About Picturepath

Founded in 2017, Picturepath is the collaborative outcome of SENCO’s, parents and venues to help children and adults with additional support needs to feel safer and more relaxed at home, school or in new environments.

Revolutionising the visual timeline system

The use of Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) cards has been recommended for years to help reduce stress and anxiety in SEN children and adults. However, challenges with portability, lost cards and increased cost and time to create bespoke activity cards gave us the idea to create the digital visual timeline known as Picturepath, the easier, more accessible and convenient way to reduce anxiety and distress.

Developing Picturepath

In 2018 we launched the first version of Picturepath, an app focussed specifically on supporting parents of autistic children. It covered the main timeline functionality and was well received by over 500 users in under 6 months.

Over 3,000 downloads later, we decided to develop the app to include special features and functions specifically for school use. This included the ability for teachers and SENCOs to share timelines with parents, add comments and notes about the day’s activities, view and switch between home and school timelines, as well as tonnes of other features.

In early 2022 we introduced our biggest app enhancement to date – Visit with Picturepath. As people with additional support needs find visiting new places stressful, this feature was developed to improve our venue partners’ access and inclusivity for their visitors and Picturepath users. We have also updated our app to be suitable for adults and children alike.

What next?

So far, it’s been a journey of discovery all designed to improve the lives of people with additional support needs, such as autism and anxiety. It’s great to hear about the difference Picturepath has made to peoples lives but we don’t want to just stop there.

We are constantly looking for ways to further develop the Picturepath platform and are always open to user feedback to inform us along the way. If you’d like to get in touch with us to make a future feature suggestion, please do get in touch with us.

Contact us

Richard Nurse

Picturepath Founder

“In the process of helping my autistic son, I noticed the myriad of ways modern technology can help reduce anxiety, stress and overwhelm in children with special needs. That’s why I founded Picturepath – an online visual timeline tool designed to help people with additional support needs to anticipate and prepare for anxiety-triggering events.”

Read Richard’s story