ou can’t really blame a child who is learning to throw when she borrows the glasses from your face and tosses them across the room, especially when she does it with a smile and follows it up with a hug.
Duet Wyman is a four-year-old, nonverbal client at the clinic. She spent her hour-long session working on her catching and throwing, and practicing movement up and down slopes and over different padded surfaces. Ivy Lea, one of the clinic specialists, tossed Duet, giggling gleefully, up in the air when asked, especially after she finished one of her exercises.
Duet took several breaks to tell every person in the room, individually, that she loves them by wrapping her arms around herself in a hug, one of the signs she uses to communicate.
Since its creation in 2004, the people at the Chico State Autism Clinic have worked tirelessly to help children on the autism spectrum improve their motor skills. The goal is fairly straightforward: teaching children to develop the skills required for play.
But what happens in the clinic, and the community it has helped to create, is much more than that. There are very few places where such a beautiful current of radical love and acceptance is so vividly apparent.
The primary objective at the clinic is to help clients learn to access physical, play-based activities and skills by themselves, from riding a bicycle with their family to playing with their friends on the playground.
The employees at the clinic are all trained in a practice called adapted physical education, which begins by establishing goals for each child. Then, through one-on-one and group work, staff monitor and record data to track progress and modify activities to meet the child’s needs.
The Autism Clinic’s space in Yolo Hall is largely a colorful, semi-padded playground. There are slides, swings, balls, bats, balloons and even a small climbing wall. Your first instinct upon entering is to drop adulthood at the door and spend the next half-hour playing until you’re breathless.
The Chico State Department of Kinesiology operates the clinic. Each year, around 35 to 40 students from majors like psychology and child development assist the specialists in sessions with clients.
The three-credit class (KINE 520) allows students to gain hands-on experience working with autistic children and their families. Due to budget cuts, the class is only offered one semester a year now instead of two, according to the director of the clinic, Josie Blagrave.
The People
Rebecca Lytle was a professor in the kinesiology department when she started the clinic as part of a class focused on adapted physical education. Lytle directed the clinic until 2014, when Blagrave transitioned into the leadership role.
Blagrave was a graduate student at Chico State when the clinic started and has been involved in its operation in some capacity since then. Now, as the director, she oversees a staff of around 15 people, including employees and students. Her twin boys are on the autism spectrum and attend the teen group at the clinic.
She has many different challenges to work with now, like the operation and funding of the clinic. But with all the administrative work she does, it’s the children and families who motivate her every day.
“I miss it so much. I love it when I go down there, I love it when there’s a problem downstairs, I love it when they need my help,” Blagrave said. “I miss working with the families so much. I miss problem-solving with the kids. I miss all of it.”
There are currently three motor specialists at the Autism Clinic who work directly with clients. In both individual and group sessions, their focus, teamwork and passion are a wonder to witness.
Cam Lesslie, Ivy Lea and Laura Mitchell have a unique job. One moment, they will be pushing a client on a swing, teaching a group how to use exercise equipment or leading an impromptu dance party. Then they may have to shift focus to writing progress reports, filling out paperwork or figuring out how to make a new group session work.
“They’re magic down there right now. Those three work together so well. I think it’s helpful that all three came through our program and trained under all the same people,” Blagrave said. “They’re all such caring and like-minded individuals.”
Each day is a little different, and the work demands that they bring consistent energy and focus to each client’s session.
“You want to make this a fun experience for the kids, so they want to keep coming back,” Mitchell said. “So, you just have to find a way to turn it on.”
Lea agreed that the play mindset can be difficult to turn on and off at times. “But when you’re there with the kid, and you start to play, it comes back,” she said. “Add fun to it, and it’ll be fun for you too.”
During individual sessions, they are engrossed in the back-and-forth with their client. But during group sessions, they must work together to create a compelling and fun environment, while keeping everyone as focused as possible on the game or task at hand.
“I feel like we share a brain cell most of the time. That’s one of the things that I’ve appreciated most about this job, is how well we work together,” Lesslie said.
The Clients
Kat Wyman has been bringing her daughter, Duet, to the clinic since August 2025. Duet is non-verbal, but also extremely social.
She doesn’t need words to express her joy, wonder and love to everyone in the room. She does it with her smile, her sign language and all the hugs the people in her immediate vicinity can handle.
Duet is in school during the day, and throughout the week, Kat takes her to four separate places for more specific services. One is an applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapist. Another is the Little Red Hen, a local non-profit that serves adults and children with developmental disabilities. There, they work in a social-based group setting. At a speech therapist, they teach her sign language and work with a digital device that allows her to communicate by touching pictures.
The Autism Clinic is the most recent addition. At first, Kat wasn’t sure exactly what a service focused on gross-motor skills would provide. Just months later, she expressed how grateful she is that she can bring Duet and how important the work she does with the clinic is.
“I think it’s really invaluable, because at school she’s in a group setting, and a lot of the time she doesn’t get the attention that she’s receiving here,” Wyman said.
Duet is on the autism spectrum, but that is just part of her diagnosis. She has a rare, regressive neurological condition. Kat believes Duet is likely at her healthiest level now, and as she gets older, her health will decline. Kat said it is going to be important to keep her body strong and her movements comfortable for when she may develop movement issues.
In her short time at the clinic, Duet has already become more adventurous in her movement.
“It’s kind of fear-based. So, I think the more she’s running around here, the more confident she is in her body movements,” Kat said. “She would never kick a ball really before, and she’s been working with her to do that … Last time she was here, she didn’t want to leave.”
