About MISHA

MISHA is a small app with one job. You photograph the things your child actually uses, the phone turns them into cards, and the two of you run the day as a short story: now this, then that. It's made for families raising autistic and ADHD kids, and for any child who breathes easier when the day is visible.

It's also for the grown-ups. ADHD tends to run in families, so the app keeps a profile for every person in the house: stickers and stories for the kid, a quiet list view and muted themes for the parent whose own morning needs the same scaffolding.

The name

MISHA stands for Motivating Individuals, Simplifying Human Activities. That's the formal expansion. The honest one is shorter: Misha is our son. The app carries his name.

Built by a father

Misha was two when we learned he carries a rare change in a gene called STRC. It affects hearing. A diagnosis like that fills the calendar fast: specialists, therapies, home programs, and a family schedule that carries more weight than most. We learned quickly that his days go better when he can see what comes next, in things he recognizes as his.

I'm his father. I build software. So I built the tool we needed at our own kitchen table, with our own toothbrush and our own shoes by the door. Then I kept building until it worked for families whose days look nothing like ours.

Part of something bigger

The app is one corner of a larger effort that carries the same name. After the diagnosis we started MISHA: a parent-driven research initiative for rare disease, with an AI and computational research lab at its core. The lab side reads the science, funds the labs moving fastest, and publishes its work in the open. Started for one child. Built for thousands.

The research side of MISHA works on rare hearing genetics. This app is the tool-building side: the first thing from the effort you can hold in your hand. Same name, same reason, same kid.

Where we stand

A lot of software in this space is therapy-shaped, built to make children easier to manage. MISHA is not built for that, and the difference is checked in code, right down to the words the AI inside is allowed to use. The app is organized around predictability, choice, and celebration.

• The child sets the pace. Nothing on screen rushes, blinks red, or counts down.
• A skipped step is information, never a failure. The score bends instead of breaking.
• Celebrations are chosen by the child, then decorated together.
• Photos stay on your phone. The intelligence runs on the device, and there's no account behind any of it.

Contact

Write to me at [email protected]. I read everything, usually the same day.