A South Shields mum is hoping to help families waiting for neurodevelopmental assessment with her free app.

A South Shields mum has created an app to help other parents after her 10-year-old son spent nearly five years on a NHS waiting list for a neurodevelopmental assessment.

Caroline Duffy, 46, has developed ‘Underneath’ to help families going through the same process - with the app focusing on the principle of ‘behaviour is communication’ and the underlying issues that could be causing certain behavioural traits.

The app works by ‘checking in’ when a behavioural situation happens and it will give parents an idea about why their child is feeling that way, possible triggers and an age-related response that they can give to their child.

It then starts to build up patterns so parents can be aware of situations to potentially stop behavioural concerns before they begin.

Caroline Duffy, a South Shields mum, has developed an app to help families who are waiting for neurodevelopmental assessment on the NHS. The 46-year-old created the app after going through the process with her son, Jacob. | Iconic Media Group

placeholder image — Caroline Duffy, a South Shields mum, has developed an app to help families who are waiting for neurodevelopmental assessment on the NHS. The 46-year-old created the app after going through the process with her son, Jacob. | Iconic Media Group

‘This could save thousands of families from heartache’

With her now being at the end of the diagnosis process with her son Jacob, Caroline has given an insight into how much it means to her to be helping other families and hopes that app could help to cut waiting times in the future.

The mum-of-one said: “I could actually cry because I know that this could potentially save thousands of families from the heartache that we’ve went through.

“We’re towards end of the process with Jacob now but I’m still having to answer questions about things that have happened four or five years ago with Jacob.

Caroline Duffy with her son, Jacob. | Iconic Media Group

“When you don’t know the answers to these questions, it makes you feel like a bad mam but this app can take away all of the worry as lets you download the data to give to medical professions.

“The age-related response makes you feel like you’ve got control of the situation, especially when your child responds to it.

“I’m hoping that long-term, this app can shorten NHS waiting lists because all of the work has already been done by families putting information into the app.

“At the moment, Underneath won’t make the wait shorter but it means that parents and families are not going through without help.”