Industrial designer David McIntyre was inspired to create the Cubbie by his youngest daughter, Ava, who is on the autism spectrum. The idea was to create a snug, safe place where a child with additional sensory needs can go to be calm or stimulated depending on what’s right for them.
The Cubbie is a self-contained booth, measuring 1.7m square by 2.3m high and is designed to fit into schools, hospitals, libraries and other childcare-related environments. The booth comes with a suite of images, sounds and lighting and can be programmed to suit the sensory profile of each child.
McIntyre designed the Cubbie from the ground up, and the idea was to keep it compact while also ticking the boxes for wheelchair and hoist accessibility. The child can be in the Cubbie on their own or with an appropriately trained adult. If the child is alone, a glass panel allows them to be supervised from a distance. The booth has a beanbag and a swinging seat, and a child will typically spend five to 15 minutes inside.
We’re hearing stories of children coming in early to spend time in the Cubbie before school starts
While the Cubbie was developed with young children in mind, McIntyre says the idea was to build something that would see them right through to adolescence and beyond if required. To this end the Cubbie isn’t decorated in a childlike way and as a result it is now being used by a wide cross-section of ages.
“The feedback about who is using our Cubbies is really interesting as it includes young children, teens, adults and teachers,” McIntyre says. “It is also helping children experiencing anxiety, and we’re hearing stories of children coming in early to spend time in the Cubbie before school starts. We also know of parents who are travelling some distance to bring their child to a Cubbie.
“Our technology allows schools, where we’re currently focusing most of our attention, to manage the sensory needs of neurodiverse children in a very effective way,” McIntyre adds. “Apart from comforting the child, the Cubbie benefits the educational process because its therapeutic impact can help offset the estimated 20 per cent of teaching time lost to dealing with distressed children who experience classroom meltdowns.”
We have sold more Cubbies in Q1 this year than over the last two, and our best ambassadors are the schools and libraries that already have them
Sensory rooms are not new, but what makes the Cubbie different is its cloud-based software which provides centralised oversight of the facility and makes it easy for users to schedule maximum use of the booth. It also collects data which overseeing occupational therapists (OTs) can access remotely and use to make the Cubbie experience more effective for the children they are working with. “Unlike other types of sensory rooms, the Cubbie provides highly individualised support and does not require an OT to be present, which is a strong selling point,” McIntyre says.
The Cubbie comes in a flatpack and is fully up and running within a day. The cost is roughly €20,000 and McIntyre says he is already working on an idea for a smaller version for home use. It took more than two years and an investment in excess of €200,000 to bring the Cubbie to fruition, with support from Mayo Local Enterprise Office and the GMIT innovation hub, which helped McIntyre formalise the concept and make the business investor-ready. The company, which is an Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) client, has recently raised a seed round of €500,000 to build out the team, which currently stands at five people, and to push hard into the UK and beyond.
“We have sold more Cubbies in Q1 this year than over the last two, and our best ambassadors are the schools and libraries that already have them,” McIntyre says. “What’s frustrating is that our system allows schools and other facilities to manage the needs of neurodiverse children simply and effectively within their own walls. Yet we still find it difficult to get a hearing.”
