About Us

Why is Beautiful Gate Center™ needed?

The Beautiful Gate Center™ will fill a critical gap in developmental education for individuals with special needs in South Carolina by creatively and expertly delivering a best–practice, center-based program and therapy clinic to an underserved population of special needs children and youth, ages 3-21, with moderate to severe Developmental Disabilities, Autism and other learning difficulties.

Critical and Unmet Need for Significantly-Impacted Students

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Based upon first-hand experience with their own child, the founders of Beautiful Gate Center™ have identified a gap in the services available in the Charleston, South Carolina tri–county area, and across South Carolina, for children whose Developmental Disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder have resulted in intellectual disability, profound communication difficulties and/or behavioral challenges and who, therefore, need a specialized, intensive learning environment to enable developmental progress that will lead them to greater independence and a fulfilling quality of life. Because many children with Developmental Disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorders are intellectually disabled (ID), non-verbal or have functional communication challenges, and may have significant behavioral barriers, they are either pre–academic or significantly academically delayed. Many have never been exposed to pre–literacy or literacy programs as they mostly work on learning group skills or basic life skills such as toileting, eating, dressing, motor planning, social skills and the like. These same children typically do not deal well with learning or social environments that are busy or noisy, cluttered, are uncomfortable or that have many people in them. For such children, traditional special education offerings are often not appropriately focused or adequately equipped, and are unable to provide the level or quantity of therapy the child requires to enable developmental success. Nevertheless, despite their challenges, such children are very capable of learning – if they are given necessary environmental, behavioral, communication and other supports. Beautiful Gate Center™ is poised to fill this gap in developmental education for these children in South Carolina.

Critical and Unmet Need for Parents and Families

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Beautiful Gate Center™ also desires to have a significant and positive impact on the families of its participants.

In the world of raising and teaching a special needs child, many parents are forced to seek additional therapies and supports for their child outside of their normal educational setting because their child’s needs and developmental progress are not being met in their existing educational setting or extended school year (ESY) and, often, because the needs of the student are more intensive than can be effectively met in traditional special education classrooms.

Based upon a variety of medical, school, government and therapist recommendations, parents are forced to devote many hours a week to coordinating and accessing a variety of therapies across multiple environments with the hope that their children would have the ability to accomplish developmental milestones, work through behaviors, keep up with peers and be able participate in school activities and have a successful school year.

The difficult and practical reality of the “outside of school” approach is that coordinating and communicating with multiple therapists across multiple environments, while at the same time trying to be the in-home teacher and support speech and behavior interventions outside of school hours – not to mention hold a job and be a parent – becomes a full time job and is exhausting in every way for the parent and caregiver. Over time it is an unsustainable solution that leads to a low quality of life.

Beautiful Gate Center™ is poised to mitigate this difficult situation for the parents by coordinating and managing multiple therapy disciplines within one learning environment in a single, full–day, year-round learning center. The simplification and time savings for parents is an immediate and significant improvement in quality of life for the whole family!