Vocabulary Learning for All

Close to 70% of autistic children struggle with vocabulary comprehension by the third grade. Vocabulary comprehension is the foundation to all communication. More importantly, vocabulary helps a child feel more connected to their world. Science has revealed that most autistic individuals have a hyperfunctional mind, in other words, the ability to take in lots of information at once. However, despite this incredible capacity, autistic individuals are still struggling with vocabulary comprehension. 

One of the reasons for this discrepancy is the lack of educational resources that play to the strengths of a hyperfunctional mind like autism, especially during the critical time of brain development in early childhood. Instead, educators are using ineffective tools that are designed for non-autistic learners or using unpaid hours to create specialized materials for their autistic students. Without the proper tools, many educators confess that vocabulary comprehension is frequently neglected for their autistic students. As a result, the lack of educational tools to correctly teach vocabulary comprehension to autistic students is widening the educational gap between autistic students and their peers and creating more disconnect between the child and their world.

GoManda is an app designed specifically to teach vocabulary comprehension to hyperfunctional minds like that seen in autistic children. We equip educators and parents with the tools they need to increase vocabulary comprehension for their autistic learner. By teaching vocabulary that uses the science of learning for autism, we aim to create empowered autistic learners who feel more connected to their world.

Our app does this by: 

• Using the science of learning for autism with: 
  • Engaging lessons and quizzes that teach the many different versions of a word. For example, the different colors, textures, and materials of a noun (ex. blue cup, red cup, etc.) – like a “Netflix for Vocabulary”– designed specifically for a hyperfunctional mind.  
  • Interests-led lessons to increase student engagement
  • Strengths-based and evidence-based lessons that leverage the hyperfunctional or detailed oriented thinking that is unique to autism
  • Student-led instructional style that reduces the social anxiety from educator-led lessons 
  • Sensory friendly lessons that contain no distracting animations to increase attention and engagement
  • Lessons that teach photorealistic items - not unrealistic cartoons - that are tailored for a hyperfunctional mind.
  • Leveraging the preference for technology by autistic children
• Saving time for Educators
  • Streamlining learning by nine-fold by replacing flashcards that are typically created by educators during unpaid hours.
  • Recording meaningful real time data during a vocabulary lesson and quiz to enhance individualized educational plans for autistic students.
  • Customized lesson planning
  • Tracking mastered words that can be sent to families 

Our solution serves autistic learners who are building their foundational vocabulary, typically the age of 2-8 years old. However, every autistic individual is different and so in some cases, targeting vocabulary comprehension can happen at any age depending on the individual's needs. 

Without a solid vocabulary, autistic children can struggle with communication and fall behind in literacy and thus other subjects. By the time autistic individuals reach high school, only less than 35% of autistic adults go on to obtain a college degree. The untapped potential of autistic individuals can be achieved with early instruction designed specifically for the learning style of autism.

GoManda is a lifetime of work from founder Celest Austin, MD, PhD. Dr. Austin grew up with her autistic sister, Amanda, and “GoManda” was the cheer she and her family had for Amanda while she was growing up. Dr. Austin has spent her entire life learning all she can about autism and has come to to learn that autism is a different learning style that requires specific educational tools tailored to it. 

Our team has over 35 combined years in child and autism education with 60% of team members who have dedicated their lives for autism because of a loved one who is autistic. Our team has experience working with PBS, Microsoft, Council of Exceptional Students, and even founding schools specifically for autism. We have autistic team members who contribute to the development and strategy of GoManda. GoManda is also guided by autistic thought leaders, executives, and former school directors who are experienced in educational sales and the positioning of GoManda to schools.

We currently serve 8 school districts across the nation and have partnered with a health insurance company to provide GoManda for free for 800+ families in Central Texas. 

We would love to be a part of the Solve community, being amongst like-minded innovators who are solving all kinds of challenges for all kinds of people around the world. We can't think of a better partner to help us spread the idea of neurodiversity and acceptance of autism. To be accepted is a human right and we believe Solve and the Solve community can help us take our inclusive app and help autistic and other neurodivergent learners around the world. We want the whole world to accept, nurture, and cheer for all types of learners.

Our solution is innovative because the heart of our solution is accepting the unique learning style of autism - not treating or fixing it. 

Our app is dedicated to working with the strengths of autism rather than against it. By creating an app that supports the autistic way of learning, we hope to create a new generation of autistic learners who not only have stronger vocabulary comprehension but also feel more empowered and confident. We want educators to see the positive impact of their autistic students from a neurodiversity affirming app like GoManda and begin supporting other solutions that accept and nurture autism. We hope GoManda also changes the way educators and school see other learning differences and perhaps transform education around accepting and nurturing all ways of learning.

We are proud supporters of the neurodiversity movement a concept that there is a range of different brain wirings, and thus thinking styles, that exist in any society. 

See below:

We are measuring our impact goals by:

• Measuring rate of vocabulary acquisition before and after GoManda
• Educator feedback of student's confidence and vocabulary skills after a school year use of GoManda
• Educator feedback on user experience and data collection after a school year use of GoManda 
• Backend progress of vocabulary acquisition of users
• Time spent each day with GoManda
• Average amount of student profiles for each educator
• Measuring sales within school 
• Feedback from school districts, speech pathologists, and other educators

We are measuring our impact goals by:

• Measuring rate of vocabulary acquisition before and after GoManda
• Percentage of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in vocabulary comprehension
• Educator feedback of student's confidence and vocabulary skills after a school year use of GoManda
• Educator feedback on user experience and data collection after a school year use of GoManda 
• Backend progress of vocabulary acquisition of users
• Time spent each day with GoManda
• Average amount of student profiles for each educator
• Measuring sales within school 
• Feedback from school districts, speech pathologists, and other educators
• Extent to which (i) global education and (ii) education for learning differences are mainstreamed at all levels in: (a) national education policies, (b) curricula, (c) teacher education and (d) student assessment
• Proportion of schools using neurodiversity positive curriculum and products Proportion of children and young people: (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading by learning differences

We are teaching vocabulary through an app that can be used on any iOS touch device.

2 Full Time Employees

4 Contractors

4 years

GoManda is a company founded by a female minority with a team of neurodivergent team members. Since the mission of our company is to accept autism, we have also cultivated a culture of acceptance within our company. For example, we provide lenient working environments for our neurodivergent team members. Since our team includes people with diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, we also support representation of different races and cultures in all our social media. Overall, we support diversity in all forms - racial, cultural, and neurological. 

• SaaS Low Tier: $120 ARR (Home)
• SaaS Mid Tier: $900 ARR  (Speech Pathologists)
• Enterprise Low Tier: $1200-$16,000 (Small-Mid Size School Districts)
• Enterprise Top Tier:  $16,000 - $48,000 ARR (Large School Districts/Learning Centers)

 Although GoManda offers payment structures for different types of customers, we will be primarily focused on school districts and charter schools, which will help more autistic students. So far, we have been bootstrapping but we anticipate finalizing several school district contracts which will allow us to be financially sustainable this year. Once the sales cycle of school districts end in the summer, we will focus our efforts on charter schools. We believe this plan will attract more school districts the following year and will create a stable revenue stream to cover expected expenses and financial sustainability.