The Support App for Parents of Children with ADHD or Autism
Thriive helps children grow up feeling understood, not broken.
Everyday support for families navigating ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent profiles. Track the patterns, find strategies that actually fit, and feel one step ahead on the hard days.
What changes for parents of neurodivergent children
Without Thriive
- Growing up believing they're broken
- Falling behind and never understanding why
- Slipping through the cracks of a system not built for them
- Families feeling helpless watching it happen
With Thriive
- A child who understands how their brain works
- Parents who can advocate with confidence
- Strategies that actually fit, not generic advice
- A family that feels like a team
How Thriive supports parents of children with ADHD and autism
- Pattern Tracker: Log a tough moment in 30 seconds. Thriive surfaces the patterns behind ADHD and autism behaviours, so you can spot the triggers and respond earlier.
- Strategy Library: Real strategies for ADHD and autism, matched to your child's profile. Not generic advice.
- Visual Routine Builder: Step-by-step routines for the moments that usually go sideways. Mornings, bedtime, homework.
- Daily Check-ins: A 30-second mood check that builds a picture of how your child is really doing over time.
- Shareable Reports: Take real evidence to your GP, school, or therapist when it matters.
- The Hive: A community of parents who actually get it.
How Thriive helps parents, and how it helps their children
For parents
Understand your child like never before. Advocate with confidence. Stop feeling like you're figuring it out alone.
For children
Feel seen. Understand how your own brain works. Build a profile that's yours.
Neurodivergent conditions Thriive supports
Parent Guides
Glossary
Daily Challenges
Strategy Categories
Community
Preparing for a New School Year
Your child is anxious about starting a new school year, new teacher, or new school, and the anxiety starts weeks before term begins
Steps
- Start preparation early, at least 2-3 weeks before term starts. Springing it on an anxious child the night before guarantees a bad first day
- Visit the school during the holidays if possible. Walk the route, look at the building, find the entrance they'll use. Familiarity reduces anxiety dramatically
- Create or request a photo pack of the new classroom, teacher, and key spaces (toilets, lunch hall, playground). Some schools provide these; if yours doesn't, ask
- Write a one-page teacher handover document: what helps your child, what makes things harder, and what to do on day one. Email it before term starts
- Create a social story about the first day: what will happen, in what order, and what they can do if they feel overwhelmed
- Practise the new routine for a few days before term starts: wake up at school time, get dressed in uniform, walk the route
What you need
Photo pack of new environment, teacher handover document, social story, practice runs
Why it works
Neurodivergent children rely on predictability to manage anxiety. A new school year disrupts everything that was familiar: the teacher, the classroom, the routine, the expectations. Preparation replaces the unknown with the known, which is the single most effective way to reduce transition anxiety.
Age guidance
Important at every school transition from nursery through secondary. The specific strategies change with age, but the principle of preparation and familiarisation stays the same.
Real-world example
A parent arranged a 10-minute visit to the new classroom during the holidays. Their daughter walked around, sat in a chair, and met the teaching assistant. On the first day of term, she walked in calmly and said 'I know where everything is.' That visit was worth weeks of verbal reassurance.
Troubleshooting
- If your child won't talk about the new school year, don't force it. Let them overhear you talking positively about it, or use a social story they can read alone
- Some children's anxiety peaks the night before. A special calm-down routine for that evening helps: favourite dinner, early bath, a new comfort item for school
- If your child is transitioning to secondary school, the jump in complexity (multiple rooms, teachers, and timetables) needs extra preparation. Request a transition visit and a map
- Ask the school if your child can meet their new teacher before term starts, even for 5 minutes. Putting a face to the unknown reduces fear enormously
