Each month we publish first-person stories from the people building the Promise Fund ecosystem—awardees, mentors, partners, and funders sharing what they’re learning, considering, and experiencing as they work to transform early childhood. This week, Promise Sandbox Award Recipient Javier Maisonet writes about his journey with Sensory Toolbox, a mental health tech company creating accessible tools for families navigating sensory and self-regulation challenges. Javier brings experience in education, public policy, and nonprofit leadership to his work designing equitable programs for youth and is using this award to pilot Sensory Toolbox.
Recently I approached a father that was walking with his child who was wearing a backpack with a “I have Autism” tag attached to it. I’d never seen this before and thought it would be a great opportunity to learn more about how another father works with their child. I asked, “can we grab coffee sometime? I also have a neurodivergent child, I am working on a solution to help when they are experiencing big emotions. My goal is to listen and learn about the daily experiences that you have with your child. To learn what you live everyday and understand what real support looks like.”
My name is Javier Maisonet, and I’m not a psychologist, a therapist, or even a certified mental health professional. I’m a father who sat through hours of therapy with his child after he was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome, has a little one who can have emotions larger than life, and a middle child who is navigating the overstimulation of it all. A parent who is now recognizing we needed to change up a lot of what we did as a family, and that technology could potentially help us.
Navigating the Diagnosis
The diagnosis came with the tics—sometimes vocal, sometimes motor. These we understood. It was the co-occurring conditions we weren’t prepared for.
Sure, there was a checklist of Tourette’s characteristics: Vocal tics like noise making were present. Motor tics like persistent eye blinking and head jerking, those were showing up too. But, then came the co-occurring conditions and what can show up within someone who has Tourette’s. Trouble falling asleep? Yes, every night. Non-stop talking? Yup, but I wouldn’t stop talking either. Can always revert to a doomsday scenario through anxious thoughts? Ouch. That one hit a little harder, having just told him weeks prior that I’ll start calling him “Doomsday” with how far he goes with scenarios. I admit, I felt terrible after that one. The realization that many of these things were out of his control was a very hard concept for me to understand.
“Mr. Maisonet, one way to help with his overactive motor is to implement some sensory strategies. We can create a worksheet that provides activities you and your family can do together”. That sounded great! Only, we have 3 kids: so we’re also balancing gymnastics, basketball, Taekwondo, church, car rides, and everything in between. Big emotions happen anywhere and anytime, and that worksheet was never to be found.
I started my Google search to find a solution that could possibly work for us. This included meditation apps, behavior apps, ADHD apps. But nothing that met us where we were. We were looking to intentionally start the skill-building of self-regulation, we knew we had to work together to get our collective selves under control before we could move forward with any other type of solution.
Children with ADHD, Autism, Tourette’s, Sensory Processing Disorder—and many more differences—along with neurotypical children are struggling with self-regulation in one capacity or another. Not to mention, their caregivers may be as well. I continued to think, how can we help our child regulate, if during those stressful times we show up just as dysregulated at times.
Starting to Build Sensory Toolbox
A few wireframes and a working prototype later, I enlisted some friends and other parents to help bring this idea to life. The Sensory Toolbox is meant to be simple, meant to work with you through your daily interactions and not be another barrier to a successful day. The prototype has everything we felt we needed; profiles for our multiple children, strategies that were calming for the times that our motors were running on high, and alerting activities when we felt we needed some extra motivation. We also added a reward system, creating an opportunity for positive reinforcement and for the kids to see this as a benefit to allow them to build their skills. And most importantly, data tracking provides valuable insight on what works for the child and provides ways to share with others like therapists and teachers to ensure everyone knows what works.
Annually, I attend a fundraiser with my family and this year I sat next to a parent who brought her son. However, the son was sitting alone at a side table with his iPad. At one point her son had gotten up and needed some help settling back into the space and I subtly watched the interaction waiting to see how she would guide her child back to focus. It was a perfect example: gently put both hands on his shoulders with a little compression for him to feel safe, refocus his attention to her eyes, ask him to breathe with her, and let him know that he is doing a great job. Thinking to myself that I really needed to learn how to do this, I decided to approach her to find out a bit more, if she was willing to share.
