I'm a gardener. Hedges, borders, other people's lawns, usually in the rain.

Sensory Spark exists because of two people. The first is my partner, who works in a Reception class with SEN children, and who I'd watch spending her evenings making resources by hand — because the ones you can buy cost more than the budget allows and still don't fit the child in front of her.

The second is me at six years old. I have ADHD. I was the boy who couldn't hold three instructions in a row, and who was trying hardest at the exact moment he looked like he was trying least. Nobody had a name for it then. You were just told to concentrate.

So when she described a child who couldn't get at a lesson, I didn't hear a professional problem. I recognised him.

I can't teach that child — she can. What I can do is build. So I taught myself, in the evenings, after work, and Sensory Spark is what came out of it.

I'm not a therapist or a research institution, and where this contradicts the professionals working with your child, follow them. But I read the evidence, I listen to the families using it, and when someone tells me something's wrong I fix it — usually that week.

I hope you find something that helps.

— Sam