A Channahon couple created an app after their 4-year-old son Sterling made a birthday wish that they said broke their hearts.

“He wished for a friend,” said Ariana Sampson of Channahon, Sterling’s mother.

That wish prompted Ariana Sampson and her husband, Andrew Sampson – who is a software developer – to create an app to help neurodivergent families connect with each other.

Spectrum Circle is “a safe, inclusive app” that was designed to “foster a vibrant community where neurodivergent children can form lasting friendships and parents can find resources, guidance and connection to help their kids thrive,” according to the Spectrum Circle website.

The app went live in September, and more than 800 families are using it, the Sampsons said.

That may sound like a lot of families, but it really isn’t, Andrew Sampson said.

“We need that density,” Andrew Sampson said. “You can’t just have a couple of families in a 5-mile radius. If a family signs up and only sees one family in the area, it’s hard to get them to stick with it. They need to be there for that next family. That’s how it’s designed.”

Ariana Sampson said once a family signs up for the app, they create a family profile and then add specifics about their child. These may include age, activity level, interests and “special qualities,” such as if the child is nonverbal or uses assisted mobility devices.

These details help families find friends for their children who are “just like” their children, Ariana Sampson said.

Families also can add photos and videos, share special moments, and chat with other families, she added.

Andrew Sampson said it was “incredibly difficult” to create Spectrum Circle, especially from a privacy standpoint. He said the app required “an incredible amount of work to think things through” and more than 200,000 lines of code.

“We don’t want information to get leaked out,” Andrew Sampson said. “”We wanted to create a safe place for these families, and I really think we did that."

Ariana Sampson said she initially looked at social media for resources connecting neurodivergent families. She didn’t find any – but she did find other families also seeking those connections, she said.

“I think there’s a pandemic of lonely families and lonely children in the community,” Ariana Sampson said. “And no one was doing anything about it.”

In August, 15 families who connected on Spectrum Circle got together – with a second group outing planned for late October, Ariana Sampson said.

Although Sterling hasn’t found that special friend yet, he’s enjoying the group events and sharing the Lego towers he’s built with his Spectrum Circle friends through the app, Ariana Sampson said.

“We’ve actually connected with a family five minutes from our house in the same town,” Ariana Sampson said. “We had no idea they were there.”

That family also has connected with other families through the Spectrum Circle app, Andrew Sampson said.

“So it works,” he said.

For more information, visit spectrum-circle.com.