Pediatrics Plus to open farms in Little Flock, Elm Springs

Pediatrics Plus, a Conway-based pediatric health care provider, plans to expand its nature-based therapy platform to Northwest Arkansas. Pediatrics Plus operates farms in Bryant, Cabot and Conway. Bryant was the first, opening in 2023.

The Farm combines traditional services such as speech, occupational, and physical therapy, and applied behavioral analysis with nature-based therapy.

The first of its kind in Northwest Arkansas will be at 3415 N. Dixieland Road in Little Flock, near Rogers. It will be followed by a location in Elm Springs, near Springdale. Pediatrics Plus was founded in 2002 by Amy and Todd Denton.

CEO Scott Street said Pediatrics Plus began with 16 clients and has since grown to serve over 6,000 children annually. Most clients are from a few months to 6 years old. However, The Farm’s clients can exceed 10 years old.

Street said the number of clients continues to rise amid strong demand for its services, which are provided through a collaborative model at each location. Pediatrics Plus has 12 Arkansas locations, one in Texas and one in Oklahoma, and two planned for the coming months, including Elm Springs and Searcy.

“We created a growth plan about a year ago,” Street said. “And that growth plan is a majority applied behavior analysis growth. In the world of autism, we see there is such a demand for those services … One in 30 children are diagnosed to be on the autism spectrum. The demand is incredible, and we’re trying to service that demand. That’s why our growth plan focuses about 95% of that plan with the autism platform that we’ve created, and The Farm is that platform.”

NEW LOCATION
The Farm in Little Flock will open Sept. 22 and include a 12,000-square-foot, single-story farmhouse on 17 acres. Pediatrics Plus is investing between $3 million and $4 million in the new location, with the property accounting for a significant portion of the cost.

“The farmhouse is intentionally designed to be a home, to feel like a home,” Street said. “We feel like this is so unique that to us it fits extremely well with Northwest Arkansas. Having lived there and knowing that area very well and the growth of Northwest Arkansas, it is something that we think will fit very well. And it does separate us. It separates how we care for clients and our children because of the uniqueness of it and the environment, the exposure to the outdoors, the exposure to all the amenities that we plan to have on The Farm.”

It will have five to six board-certified behavioral analysts who will oversee five to six registered behavioral therapists, each of whom will have one client. Total staff will range between 75 and 80, with a client capacity of more than 100. Pediatrics Plus has a total of 1,200 staff.

He said the new location is accepting clients and that 40% of referrals come from parents. He said clients must receive a physician referral, but they can be assigned to an existing location.

Pediatrics Plus has operated an outpatient site in Rogers since 2022, and it will relocate to The Farm in Little Flock on Sept. 22. Street said a temporary Springdale location will be opened. Groundbreaking is planned for later this year for The Farm in Elm Springs.

‘A FARM STATE’
The Farm in Little Flock will include vegetable gardens and greenhouses, a barn and a chicken coop. The coop will accommodate chickens, and the barn will accommodate animals such as sheep, goats and miniature horses. Street said that at the Conway location, everything is miniature to accommodate the ages of the children who are clients.

Other features of The Farm include walking trails, outdoor play areas, traditional therapy gyms and interactive play areas.

“Arkansas is a farm state,” Street said. “That’s another innovative thing that we know relates to Arkansas and then Oklahoma where we’ll also put a number of farms and then the growth in Texas as well. There’s a lot of farm synergy, especially in Arkansas and in Northwest Arkansas.”

He said the level of therapy being provided at The Farm is unique and incorporates aspects of farm life. Most of its clients don’t live on farms.

“When they come to our farm, they’ll spend most of the day on site,” he said. “Not only are they doing inside activities like sitting at the table having a meal, which a lot of these clients and children don’t even have that opportunity in their own homes. They’re actually making food that they’re eating, and they do some chores inside the farmhouse. Then, therapy continues to take place.”

The therapy that takes place outside includes taking care of an animal or picking vegetables from a garden. Clients wash and prepare vegetables to eat. “That’s therapy that’s taking place with that client,” Street said. “They don’t even know that that therapy is taking place because the chores and the activities they’re doing … brushing the animals, taking care of the animals — we found it very not only entertaining but it’s very therapeutic as well.”

A farmhand works at each location to oversee the animals and gardens. Each location hosts a farmers market for the families of clients. This allows the children to sell the produce that they grow. He noted that the market isn’t open to the public to reduce traffic at each campus.

REAL-WORLD SKILLS
Street said The Farm’s therapy goals transfer into real-world skills, including tending a garden, navigating outdoor terrain, and communicating with peers and adults in the tasks.

Years ago, the vision from Pediatrics Plus’ owners and other leaders was “to step out of the box and think of ways to provide therapy in a unique manner that captures … a lot of core values within our organization,” Street said. “Tying all those things together drove to think about being outside. Most ABA companies in America today are in strip malls with asphalt parking lots, and that’s it.”

Site visits and looking at best practices throughout the region led to The Farm idea, he said. With the therapy goals that translate into real-world skills and agriculture-focused activities that most of the children wouldn’t otherwise take part in, “we just felt like it was a win-win,” Street said. “So far it has been very successful.”

With the expansion of The Farm to Northwest Arkansas, Street said Pediatrics Plus will provide the next generation of services to the growing region.

“We feel it fits with everything going on with the Walmart investment in Northwest Arkansas and the innovation and growth,” he said. “That’s another connection point of why we feel this is the right time, the right spot. We have been there. It’s not that we’re coming from the outside in. We’ve been in Northwest Arkansas … and it’s time for … the next generation of services that we’ve been providing.”