Diagnosed with a developmental disorder as a kid, this 19-year-old developed an app to help parents detect disorders

It is probably the worst nightmare for a sixth-standard child when his parents were told that he should be sent to a school for disabled children.

What his teacher invariably mistook as a learning disability was in reality a developmental coordination disorder known as dyspraxia which delayed his body movements.

“It took my parents nine years to figure out why I was so slow,” recollects Harsh Songra. “That’s not a long time, if you keep in mind that in India people are incapable of detecting disorders for even 18 years,” he states.

Irked by the limited understanding of the issue and the common tendency to term disorders as mentally challenged, Songra decided to take the matter in his own hands and ensure that no parents are left in the lurch like his were.

He started learning Android programming at the age of 16, and three years later developed the ‘MyChild’ app to help parents screen developmental disorders such as delayed motor coordination and neurological disorders in their kids. “All this will be done under 45 seconds,” he beamingly adds.

Songra’s team includes his co-founder Aafreen Ansari, who takes care of content, two research assistants who update the blog every week with their research on the subject and an intern who takes care of the team’s various social media accounts.

Launched in January 2015 on Google PlayStore, the app is meant for kids aged between 11 months to 24 months. First and foremost, parents are required to key in the physical details of the child, like the age, height and weight before moving on to answer specific questions regarding the child’s development over the months. The app then gives suggestions based on ‘the areas of concern’ which is implied by the answers provided to the questionnaire and finally tells parents which specialist they should pay a visit.

“We do not claim that the app is 100% accurate,” Songra says, adding that the core purpose of it is to act as a referral point. Based on theoretical research from hundreds of books, the app stresses on early identification.

Outlining the importance of early identification, Songra claims that according to reports by MIT, if nothing is done about developmental disorders, every second child will end up suffering from autism by 2025. At present, every 68th child suffers from autism.

“The general unawareness regarding these disorders is mainly due to the deficit of developmental pediatricians in India, who make sure that a child grows up normally. This in spite of the fact that every sixth newborn suffers from some or the other developmental disorder,” Songra adds.

Recalling the hardship faced by his parents, he says that many clinical pediatricians had given him medicines even though they were unable to diagnose his condition completely. “Clinical pediatricians are meant to treat diseases. It’s time we stop confusing disorders with diseases,” he states.

However, he is quick to add that due to the prevalent social stigma in the country, parents would think twice before taking their child to a psychologist even for a mere check up. This is where he believes his app would be of help. “With the MyChild app, we’re trying to drive parenting through technology,” Songra adds.

All of 19 years, Songra who is a second year Computer Applications student at the Bhopal School of Social Sciences, has received many accolades for this app. Apart from being awarded the title of Nokia’s app developer of the Week, his app was also selected as the App of the Day by the company in July last year. His app is also being backed by Facebook’s Fb Bootstrap Start Program, which provides $20,000 worth of online credits which can be used for servers, testing tools etc.

But this is not his first foray into the world of developing apps. He has previously developed Studiebay, an aggregator of coaching classes in Bhopal, which he describes as the ‘Zomato for coaching classes’ and a calculator for his father to compute value added tax (VAT).

Unlike young entrepreneurs, Songra is least perturbed by making profits, as of yet. “My focus is on increasing the user base and not on a revenue model. The biggest drawback of the app currently is that it is in a raw form and needs many changes. But, I hope to change that and help close to 70 million parents in the next 5-10 years,” he states.

For achieving that, he has a roadmap in place, “In the next few weeks, we have plans to launch an updated version of the app which shall go a step further and target pregnant women asking them to follow certain tips in order to prevent developmental disorders in their newborn babies.”

On the cards are also plans of building a community of teachers, doctors and parents who could communicate with each other through the app and be updated about the dos and donts of raising a healthy child.

Calling out to budding entrepreneurs, Songra has two clear messages. “Don’t follow money. Follow your passion. Prioritise how you want to make an impact. Secondly, you have to get in the competition to be above your competition.”

That's not all. Last year, life came full circle for Songra when he was invited to his school to deliver a lecture on coding to the sixth-standard students in front of the very teacher who had once told him he was no good.

Image Credit: harshsongra.in, Google Play Store