A Digital Trainer for Parents of Children with Autism Improving Development via Daily Interactions

In 2007, my eldest daughter, Michal, was born. During her second year of life, worrisome signs began to appear before our eyes. Michal was diagnosed with autism before her 2nd birthday. We enveloped her with the best therapy we could afford, but, like all parents to children with autism, we desperately lacked the skills to help her develop throughout typical everyday family interactions. We longed to interact with Michal and invite her to join in our typical family experiences. It took me five years and leveraging my medical network to get myself certified in the best evidence-based natural settings interventions for developing children with autism – PRT (Pivotal Response Training). We immediately applied all I learned with Michal in our home, and Michal’s developmental trajectory improved significantly. This important milestone led me to establish the Keren-Or Telehealth Center in 2014, to train fellow parents at home. It was a great experience but I knew it wasn’t scalable and wanted to reach every parent who needs this guidance. If I had had SocialMind when Michal received her autism diagnosis, it would have prevented much of our suffering, and Michal’s development and prognosis would have been much better.