sibling, alongside proprioception and vestibular, to the world’s five favorite senses.) As good as all that advice may be, the past few years have taught me that there’s a dimension to accommodating a child’s SPD that has been almost entirely missing in the discussion. And my team and I are working diligently to make that dimen- sion a greater topic of discussion. DISCOVERING THE SOOTHING IMPACT OF ENCLOSURE My business partner Gary Kellmann was helping a friend of his develop a Star Wars-themed living space in Orlando when his friend told him that he needed beds that looked like they would make sense on the Millennium Falcon. Gary, an expert in supply chain and logistics who had recently stayed in a capsule bed in China, knew exactly what to do and shipped his friend several of the coolest enclosed sleep spaces he could find. Gary
took the leftovers of that shipment container and assembled them in a “showroom” in our Saint Louis workspace and then invited friends to check these pods out and pitch ideas on how these beds should be used, which marked the beginning of our company, zPods®. One idea that was consistently but not too frequently men- tioned was using the beds to provide safe spaces for autistic children. Each time the idea was voiced, I brushed it aside say- ing I wasn’t even sure how a spaceship bed would help. As the father of an autistic child with sensory challenges, I had already been approached about buying too many products and servic- es to count that all claimed to be exactly what my boy needed. However, the idea kept coming back, and three experiences turned me around entirely. First, having watched the movie Temple Grandin a few years before, I couldn’t shake the imagery of Claire Daines, playing
Ethan, son of zPods® co-founder Gary Kellmann, used to co-sleep with his parents for fear of being alone in his bedroom but now falls asleep with ease in a space in which he feels safe.
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