When Erica Herwood learned that her son, Keelan, had autism, she was thrown into a world she never imagined being in, she says.
“When he was around 18 months old, I began to notice he wasn’t developing the way I expected. He was in his own little world. At his two-year check, a nurse mentioned the word ‘autism’ for the first time and said he would be referred for support.”
Erica was very upset by the news and hoped the nurse’s concerns were unfounded. “I remember coming out to the car and trying to process it. I was thinking: ‘Maybe she’s wrong,’ but [then I thought] even if she’s wrong, what harm was there in him getting speech and language therapy?”
There and then, the mother of three, two boys and a girl, who lives in Claregalway with her husband Gavin Herwood, pledged to learn more about the condition and make sure her son received every help and opportunity. “I knew I needed to move on this. I realised he needed more than what I was giving him.”
While she had heard about autism, she knew very little about the condition. “I had no idea what autism meant for my son. So, I did what every parent does, I Googled everything.”
She found the wealth of information online overwhelming. “If you have ever searched for things like speech delay activities, or how to support a child with developmental delay at home, you will know what I mean.”
She quickly learned the importance of early intervention. While waiting for a diagnosis – it took two years – she enrolled Keelan in a pre-school in Athenry which specialised in educating children with language difficulties.
Very fortunate
“We were very fortunate to get him a place,” she says. “He spent three years there from 2019 to 2022 and he thrived. I learned an awful lot from them. For a while, it felt like we were finally moving forward.
“But then, Covid hit. Like so many families, we lost every support we had overnight. We’d have Zoom calls but he needed occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and psychology. We weren’t getting any of this. So, I built a home plan myself. I took course after course and tried to piece together conflicting advice and make sense of overwhelming information.”
Meanwhile, she waited for a diagnosis and for speech and occupational therapy for her son. The wait was interminable. “When I followed up [with the HSE], I was told he was on a waiting list but it could take years for him to be seen. Nobody could tell me when this would happen. An assessment of need was carried out [by the health authority] but it could not be completed because of Covid. I was told he had complex needs, but I was given no real road map for what that meant. I was shocked and upset, but I was determined to do something.”
Frustrated by the long waiting list and concerned that Keelan was missing out on vital early intervention, Erica and her husband, Gavin, paid for a private multidisciplinary assessment for their son in 2021. The then four-year-old was diagnosed with autism. He had been on a HSE waiting list since he was aged two but it took five years before he was finally seen by the public system.
“He was seven-years-old then and I had fought every single one of those years. And I was sick to my stomach that my son, that any child, could be left without support simply because a system couldn’t keep up with demand. That wasn’t good enough. It will never be good enough.”
Erica and Gavin continued to research developmental supports, often through trial and error, for Keelan. She says they bought every “gizmo and gadget” and trawled through the vast amount of information available online. She vividly recalls the lonely road of midnight Googling.
“The information can be overwhelming and confusing. Every child is so different, what works for one, won’t work for others. We were learning as we were going along. He is not a child you can surprise, if that happens, it can make the day very difficult for him. He would get overwhelmed, for example, if its very noisy. We found it was easier if he was prepared for things.”
His parents learned from his pre-school teachers the benefits of using choice boards. These showed him the options available to him as part of his daily routine, such as different activities or play experiences.
Good progress
Today, Keelan, who was non-verbal until he was five-and-a-half years old, is making good progress, according to his mother. “He’s nine years old now and he’s a great kid. He is a very determined little man, he’s a credit to himself for what he has achieved.
“He attends a class for children with autism at a local school and has settled in well. The teachers are fantastic, they are phenomenal. They are very, very supportive of us as a family and they encourage his abilities. He is chatting now, his speech has come on quite a bit. He’s great at maths and he loves gaming, Minecraft, and Mario.
“His team at the Brothers of Charity [now known as Corlann] is very responsive, they work with us on behalf of the HSE through the Children’s Disability Network Team. Unfortunately, Keelan has never received a block of speech or language therapy. We tell them what’s going on and they give us feedback and we implement what they say.
“We have engaged with Galway Autism Partnership over the years and they are a fantastic support for families. PALS, a group set up by parents of children and young adults with autism in Loughrea, is very good, too. I haven’t engaged with AsIam, [Ireland’s national autism charity which has a community support hub at Liosban Business Park on the Tuam Road] yet but I’ve heard good things about it. There is a general community of parents of children with additional needs, too, and I follow them online.”
The long struggle to obtain specialised support for their son brought home to Erica and Gavin Herwood the challenging journey that other parents in the same position faced. What if there was a better system available for families navigating the space between referral and support, Erica wondered. She thought about it a bit more and an idea was born.
“One evening, a few years ago, after our son had gone to bed, I was sitting on the couch thinking about all of this. I said there has to be something better than this, a way to access information in a timely fashion. I remember being online until 3am some nights trying to find out what would work best for Keelan, to piece together a plan for him. Then the thought arrived very clearly, someone should build this.” Her husband, a self-taught computer wizard, said there was a way this could be done.
VerbaNexa, an online company born out of struggles, frustration, and a heartfelt commitment to helping their son obtain the vital support he needed to achieve his potential, would one day become a reality.
Its aim, she says, is to “turn waiting time into progress time” by bridging the gap between when support is needed and when it becomes available.
Support plans
“We provide personalised, clinician-informed support plans for children with additional needs that parents can follow at home, tailored to each child’s needs and interests. It was developed with clinicians across speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, clinical psychology, and developmental paediatrics.
“VerbaNexa is a companion for families while they are waiting for therapy and something that continues to support them once it begins. The platform is being built carefully, with families at the centre of every decision. The goal is to help parents feel more confident about how they can support their child’s development at home while waiting for therapy or diagnosis. If you are on that road right now, waiting, wondering, and doing the best you can for your child, please know that you are not alone. VerbaNexa is being built for you.”
Erica says the years that followed her “lightbulb” moment, which occurred one evening while sitting on her couch, were spent developing the concept. “We began our journey by taking part in the Lean Launch programme [now known as ‘Idea to Impact’] through our local enterprise office. Declan Droney runs the programme and through his guidance I learned what was involved in building a business and how to move to the next stage.
“He encouraged me to apply for New Frontiers [a professional training and enterprise support programme for entrepreneurs] and he remains a voluntary advisor to VerbaNexa, which we’re very grateful for. New Frontiers gave us the structure, support, and network that helped accelerate VerbaNexa from an idea on a couch into a real platform being built today.
“Tony O’Kelly, the programme manager for the New Frontiers programme, has been a fantastic mentor, consistently challenging me to build the best possible version of VerbaNexa while providing constructive guidance throughout. New Frontiers has been invaluable, both in building my confidence and in progressing the business. The workshops and access to networks have opened doors I wouldn’t otherwise have had. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a business idea, it has truly been a game changer for me as a first-time founder.”
The Herwoods worked closely with parents and professionals as they developed their business idea. “It meant understanding what families actually need while waiting for therapy, and what support at home realistically looks like in the middle of busy family life. We learned from therapists, clinicians, and professionals who work with children every day.”
Amid the excitement and mini-successes, there were difficult days, too, when the scope felt overwhelming and the timeline impossible. Days when the gap between where they were and where they wanted to be felt very wide.
“But we always came back to the same reason. The parents searching at midnight. The families doing their best in the spaces between appointments. The mums and dads trying to support their child’s development at home without a clear map. That was always the reason to keep going.”
VerbaNexa is not live yet but will be shortly. “We’re currently open for early access. Families can sign up via our website and will be invited to join as soon as we are up and running. For further information log on to https://www.verbanexa.com/ Instagram: @verbanexa
