How I got started
April 28th, 2008
“It was November 2007, and I decided it was time to start my own special needs company. I had dreamt about it for years, and therapist friends kept asking me, “When are you going to start it? We need great tools to help our students.” To start this type of company, you must understand special children’s needs, and the products must be attractive and fun so the kids will want to use them. You also need money and time – neither of which I had. I also knew I needed help, so I asked my dear friend and fellow speech pathologist, Amy Mace, to help me create these products.
We named our company “Head 2 Toe Publications” because we want to emphasize the importance of working on the “whole” child. We are not just creating products to improve children’s communication skills; we also seek to improve their fine and gross motor skills. Amy and I have worked with children with many types of disabilities and with children as young as 6 months old. Every year it seems that more and more children are born with some type of disability. Are we as therapists over-diagnosing? We are diagnosing correctly? Are we diagnosing and treating early enough? We may never have the answers to these questions, but the fact remains that children born prematurely have a higher risk of having developmental delays, and 1 out of 150 children are born with autism. These children can benefit from early intervention and help in school. Amy and I have experienced firsthand the lack of products for early intervention -.i.e. the first three years of a child’s life – and we’re eager to help parents, therapists, and schools provide this assistance.
My desire for Head 2 Toe Publications is that we become a complete resource for therapists, educators and especially parents and/or caregivers. We want to provide tools to help children excel in ALL environments – i.e. home, school, community, etc. There is nothing that brings me more joy and fulfillment than seeing a child – especially a child with special needs – realize his or her potential. Amy and I are committed to doing our part to help make that happen.”
April 28th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I cannot find your Web site… even when searching google… you need to put it in your blog… and make it show up on Internet search engines.
April 29th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Karla,
Congratulations on what sounds like a terrific idea! As the Senior Policy Director for Yahoo! Special Communities, and as someone who’s worked in the area of special needs for a long time, I hope your business is a huge success. If if there’s any way I can help you as you and Amy move ahead, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I look forward to following your progress and wish you the very very best.
Alan
April 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Karla:
It’s Dana and Tamar from Dapple.
Your company sounds great. What an important mission.
Congratulations on winning the “Seeds for Success” grant.
We look forward to meeting with you.
Tamar and Dana
April 29th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Dear Karla:
Your business is such an amazing idea–thank you for thinking of it and for bringing it into reality. Congratulations on winning the grant–well deserved!
April 30th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Congrats on the win, hopefully we can work together in the near future.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Congrats on the win; i hope we get to work together soon
Kimberly Townsend
Managing Editor
Dirt Road Promises Magazine
http://www.dirtroadpromises.com
April 30th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hello Karla,
I think your idea is great! Great minds think alike. I have alway’s dreamed of inventing special needs toys and equipment.
My oldest sister Kathi 41 yrs of age has C.P.
I also have a 10 yr old son who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy
(SMA) a rare form of Muscular dystrophy. I have been inspired from both my sister and son.
I started an activity group in Dec. 07. I so love it and I am very passionate about helping others.Do you have any pointer’s on getting a non profit business started?
I will visit your website and keep you on my email list. I would love to watch you grow. Congradulation’s again.
Stephanie Varney
http://www.mdfamilyfun.org
steph@mdfamilyfun.org
May 14th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I have been caring for a young girl with downsyndrom for the past year and she is not verbel.Because she is over 21 her insurance does not cover speech therapy.Under a grant we were able to have two meetings with a therapist and we were able to get a few pitchers for her communication book.Because the programs cost so much we are having to wait on the reast. I have even made some home made pitchers.I can’t wait to see what you have to offer. Please send me some info on your business as soon as its up and running. We are in great need of your prouducts.
we thank you for all your heard work.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Sounds very interesting!!! My 8 year old son is currently on speech and i can’t wait to see everything you have to offer. Best wishes.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
That’s is so awesome what you are doing, I have an 8 year old boy and he is currently taking speech i can’t wait to see everything you have to offer to help kids like my son. Keep it up best wishes..Belinda
May 18th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Never give up on what is important to you…. Don’t allow negative talk to enter your vision for your company or product. Protect your ideas, and products with copyright and patent rights. Try to do three things that lead you closer to your goal of working full time for your company each day. Envision all of the children that will benefit from your product. Congratulations on the Grant. You are on your way!
Debbie Munden, info@feedingsolution.com
May 26th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
We are based in India and would like to know more about your products.
Congratulations on being a winner –keep it up!
Women can always lead from the front
May 28th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Thank you for your interest in our products. Currently we are working on a large activity board book. The theme is Farm and comes with static clings, farm animal figures, and animal photo cards. It is called Vocab U Grab. It focuses on teaching early vocabulary and developing language skills.
We are also working on creating high quality and very decorative toy bags and the customer can choose the toys to fill the bag. All of our products are going to be marked by developmental age of the child. We believe that one should choose products that are developmentally appropriate and not just focus on their chronological ages.
Head 2 Toe Publications believes in developing innovative products for the whole child. Most of our products can be used to help develop gross motor and fine motor skills as well as increase the child’s language and speech skills. Head 2 Toe is committed to make their products parent friendly.
If you have further questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to share.
Have a great week!
Karla