Then you hand your child to a sitter, a respite worker, a substitute aide — and hope you said the right things. SteadyCare is where you put it all down once, so the next person knows your child in sixty seconds instead of guessing.
Walter Dusseldorp, founder of The Steady Method — one minute on what this is, who it is for, and what it will never do.
AI presenter — a digital likeness of Walter Dusseldorp, used with his consent. The Steady Method LLC, Maplewood NJ.
It is the aide who did not know that hand-flapping speeding up is the first sign. The sitter who asked “what’s wrong?” instead of offering two choices. The new worker who raised her voice to be understood, because nobody told her he hears perfectly well.
Most hard moments do not start with a crisis. They start with a small thing a stranger could not have known, twenty minutes before anyone noticed.
Some of it is in the IEP. Some is in a text thread from March. Most of it is in your head, and that is where it stays.
Not because you don’t trust them. Because you know the one thing they are about to get wrong, and you cannot be there to say it.
Written by you. Opened cold by anyone.
The risk that matters first, the three things a new caregiver can actually hold in their head, and what is true today — slept badly, ate at seven, watch for this.
What yes looks like. What no looks like. What “I need help” looks like when it reads as sulking. The AAC rules. The sentence that always makes it worse.
Five phases, written for one child. What you’ll see, what to do, and what not to do — in each phase, in your words.
Where to look first, when to call, the exact sentence for the dispatcher, and how to approach without making it worse.
What winds them up and what settles them. Foods, clothing, the blanket that works. The things everyone learns the hard way.
Allergies, medication, the call order, and what to tell an ER nurse in the first thirty seconds so your child isn’t put in a bright bay.
What SteadyCare is, and what the next caregiver actually opens.
One screen. The three things that matter most about your child, in your words. What the first sign of trouble really looks like, before anyone else would notice it. And what to do in the first two minutes if they leave.
Start with setup → See a sample profileAI presenter. The Steady Method LLC, Maplewood NJ.
A dot on a map only helps after something has already gone wrong.
Most bad moments do not start with a child disappearing. They start twenty minutes earlier, with an adult who did not know what the first sign looks like. SteadyCare puts that knowledge in their hand instead. Not surveillance — preparation.
Professional de-escalation training teaches five phases. We teach them in person to staff in group homes, day programs and schools. SteadyCare takes the same model and lets you write it for one child — yours.
Each phase has three parts: what you will see, what to do, and — the one parents never get to say out loud — what not to do. That last list is usually the more useful one.
You deserve the reasoning, not a slogan.
There are plenty of apps that will put your child on a map, and we understand exactly why a frightened parent buys one. But a dot on a map only helps after something has already gone wrong. The twenty minutes before that is where the gap actually is, and nobody is selling you that.
There is a second reason. Autistic adults have been clear for years about what constant monitoring feels like from the inside, and published reviews of tracking technology in this community warn that it can reduce autonomy and privacy through constant supervision — and can create a false sense of security that quietly replaces actual supervision. We think they are right.
Written once. Opened cold by anyone.
In your own words, not a clinical form. About twenty minutes, and you can do it in pieces over a week.
You grant one named person access to one named child. They sign in, the profile opens, and it closes when they clock out. They never see another child on the same device, and you can withdraw the authorization at any time.
Sixty seconds and they know the risk, the three things that matter, and what is true today.
An end-of-shift note in plain language, written while it is fresh. You stop reconstructing the day from a shrug at the door.
The grandmother who has him once a month, and the neighbour’s teenager who has never done this before.
Often someone new, often at short notice, often on the hardest day of your month.
Substitutes, one-to-one aides, bus aides, after-school clubs. The people your IEP doesn’t reach.
A paramedic, an ER nurse, a police officer. One screen, written for a stranger under pressure.
One page for the fridge: the five phases, what you see, what to do, what not to do — with a blank column for your child. No form, no email capture.
Download the one-page reference (PDF) →
Watch the free video library →
If your child’s school, group home or agency wants the staff version, we deliver a full day on site and twelve months of daily practice.
Our free one-page competency record is used by facilities to evidence staff training. If you sit on a parent council, it is worth knowing it exists.
The hard part is getting nine years out of your head and onto a screen. We do not leave you staring at an empty form — a trained member of our team sits with you and writes it.
Pick Yearly on the checkout screen.
If a payment ever fails we keep your account active for a further 30 days before anything lapses. We are not going to cut a family off over an expired card. And if you cancel, your child’s profile keeps working — it lives on your device, so you can still read it, print it and hand it to a caregiver. What stops is the daily lessons, the review calls and the support.
SteadyCare is local-only. There is no sync. Your child’s profile is written on the device and stays there — not uploaded to us, not backed up to our servers, not shared with any third party, and never used for advertising. We do not hold it, which means we cannot lose it, sell it, or be made to hand it over.
Access is something you grant, one person at a time. As the parent or guardian you authorize a named care provider to a named child. They see that child’s profile only while signed in, they never see another child on the same device, and you can withdraw the authorization at any time. It also ends automatically at clock-out. You never have to ask anyone.
That also means it is yours to lose. If you replace your device without exporting, the profile goes with it — which is why the printable one-page card is part of the Family plan.
Questions about any of this: info@the-steady-method.com.
No. The profile is written on your device and stays there. It is not uploaded to us, not backed up to our servers, and not shared with any third party. We never see it.
A named care provider you have authorized, while they are signed in to a shift on the device. They see that child only, never another child on the same device. It closes when they clock out, or when you withdraw the authorization. Nobody else.
Correct. Not of your child, and not of the caregiver. We decided against it deliberately, and we would rather tell you why than quietly add it later.
It is built to be edited in thirty seconds. The part a caregiver reads first is “today” — how they slept, when they ate, what to watch for this shift. Most parents update that and nothing else.
Today a staff member can open your child’s profile on your device the same way a sitter does. A version built for agencies and schools — multiple children, staff accounts, supervisor view — is what we are building next. Tell us if that is what you need and we will come back to you when it exists.
No. It is not a medical device, it does not diagnose or treat anything, and it does not replace supervision, a behavior intervention plan, an IEP, or emergency services. In an emergency, call 911.
The Steady Method, a New Jersey company that trains direct-care staff in de-escalation and behavioral safety. We teach the five-phase model in person to staff in group homes, day programs, schools and ABA agencies. SteadyCare is that model put in the hands of the people who care for one child rather than twenty.
Twenty minutes on a call with us and it is written. It lives on your phone, and nothing leaves it.
Book your setup — $99.50