Sensory-based home online autism treatment
What is Mendability?
Mendability is an online Sensory Enrichment Therapy program with simple activities and programs that you can do to enrich the child’s environment by the use of scents, touch, etc.
Each program is made specifically for the child with worksheets you can administer at home for 10-15 minutes daily. They also provide trained occupational therapists to coach and provide support.
In clinical trials of Sensory Enrichment Therapy conducted at University of California, Irvine, 69% of the parents of children with autism who participated in the study reported improvement in their child’s autism symptoms.
Overview
This online program is packed with some great features.
- Video & written instructions for each exercise
- Interactive progress tracker
- Parent forum
- Professional email support
- Certified occupational therapist as your dedicated therapy coach
- Phone/video conferencing
- Option to have therapy supplies mailed to your door
How Mendability works
Sign up: Sign up was quick and simple. The program walks you through the steps you need to get started.
Answer a Questionnaire & Set Goals: I was impressed with the comprehensive questionnaire that you have to answer at the beginning. I thought it was a great system for pinpointing areas that your child needs to work on. They even took into account areas that teens or adults on the spectrum may have issues with such as compulsive spending or giving into cravings.
Here were some of the topic areas in the questionnaire:
- Learning ability
- Reading comprehension
- Eating habits
- Sleeping habits
- Mood stability
- Social Skills
- Being prudent (you don’t come across this one too often!)
Worksheets: According to your questionnaire answers and the goals you’ve set, you will get a set of activities to work on with your child. The activities instructions were easy to follow with a video and text format.
Team Support: You can include your child’s teachers, therapists, and caregivers on the Mendability account so they can follow along with the exercises and keep track of the progress as well. You can also discuss your child’s progress and show support to other families on the parent’s forum. On the forum you’ll see a lot of praise from parent’s about their kid’s progress. One parent was happy about their teenager eating solid foods for the first time.
According to the Mendability website, the results for using Sensory Enrichment Therapy on a child include:
- initiating more natural conversations
- a more confident learner
- more focus and engagement
- deeper and less interupted sleep
- more interest in varied foods
- easier coping with transitions.
What I Like About It
- It’s easy. Makes it easy for parents, caregivers, and teachers to come up with a plan for “sensory enrichment”. Sure, you can find activities and exercises on websites and books to help the child with sensory issues – but this program saves you a lot of time. Really, it makes me wish the some of the kids I’ve worked with had this program.
- Great Support. There’s a parent’s forum and the Mendability team provides support, advice and encouragement along the way.
- Great for all kids, teens, and adults. No matter where your child is on the spectrum, the comprehensive questionnaire will help match the right activities that will work with each individual goal.
- Parents can feel empowered. It can be frustrating not knowing how to help your child develop and grow inbetween therapy sessions and school. This gives you a good simple plan to follow.
- The user-interface works well. You wont have to spend a lot of time figure out how the program works. The website is well laid out and you can chart progress easily to keep track. I don’t have a lot of time to spend on watching videos so I’d like to see a “fast-forward” option to watch the video at a faster speed. Many online video programs now have this option.
The Verdict:
As an educator working with kids on the spectrum, I would use this program.
Mendability is a great program and addition to a child’s school and therapy routine. It provides an easy way for parents to continue working with their child at home.
I like the fact that you can tailor a program to the specific needs of the child (or adult) using the program. The ideas and activities seem unique (I haven’t come across them in a variety of standard autism therapy sessions). Plus, they make it super easy for parents to stay organized and follow-through with a plan of action.
Progress begins with a tiny step and for someone on the spectrum sometimes those starting steps have to be very tiny. Mendability’s activities definitely help break goals down into easy steps towards progress.
Device
Online program and mobile-friendly tools to help you do the therapy at home and stay organized.
Want to give Mendability a try?
Monthly prices for Mendability range from $49 to $159. For more information, please visit: www.mendability.com, or call +1 (888) 579-7002.
or check out the Mendability Website
This review was part of our Kickstarter campaign reward. Mendability is one of our Silver Backers.
Review by
Catherine Pascuas
Host of The Autism Show Podcast