-foot building opened by the end of 2020, and although the exterior was finished in the fall of that year, the pandemic delayed the project's finish. They then hoped to have it ready by the early summer of last year. Delays set in again. 

The $1.5 million project was first announced in the fall of 2019. 

The Pier Center received sizable contributions from the community for the project, including a Missouri River Historical Development (MRHD) grant to acquire the land, a grant from the Siouxland Community Foundation to purchase equipment for the facility and a $150,000 Gilchrist Foundation matching grant. Central Bank gave the Pier Center another $25,000 last year.  

On Nov. 15, 2021, the new Pier Center, 3895 Stadium Drive, opened at last. 

The new facility has a mock apartment, where the kids learn how to handle everyday household tasks. "So kids can work on making the bed, putting away clothes, showering, making snacks, that kind of thing, and the room is set up exactly like an apartment," Pier Center Clinical Director Miranda Smalley said. 

There's also space to work on familiarizing the kids with appointments, and to improve their tolerance of visits to the dentist, doctor or barber -- there's a dentist's chair and light, a salon chair (complete with scissors, buzzers and cape) and a space for simulated doctor's appointments. 

"A lot of the stuff that we're working on, like the dentist -- is just like, opening your mouth and letting us touch your teeth with tools, letting us brush your teeth," Smalley said. "So it's less scary, when you're trying to do that preventative stuff with the dentist." 

The simulated appointments are staffed by a Pier Center therapist. With parents' permission, the hair-cutting appointments can be essentially real, with the therapist giving an actual haircut. This helps prepare kids for a visit to a regular hairdresser. 

"Some of our kids are able to kind of get their hair cut here," Smalley said. 

An indoor gym area, complete with a basketball hoop and trampolines, allows the kids to play even during the winter. In the social-skills room, staff and kids participate in "circle time," a sort of group instruction. "To make sure the kids can tolerate being around other kids, and that they're using that appropriate behavior," Smalley said. 

The Pier Center was founded in 2012, and remains the only provider in Sioux City to offer services tailored to the needs of kids with autism whose behaviors are seriously challenging. Staff at the Pier Center work on skills like communication and the aforementioned life skills, and on managing and minimizing challenging behavior. 

"This is really the only place from Sioux Falls to Omaha," Smalley said. 

Studies show 1 in 59 children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For boys, the ratio is 1 in 37, and for girls, 1 in 151.

Most Pier Center kids are between the ages of 4 and 16, though some have been as young as 2 and others as old as 22. 

Before moving to the substantially larger space at Stadium Drive, the Pier Center was housed in a former nun convent on Iowa Street. The old building had few of the amenities available in the new space, and staff often had to improvise -- for instance, due to a lack of dedicated space and equipment, simulated dentist appointments in the old building were often done with the kids lying on the floor. 

With the new building, staff have been able to provide more than 400 hours per week of therapy to the roughly 22 kids enrolled.