Special-Needs Business Profile: Steps4Kids

Lucile Hooton Lynch is partners in Steps4Kids LLC with Harmony Pyper, an occupational therapist who does the company's development and research. Pyper has more than ten years' experience working with children with special needs -- including Lynch's son, who she treated as an infant.

The primary focus of Steps4Kids, according to Lynch, is "the design of DVDs using video modeling, priming, and self-modeling to teach and support children. We also provide products to supplement the skills being demonstrated in the DVDs. Our goal is to provide persons responsible for teaching children with positive, effective visual tools, so that children can be successful in handling their academic, social, behavioral, and physical tasks." Products include the award-winning handwriting DVD "Steps4Kids to Write Their ABCs," as well as smaller items like pencil grips and triangular pens.

Lynch has twin sons, one of whom was diagnosed with special needs "pretty much from birth. He was born at 24 weeks, 15 ounces. He was hospitalized for 5 months after he was born, on a ventilator for 2-1/2, and initially thought to have less than a 5 percent chance of living due to his prematurity and other medical conditions. He was diagnosed as having spastic quadraplasia when he was around 3, and around 4 was given a preliminary finding of having ASD. He was diagnosed as having apraxia of speech in first grade, along with auditory processing and attention issues."

Since Steps4Kids launched in April 2005, it has been Lynch's primary occupation, "other than parenting," she says. "Starting and maintaining a small business is very time-consuming, but I enjoy it, so it has been an enjoyable escape as well as a business." Finding the time isn't always easy, though. "Parents of children with special needs are pulled in far more different directions that are necessity-driven (e.g. therapies) as opposed to choice-driven (sports). It is difficult to find time to develop the business without it interfering with the support your child needs, and the support you want to give."

Lynch had an idea that video modeling would help her son, and made a prototype to test it out. "He could focus on TV, video games, and computer, so I tried to use the medium and visuals that he liked. I also spent hours researching different learning models and studies on video modeling once I realized he was such a visual learner. Because he enjoyed the DVDs and began to learn so quickly, our homework experiences became very fun and positive. I showed his prior private OT the changes in his handwriting after only a week and we joined forces to focus on video production and customization of video products."

"In a strictly business sense, we realized we were going to be a success from the reviews," Lynch recalls. The company's first commercial DVD was named a Top 10 Audio Video Product for 2007 and one of the year's top 100 children's products by Dr. Toy; received a Childsafe International 5 Star Award of Excellence from The Toy Man; was named DVD of the Year by CreativeChild Magazine; and got a double-star endorsement from Kids First!, the National Coalition for Quality Children's Media. "We believe in our product whether it helps one child or one million. To earn recognition from such entities was a true honor."

Lynch reports that those using the products have been giving the thumbs-up, too. "Our primary measure of success is that parents and teachers are reporting that children are learning their letters, grips, etc. really well." Lynch sometimes works as an educational advocate to "train parents to advocate for their children and to create DVDs to help their children," and says that "connecting with wonderful parents and children" is the best thing about her business. "I have found parents of children with special needs to be an unusually wonderful group. Somehow they have a little better focus on what is important."

"We expect to launch two new DVDs this year to complete our writing series, and to focus on other education and social support DVDs next year," says Lynch. And that's just fine with her son, who helps out in the family business. "He loves it. He is a visual guy so he loves to see us film and edit the footage we use. Plus, he gets to be in the DVDs!"

Lynch says she'd advise other parents to go into business as she has done. "Starting a business that helps others instills hope that you can not only do something right, but help your child and others. Parents of children with special needs receive so much negative input that there are days when it is hard to pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Having a business invigorates and empowers you. I believe as diagnoses increase and the need for supports puts more strain on the education system, we will see more parent-driven innovations. Parents know their children better than anyone."

What inspired you to start your business?

My son's failure at school. In first grade, he began to regress significantly, but the principal at the time did not want me to train her staff to try to help. This was very frustrating for me, since I was selected to be our district's parent rep to our SELPA as its CAC representative. So here I was helping others but unable to help my own child.

Only after the entire school year passed did the staff publicly admit to us that our son had regressed. In fact, he had regressed to such a degree that they suggested that he might be having seizures and recommended that we send him for additional testing. Rather than admitting that the programs they were using and the class placement were wrong (which we had said all along, even from the beginning of school), they were trying to blame it on our child who had never shown any seizure activity.

We then realized that it was going to be up to us to help him until we found the right placement. So, I started making DVDs to teach him spelling and social skills. He went from having a modified curriculum to being advanced for his grade level in certain areas. So, I teamed up with an OT to make DVDs using the multi-modality approach of DVDs to teach skills to children, and that became Steps4Kids.

How has your son's diagnosis affected your family?

We had a very difficult early journey because he was so sick all the time. He has had about 14 surgeries/procedures. Because he is a twin, it has been difficult balancing the needs of both boys and to ensure that our lives do not focus too much on all the different therapies or on one child. When substantial learning issues arose, I realized that I would have to be an educator as well as a parent, because the public school was not set up to provide him with the learning support he needed to succeed. This was initially difficult for me because I was very worn-out from his medical and other needs. But I would never have set on the path that led to the creation of Steps4Kids LLC had my son not helped me find it.

How is your son doing now?

Great. He now has a teacher who acknowledges his abilities and is committed to him. She is current with all the programs, studies and behavior intervention models and provides appropriate individualized homework. He's also fortunate to have a twin brother who's a great helper and role model.

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