Nevada Act Early

About Us

The Nevada State Learn the Signs. Act Early (NvLTSAE) is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiative with an aim to improve early identification of children with autism and other developmental disabilities so children and families can get the services and support they need. NvLTSAE was developed in 2011 and the mission is to educate and bring awareness to parents, healthcare professionals and educators in all communities across Nevada about early warning signs of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Steering Committee is comprised of parents and professionals across Nevada.  Since the inception we have held three annual summits and are developing other projects. Primary outcomes from the summits include: (1) children are identified earlier (reduce time between first concern and diagnosis), (2) individuals of all geographical locations have access to evidence-based, culturally competent, family centered services and care that assure optimal outcomes, and (3) professionals and families collaborate across disciplines, agencies, and a statewide system of care.

NvLTSAE has two goals:  1) Address outcome one from the summit to identify children earlier and 2) continue to maintain a statewide, sustainable system for the early identification of children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders by convening a second NvLTSAE summit of stakeholders.

Projects undertaken by NvLTSAE include the following:

  1. Develop eight training modules to be housed on the LTSAE website for continuing education of childcare workers. We are working with Nevada Registry so childcare providers can get continuing education units.
  2. A pilot to develop an integrated online screening system in which childcare workers and parents will have access to the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. We will begin with four sites that will have each have one system and there will be one oversight site to monitor the entire system. This will be conducted on a pilot basis prior to developing more sites.
  3. Train multidisciplinary assessment teams across the state for explicit diagnosis of autism to have consistency across regions and agencies.

Contact Us:  If you have questions, please contact Stacy Tello-Gomez at stacyt@unr.edu.

We gratefully acknowledge the State of Nevada Maternal and Child Health Program in financing some of the projects of NvLTSAE.