Jessica Hunt’s twin boys, Alex and Brandon, attend the teen group sessions. Like Duet, they first started going to the clinic when they were four years old.
“I walk in and see this place set up and realize, holy crap, I’m not an island. Josie [Blagrave] was just like, ‘We got you,’ and they did. Everybody that worked there made a connection with the twins,” Hunt said.
One year, someone bought Alex a set of Legos. He was able to finish putting it together with his mother’s help. When she told him how impressive it was, he looked up, smiled and said, “Josie,” to give credit to the person who had done so much to help him develop those skills.
Eventually, the twins met the goals that had been established for them in the one-on-one sessions. When this happens, the child effectively graduates to open up space for new clients.
“I literally cried my eyes out when they graduated, because I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Hunt said. “No one prepares you for that part. But then they got into the teen group and are just loving it and making connections.”
Last June, Alex and Brandon received their high school diplomas. Hunt made it a point to credit the Autism Clinic for much of their progress throughout the years.
“The autism clinic at Chico State is such a blessing to our community,” she said. “I feel incredibly lucky. There is a reason that we have not left Chico.”
The Process
There are currently 55 individual clients who attend the clinic, and a wait list with about 10 children on it. The list has had up to 22 names in the past. When that happens, it can take over a year for some families to receive services.
The clinic receives most of its clients as referrals from the Far Northern Regional Center. The center is one of 21 non-profit community agencies spread throughout the state to provide support for people with developmental disabilities and their families. They act as hubs to link individuals or families with services in their communities through government funding mechanisms.
Far Northern is effectively the main funding agency for the clinic. The center’s case managers refer families to the clinic, who perform assessments. If it is a fit, which it usually is, they will write a report recommending the family for services. Its work with the family would then be funded for six months before being reevaluated.
Each client has their own specific goals set for each semester. In the group sessions, there are some shared standards, but they are modified as needed. Since the employees are working one-on-one with clients, they train student observers to collect objective data on a client’s progress.
Despite work to establish goals and maintain structure, the team must also maintain a measure of flexibility. They may have an idea of what will work and then quickly realize the needs of the client require a change to their methods. In group settings, some personalities do not always mesh well. It requires a dynamic approach.
“Our goal is to meet the clients where they are, not to bring the clients to where we are. So, we’re always modifying things and adapting the environment to what they need,” Mitchell said.
The clients at the clinic have differing degrees of skill with verbal communication. For some, communication is almost entirely non-verbal. This can make it difficult to find a balance where a child is comfortable yet continuously challenged to improve.
Mitchell said that communication with family members and others in the child’s orbit can be extremely valuable. They are always willing to modify each skill they practice, as constantly as they must to meet the child’s needs.
The Money
Budgetary concerns at the clinic have led to several challenges, including employee turnover. Some years, Blagrave has to balance her role as director with the need to spend half of her time with clients due to staffing issues.
“Cameron and Ivy are credentialed teachers, and I can’t even give them pay that competes with that,” Blagrave said. “If I’m lucky, I may be able to get people to stay for two or three years, tops.”
The funding from the Far Northern Regional Center is based on a contract created 20 years ago. The clinic does not receive any funding from Chico State, but it also does not pay for the use of its spaces in Yolo Hall.
There is an ongoing change in the way funding works through Far Northern that may help in the long run. Based on the current contract, the clinic is paid a flat rate based on the number of clients it works with.
Far Northern has begun to move some families to a self-determination model, where the family receives a lump sum and then is able to choose which services to spend it on.
“Right now, if everyone was on self-determination, I could rework our budget, in theory, and make it not a 20-years-ago budget,” Blagrave said.
However, the contract stipulates the clinic cannot charge clients on self-determination any more than those on the old, more rigid system.
While both systems are in place, it is difficult to make changes, Blagrave said. She could begin to rework the contract with the belief that Far Northern would honor the current contract until it can be subbed out in the future. But everything has to go through its executive board, and there is a risk that they decide the contract is too demanding, that the services the clinic provides can be met by other means, and that its funding should be spent elsewhere.
“It’s a tightrope to walk,” she said. “But we don’t ever have a problem with people wanting to come.”
Nothing in the Autism Clinic’s contract with Far Northern prohibits them from receiving outside funding. It can accept money from outside donors or through potential agreements with the university.
The Future
Everyone needs to be able to play; to comfortably release their fear, trepidation and discomfort, and to immerse themselves in the beautiful freedoms of movement and friendship. Most of us take for granted what we’ve learned from the dynamics of play throughout our youth about communication, socialization, and pure, unadulterated fun.
For Blagrave, despite the challenges, the work she has put in at the clinic over the years has been incredibly rewarding. Families arrive, often extremely worried about the process of helping their child, but consistently end up developing networks of support that help them get to a point where they can simply live their lives again.
Nonetheless, she is always looking for ways to improve the clinic’s services.
“As we’ve been able to hear what more autistic individuals say about their experiences, my whole team and I have really leaned into making sure that what we’re doing falls more in line with that,” Blagrave said.
She spoke about how so many things have come full circle. Children she worked with at the clinic as a grad student are now young adults. She loves to see them out in the community and to know that some of them are now attending Butte College.
Blagrave hopes the clinic can develop further connections between its clients and Chico State. She hopes to establish a pipeline of sorts, where clients in the teen group develop the skills and confidence they would need to attend the university, and where the university develops the infrastructure and programs it would need to serve students who have come through the clinic.
“Ultimately, the goal is access to physical activity, and life-long physical activity for these kids,” Blagrave said. “So, whatever we need to be practicing with them for that to be successful, is what we do.”