I Built This Because Nothing Out There Worked for My Son

TL;DR

I built Gentle Journeys because my son Carson - 13, level 3 autism, non-verbal - needed something that didn't exist. A way to move through his day on his own terms, without someone standing over him telling him what comes next. It started as a dad solving his son's problem. It turned into something bigger.

He Knew What to Do

Carson is 13. Level 3 autism. Non-verbal. He understands everything happening around him. He just can't tell you about it the way you'd expect.

For years, I watched him work through his daily routines using the standard playbook. Laminated cards. Velcro strips. Little icons representing "brush teeth" and "get dressed" and "eat breakfast." The kind of visual supports every autism parent knows by heart.

And they worked. Sort of.

He'd take the icon, stick it on the schedule, move on to the next one. But most of the time he was just going through the motions - not connecting with what the schedule was actually asking him to do. So he'd still wait for us to prompt him through the task itself, which just reinforced the cycle. Eventually the default was waiting to be told what to do.

That gap between knowing and doing? That's where I got stuck for years.

The tools weren't the problem. Prompts, visual supports, structured routines - they work. Every good therapist and BCBA knows the goal is to fade those prompts over time until the child does it on their own. But the tools available to support that fade haven't kept up. They're generic. They don't adapt. And they still need a person standing there to make them work.

I kept coming back to one question, what if Carson had a system built around him, not a laminated card built for any kid, but something personalized enough to meet him where he is and consistent enough to do the job without needing anyone to prompt him through it?

Not replacing the people teaching him. Just giving him a shot at doing it on his own.

So I Built It

I had never written a line of code in my life.

I'm a product person. I've spent my career building and managing software products. I understand architecture, systems thinking, how to solve real problems for real people. But writing actual code? Never touched it.

That didn't matter. Nothing like what I needed existed. The tools out there were generic, impersonal, and built for the average kid. Carson isn't average.

So I taught myself. And I built Gentle Journeys.

Not a weekend project. Not a prototype. A real product with real infrastructure, because the problem deserved that level of seriousness. Social stories where kids see their own face. Visual routines designed around their specific day and circumstances. A voice guiding them that's one they actually know and trust. And a daily planner that sequences everything so they can move through their day independently.

I built the thing I wished existed when Carson was 5. And then 8. And then 11.

What Independence Actually Looks Like

The real product isn't a social story. It isn't a visual schedule or a token board. Those are building blocks. The real product is a child moving through their entire day on their own.

That's what Gentle Journeys builds toward. Take the tools that already work - social stories, visual schedules, token boards - and make them deeply personal. Then sequence them into a structured daily plan that the child owns.

They see themselves in every illustration. The people in their life show up as recognizable faces. The voice guiding them can be a familiar one - even a parent's own voice, cloned and trusted. Everything is built around them as individuals, not around a template.

The Independence Planner lets parents, caregivers and therapists schedule all of it onto a calendar. The Independence Dashboard is where it comes together - the child's own interface. Today's plan, laid out visually, step by step. No one standing over them. No one telling them what comes next. They work through it on their own.

Why Now

Gentle Journeys proof of concept started with a handful of users. I shared it with Carson's teacher, his therapists, and a couple dads in my autism father's group to use for their kids. Then, I had 50 users, all from word of mouth. Parents, BCBAs and educators I've never met found it through referrals. And they loved it.

If I never made a single sale, I already have my ROI. Carson uses it every day. That was the whole point.

But people kept telling me the same thing: you have to put this into the world. Parents who saw what it could do for their child. Therapists who said they'd been looking for something like this. Teachers who were tired of creating laminated cards from scratch for every student.

So here I am. Putting it into the world.

Try It

Gentle Journeys is free to try. No credit card, no strings. Create a social story, build a routine, see what personalization actually looks like when it's built around the individual.

I built this for Carson. Turns out a lot of kids need it too.