“I am really sorry, and I don’t want to intrude, but I was really wondering how you use sensory strategies with your son after seeing your interaction with him?”
“Not a problem! He has Autism, this helps him and I connect. We’ve been doing it for a while—as he just turned 20.”
The short conversation gave me the confidence to ask for quick feedback and initial advice from someone so willing to share their story. Once reviewed the parent shared that “the rewards in the app are amazing! He ALWAYS responds to being rewarded. Please let me know how else I can help, this is something that would have been really beneficial for us and could be beneficial with him even now.”
More recently, as I was speaking with another parent in the school drop-off line, the parent mentioned that their daughter had been struggling with anxiety and would only want her mother to put her to bed every night. The night usually ended in tears. She asked what I have been doing with my daughter to help with the anxiety that she had been feeling, remembering that my youngest daughter has struggled with anxiety for the last couple of years as well. We walked through the app and spent time on some strategies that could be implemented that night. The relief, response, and appreciation this parent showed the next day was incredible and motivitating. Hearing that after using some of the strategies we talked through, the child slept without tears for the first time in so long.
All conversations with parents and caregivers were starting the same: “We got our diagnosis, and then just didn’t know where to go from there.” I could relate. How do you shift gears in parenting? How can you not feel like the most inadequate parent? How do you not feel frustrated that you’ve been parenting your child in a “wrong” way for maybe too long? In those conversations, it was the breath each caregiver took that turned into a collective breath of everyone I had talked to. Maybe it was Tourette’s, ADHD, Autism, or just generally a child’s behavior, it was apparent we all felt a little lost.
Stories kept me motivated and the belief that we’ve got something here with Sensory Toolbox was becoming real. Parents were responding. Clinicians agreed with the use cases and saw the benefit in data sharing and creating plans together. At this point, we needed a chance to start taking a deeper dive. A chance to keep hearing stories and improving on what families needed. A chance to learn from others and for guidance on how to create a solution that could provide genuine impact.
Becoming a Promise Sandbox Awardee
“Congrats—you’ve been accepted as a Promise Sandbox Awardee!”
Many applications later to various accelerators, our chance finally arrived with a team of people showing they believed in me—and believed in this vision of creating a strong opportunity for family mental health starting at the early ages. Not only did the Promise team show up, but they showed up filled with intention. Intentional support for BIPOC leaders? Check. Intentional about centering mental health and rest? Check. Dynamic leadership and mentors? Check. Passionate about storytelling and centering the people they support? Absolutely.
Promise has a vision to impact the Early Childhood Development space by helping entrepreneurs like me succeed. They carved out a path to join me on this journey; through deep dive conversations getting to the core of how to make a small idea from a frustrated parent, turn into a plan for a successful business. Together we are on a path to identify how to launch successful pilots, capture real family stories, and isolate their pain points to create lasting success.
So, what’s next?
I have been asked numerous times “what made you start this?” I’ve wanted to share this story in full with not just my words but the words of families that have contributed so much to what we are building. I’m also sharing my story in hopes of encouraging others to share theirs. I’m continuing to listen to stories, learning where the gaps are within this community of neurodivergence parent and child support.
I want to encourage others to take these steps to listen and share. Our collective stories need to be told within this community—not just for creating a product, but to recognize that our personal stories are more relatable than we have ever imagined. And yes, through these stories, let’s create something that can change emotional wellness where it matters most.
So I buy the father his black coffee and watch him breathe deeply—grateful that someone is listening to him as he shares his own personal struggles with mental health, while also being grateful that someone has taken the time to build not just for them, but with them—and for all of us.
Next up, more pilots and more listening. If you’re interested in sharing your story or know someone who would like to pilot our app. Please contact us on our website: www.sensorytoolbox.com.
If you’d like to learn more or get in touch with Javier directly please fill out this interest form.
