A little background

What is PDA?

PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance - a profile of autism where everyday demands, even small or well-meaning ones, can feel completely overwhelming. It's not about refusing to cooperate. It's about a nervous system that goes into survival mode when it senses pressure.

Things that seem simple - being asked to put your shoes on, choosing what to eat, even being told something good is coming - can trigger intense anxiety in a child with PDA. The demand itself isn't the problem. It's how the brain processes it.

Children with PDA often need to feel in control of their own world. They do best in low-demand environments where they can make choices freely, without pressure, and where it's completely okay to stop, rest, or do nothing at all.

Understanding PDA changes everything. It shifts the question from "why won't they just do it?" to "how can we make this feel safe?"

Learn more at PDA Society

The story behind it

Why we made loopsy

Loopsy came out of lived experience - the kind that happens quietly, in difficult moments, when you're trying to find something that helps.

Watching a child you love go into shutdown - not because of anything dramatic, but because the weight of ordinary demands has just become too much - is one of the harder things a parent can sit with. You want to help. You want to offer something. But most of the options feel like they ask too much in return.

"Most apps were too loud, too busy, too full of goals and progress bars and things you had to do next. We wanted something that just… waited."

So it started as a small idea between a parent and daughter while sitting in a delayed flight lounge in a busy, noisy airport. She was overwhelmed and searching for a way to escape the noise and pressure around her, her ear defenders and other coping mechanisms weren't helping.

She wanted distraction. With no tasks, no timers, no stars to collect or levels to unlock. Just a quiet little space that asked nothing from her, but was always there when she needed it.

We built the activities we wished existed. Soft bubbles to pop. Patterns to tap into. A breathing circle that doesn't demand you follow it. A place to colour the screen, slowly or quickly, with no result to achieve. Small loops of calm that don't ask anything back.

So we made loopsy.

How it works

The idea behind loopsy

The name comes from the idea of loops - small, repetitive, self-contained things. A breath in, a breath out. A tap that makes a dot. A bubble that floats up and disappears. Things that have a beginning and an end but don't lead anywhere in particular. Things you can do once, or a hundred times, and it doesn't matter either way.

Loopsy has a gentle character who grows softly as children explore - not as a reward for doing things right, but as a quiet reflection of the time spent. There's no score, no ranking, no comparison. Loopsy resets each session intentionally, so there's never a sense of falling behind or needing to catch up.

You can dip in for thirty seconds or stay for twenty minutes. You can close it in the middle of something. You can come back tomorrow or not at all. Nothing is lost. Nothing is waiting for you.

The things loopsy is built around:

No pressure
No winning
No failure
No next thing
No time limit
No wrong answer

Where we are now

Looking forward

Loopsy is still a small, evolving thing. It was made with care and with honesty, but it isn't finished - and it probably never will be entirely. That feels right.

If you're a parent, a carer, a teacher, or a neurodivergent person who has thoughts about what would help - what's missing, what feels wrong, what might make this quieter or kinder - we'd genuinely love to hear from you. This was built from one family's experience. It will only get better by hearing from others - email us.

There are no grand plans here. Just a quiet hope that this reaches the children who need somewhere to be, and that it feels safe when it gets there.

Save to your phone

loopsy isn't in an app store yet, but you can save it to your home screen and use it just like an app - even offline.

iPhone / iPad

  1. Open loopsy.co.uk in Safari (must be Safari, not Chrome)

  2. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen (the box with an arrow pointing up)

  3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen

  4. Tap Add in the top right - loopsy will appear on your home screen like any other app

Android

  1. Open loopsy.co.uk in Chrome

  2. Tap the three dots menu in the top right corner

  3. Tap Add to Home screen

  4. Tap Add - loopsy will appear on your home screen and work offline too

Once saved, it opens full screen with no browser bars - just like a real app.