Child First Autism

Why Child First Autism

The Vision

I've worked with children and families in a therapeutic capacity since 2004, and in 2009, I took my first post-graduate job as a psychologist at a busy community mental health center. Families traveled from across several counties for the specialized services offered there, and it was in that role that I began completing diagnostic evaluations for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Back then, insurance rarely covered the interventions these children needed most. I spent countless hours diagnosing young children, only to tell their families that the most effective treatments weren't covered and were prohibitively expensive, after they had worked so hard and traveled so far just to get an answer.

A few years later, thanks to the tireless efforts of parents, insurance coverage for ASD services expanded significantly. Demand soared almost overnight, faster than providers could keep up with. Insurance companies began requiring an official diagnosis, using specific testing measures, before a child could qualify for services. But there were still too few trained diagnostic providers, and wait lists grew long. Even now, years later, that demand has only grown, and the wait times still haven't caught up.

I've been conducting telehealth ASD evaluations since 2023, and I've heard this story again and again from the families I serve: a two-year-old with a 6-, 12-, or even longer-month wait just to begin the diagnostic process, before therapy can even start. Research is clear that early intervention matters most for young children with developmental delays, yet families are told to wait a year or more before treatment can even begin.

I started Child First Autism to close that gap. Telehealth allows me to bring diagnostic services to families nearly anywhere in the country, including rural and underserved areas that would otherwise require significant travel. It also means faster access, without waiting on building schedules or staff availability, and often a truer picture of a child, evaluated in the comfort of their own home, acting like themselves.

My hope is simple: to help children get the right diagnosis, and the right care, as early as possible.

About Dr. Angela Capuano

Dr. Angela Capuano is a licensed clinical psychologist and board certified behavior analyst-doctoral. She has over 15 years of experience in providing mental health treatment and evaluations for children, teenagers, and adults. Dr. Capuano is a well-rounded clinician with training in several evidence-based models of treatment, such as Applied Behavior Analysis, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), and PEERS® Social Skills training.

Dr. Capuano is also a well-trained evaluator, completing thousands of comprehensive psychological assessments across a wide range of purposes. She has been trained on the ADOS-2 and ADI-R and has expertise in differential diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

She completed her undergraduate training at Miami University in Ohio and earned her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Bowling Green State University. She completed an accredited internship in Louisville, Kentucky. She completed her behavior analysis coursework at the University of North Texas.

In addition to clinical work, Dr. Capuano is also an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and serves on a leadership panel for a federally funded Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disorders (LEND) program. She has publications in peer-reviewed journals and a textbook chapter and is often an invited speaker on a variety of topics.