Track 2.0

We are so excited to announce that our new device, Track 2.0 will be available this fall!

We received fantastic feedback about our first device and have been working hard to manufacture a new device to address the concerns in our first device. Here is what you can expect from our new device.

Track without WiFi

Track 2.0 has the capability of remembering when it was clicked, even without WiFi. When it is reconnected to WiFi, it will upload the data tracked (it may take up to 30 minutes for the data to upload to the portal). This will make much easier to track a student's behavior regardless of where they are in the building, even in those areas where the WiFi is not a strong as you might like. In addition, you can give a device to parents/guardians so they can track behaviors during times of distant learning without needing to worry about their internet situation.

Track more behaviors

With Track 2.0, you will be able to track up to five behaviors, allowing you to track progress towards more IEP goals with one device. In addition, behaviors can now be tracked once every second, instead of once every fifteen seconds, allowing you to pinpoint with even more accuracy exactly when and how often behaviors are occurring.

Track more students

One of the biggest limitations of our previous device was that each student needed a separate button, requiring teachers to juggle multiple devices if they had multiple students to track. With our new device, teachers can simply press and hold the button, say "Switch to (name or codeword)", and start tracking a different student.

Track with notes

Sometimes it's important to have a note to provide context to a behavior. Our portal has always had the capability to add notes, but with Track 2.0, you can press and hold the button, say, "Note" and then add a comment of up to 15 seconds. This comment will be transcribed, timestamped and added to the notes for the student for that day. You can also record who is tracking the student, if multiple people will be using the device. Simply press and hold the button, say "set rater (name or codeword)" and that information will be recorded to the portal.

We are so excited about our new device, and hope you will love it too! If you are interested in learning more or ordering devices for your school for the fall, you can email us at welcome@mytaptrack.com or click here to schedule a demonstration and receive a quote. We can't wait to hear from you!

Web Portal Update

Thanks to feedback from our customers, we've upgraded our web portal! We love all the new features and hope you do too. Here are some of the great things you can expect the next time you log in to your web portal account.

Decreased Time for Set Up

We've simplified the amount of time necessary for set up, so that you can start tracking behaviors in less than five minutes. We've reduced the amount of screens you need to click through in order to add behaviors, devices and team members. Schedules can now also be automatically populated based on the day of week, with support for A/B schedules for students.

Ease of Navigation

The new web portal has all your students listed on the left hand side, and you can switch students regardless of what page you are on in the portal. The dashboard is also configured with the most useful charts for each student. If you are tracking only occurrences, there will be two charts. If you are also tracking durations, there will be three charts, including the duration chart. If you want to track when a new intervention was started, this can be added using the "Support Change/Milestone" feature, which will show up on the dashboard as you are looking at the data. The dashboard can still be customized to show the data most important to helping your student accomplish their goals.

Improved Access Management Controls

We've also improved our access management controls so you can choose which parts of a student's report to share with which team members. If there is a teacher on a student's team who only needs to know about two behaviors being tracked, or if a parent wants to share information about one behavior with an outside medical provider, that access can be granted. Those team members will not have access to any of the other behaviors being tracked.

We'd love to know what you think about our new web portal! Do you have more ideas about how we can improve? Please let us know by emailing us at welcome@mytaptrack.com. We are always looking for ways to simplify your data gathering!

4 Tips To Help A Child With Autism

When your child receives a diagnosis of autism, one of the first questions you may have is, “How can I best help my child?” The short answer is: There isn't just one right answer. Every child is different, and what works for one family may not work for yours. Here are 4 tips that have helped my family make sure we are helping our child to the best of his ability.

Help Yourself

It sounds cliché, but it’s true: You can’t help someone else if you’re not taking care of yourself. This is even more true when you have a child with extra challenges. Unfortunately, it can also be even more difficult to take care of yourself in that situation. Constant meltdowns, endless phone calls to therapy clinics and insurance companies, trying to stop your child from taking off every last stitch of clothing because of sensory issues…who has time to take care of themselves? I’m not going to tell you to take a long bubble bath or make sure you get enough sleep at night, or whatever advice you’ve probably heard a thousand times already. Just like your child, what works for you probably won’t work for someone else; and just like your child, you have to do the best you can to take care of yourself. Sometimes taking care of yourself means taking a trusted friend or relative up on their offer to give you a few hours to wander through Target alone, without having to worry about a meltdown in the middle of the cereal aisle. Sometimes, if that’s not available, helping yourself might mean just holding your head high and ignoring the stares when the inevitable meltdown in the cereal aisle happens. Sometimes it might just mean reminding yourself that you are doing the best you can with what you have available to you. Because you are, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.

Assemble A Team You Trust

You are absolutely the expert on your child. You know her or his likes, dislikes, what is very likely to trigger a meltdown, and tricks to help them through said meltdowns. But it’s good to assemble a team you trust who have expertise in other areas, like speech or occupational therapists, medical providers and educators. These people are important to have in your corner, as they are the ones who will have the most up-to-date research on autism or any other diagnosis your child has. They are the ones who have helped hundreds of other kids with autism and probably have several methods for how best to help your child. Even if their suggestions don’t work perfectly, they may at least give you an idea of something that will help your child.

Another important part of your team is support for you. Remember how you need to help yourself? You’ll want a team to help you help yourself! This may be relatives or friends who can lend a sympathetic ear, or who are willing to take your child for an hour or two just to give you some breathing room. Or it may be other parents who have children with autism, have been there, and "get it" in a way others can’t.

Provide A Safe Space

Your child is, unfortunately, going to face a lot of challenges and uphill battles. There are going to be lots of people who tell you that you need to make sure your child doesn’t do X, or you need to stop them from doing Y, or if you would just do Z, your child would be just fine. In reality, your child doesn’t have to stop doing X if it’s not important that they stop. So what if your child calms himself by hand flapping? Isn’t it great they’ve found a technique to calm themselves? Who cares if her or his only interest in the emotional egg toy is seeing how well the eggs spin? That's creative! It is true that as your child gets older, you may want to help her or him find more socially appropriate ways to calm themselves, or express themselves creatively. But that’s a problem for you to take to that team of experts you trust, not for Aunt Sally to solve when she sees your child on Thanksgiving. In the meantime, what your child needs is for you to provide a safe space for them to be themselves, stimming and all. And if Aunt Sally is horrified that your child is only eating chicken nuggets and goldfish for Thanksgiving, well, that sounds like an Aunt Sally problem, not a you (or your child) problem.

Love Them

Of course you are going to love your child. But your child, like all children, needs to know you love every piece of who they are. Sometimes between all the therapy and medical appointments, it’s hard to remember to take time to just appreciate your child for all of her or his wonderful uniqueness. They need the safe space of knowing you are not going to let anyone run roughshod all over them. They need to know that someone always, always has their back and will always, always love them.

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Does your child have autism symptoms and behaviors that need to be tracked during school hours? mytaptrack® will contact your child's school for you. Learn more: www.mytaptrack.com/trial