Spectrum Tailored Technologies

Creating a tool to help families with autistic children complete simple morning tasks in an engaging way

An EPIC project

Getting kids ready for school can be a challenge at the best of times, but when parents are dealing with additional factors, such as autism, the task can seem almost impossible.

Busy mum and PhD student, Rachael Malthouse, wanted to create a tool that would help parents of autistic children like her son, James, complete simple morning tasks in an engaging way. Teaming up with EPIC, she used a lean agile co-design process to take her idea from concept to user-tested prototype.

Background

An estimated 700,000 people in the UK have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, including one in 100 children¹. Although the condition affects people in different ways, it frequently involves difficulties communicating both verbally and non-verbally, finding small changes to routine difficult to deal with, and sensory sensitivities.

For Rachael, getting ready in the morning was a daily struggle, with her 9-year-old son unable to maintain focus long enough to complete simple tasks such as putting on socks in a timely manner. She founded Spectrum Tailored Technologies (STT) and began researching possible digital options to help herself, her son, and other families in similar situations.

The resulting product – which is still in early development stages – is a fun and engaging app with elements of gamification and animated animal characters to help children with the tasks associated with getting up and leaving the house in the morning. Parents can customise aspects of the app for their child to use either independently or with assistance.

How has EPIC supported Spectrum?

EPIC researchers Dr Nicole Thomas and Dr Amy Rathbone helped STT investigate current tools available to parents of autistic children, compiling a comprehensive review of behaviour support apps. Dr. Rathbone then took a deeper look at the two most relevant competitors in a thematic analysis, exploring app-specific demographics and recurring themes in 120 end user reviews. The user reviews provided a useful framework for areas of development and improvement in a new digital product. As part of the agile, co-design process, STT also solicited feedback from other parents of children with complex needs to learn more about specific needs and pain points that could potentially be addressed.

With guidance from Challenge Fund manager Ben Hugill, STT secured a £10,000 grant, which enabled them to start working on a prototype of their app. Buzz Interactive in Newquay worked closely with Rachael’s son James and other autistic children to design a basic version of the app, inviting the family to their office for a development meeting. Getting input from their target userbase has been essential for STT at every stage of the process to ensure the app is as user-friendly as possible, and 9-year-old James played a key role in designing everything from the characters featured in the app to the language used in the market research questionnaire.

Throughout their long-term collaboration with EPIC, STT have embraced all the avenues of support available, including an intellectual property audit with Stephens Scown, a referral to ORCHA for accreditation, and industry mentoring from Apollo Health Innovations. Attending events such as Being Agile in Innovation with Belinda Walcock and Perfect your Pitch with AvatarJo has helped Rachael – who has no previous experience running her own business – develop her knowledge and skills.

James has been at the heart of the development. Obviously he’s only one person, but it’s quite helpful to be able to use him and he’s been genuinely keen to be involved.

If I hadn’t met Ben and Nick I wouldn’t have done anything. When you have an idea but not a lot of confidence you need someone to say, ‘that sounds really good, go for it!’.

Getting the grant was amazing because I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without the funding.

Rachael Malthouse

What’s next for Spectrum?

With a basic prototype of the app ready to test, STT is putting together two informal focus groups with families she has met through her research process to collect user feedback.

The company will use the last of their Challenge Grant funding to make any changes needed once they’ve collected user feedback and are applying for additional funding to complete a feasibility study and advance the prototype into a fully functioning app. In the meantime, Rachael has used her connections to commission music for the project developed by a music therapist who works with children with autism, which she believes will help motivate and excite kids using the product.

Having simplified their design to get a high-quality minimum viable product, STT hope to have a working app available to download that helps users complete one single morning task by September 2023. Ultimately Rachael hopes that the app will be commissioned by autism and education services to help as many families in her situation as possible.

My primary goal for doing this is I want to help children with autism and I want to help their parents and carers as well. That’s what’s really motivating me to do it.

I’m really lucky because I know a lot of people who have children with autism and I’ve met a lot of people through doing this as well,” Rachael said. “It’s a really nice community and everyone is really keen to help.