1940’s
Animal Studies, Environmental Enrichment, Brain Plasticity
Since the late 1940’s animal studies have shown that enriching the environment leads to improvements in brain development, including Temple Grandin’s work on the “Effect of rearing environment and environmental enrichment on behavior and neural development in young pigs.”
1990’s
Creation of Sensory Enrichment Therapy™ by Claudie Pomares
In the 1990’s, the clinician Claudie Pomares, M.Sc., M.S.Ed. organized and adapted the protocols used in animal studies into therapeutic games that parents could do with their children and then she began the implementation of these programs in daycares and schools in France.
2010
Pilot Clinical Trial on Autism with Michael Leon at University of California Irvine
Department of Neurobiology & Behavior
University of California, Irvine
In 2010 Michael Leon, PhD, who had discovered the benefits of combining smell and touch sensory inputs, was the first to do an evaluation of the effectiveness of Sensory Enrichment Therapy on a population of children with autism.
2011
Mendability® is Founded
In 2011, these successes led entrepreneur and philanthropist, Eyal Aronoff to invest in the development of Mendability. The base of Mendability is an expert system that collated all the therapy protocols used and then automated the customization of the therapy to suit age, challenges, and developmental level. On top of that base, Mendability built a web application to deliver the therapy over the Internet.
Mr. Aronoff explains: “When I found Sensory Enrichment Therapy, Claudie Pomares was the only provider and it was expensive. I built Mendability around the idea that it should be easy to access and affordable.”
2013
Publication in Behavioral Neuroscience
In May 2013, the results were published by the American Psychological Association’s journal: “Behavioral Neuroscience.” These results were recognized by the American Psychological Association with the prestigious D.G. Marquis Award for best Neuroscience paper for 2013.
2014
World Class Leadership
In April 2014 Mendability was incorporated in the United States and Rich Bohne was named as the company’s CEO.
Bohne has 25 years of experience in sales and sales management in the software industry, most recently managing the Americas’s software business for Dell. He is also the father of a teenage daughter with autism.
2015
Second Study Confirms Again that Sensory Enrichment Therapy™ Is an Effective Autism Treatment
Following the success of the first clinical study of Sensory Enrichment Therapy as an effective autism treatment, the replication study was completed and published. The results again show that Sensory Enrichment Therapy is effective in reducing the symptoms of autism.
Rapid Growth
Since its incorporation, the company, headquartered in American Fork, Utah, is experiencing rapid growth and is continuing to enhance the therapy and the important service that is offered to families.
2017
Health Professionals Can Now Certify in Sensory Enrichment Therapy
After a successful pilot training course for professionals in 2016, Mendability developed the online certification course and currently has over 250 certified therapists worldwide.
2020
Sensory Enrichment in School Districts
In 2020, Mendability launched a program at the Grand Prairie independent school district in Texas.
The program contains an implementation of an enriched environment for special needs children in a group setting.
The program is now growing in School Districts through the US and Canada.
2022
Sensory Enrichment in Addiction Recovery Centers and Youth Residential Programs
In 2022, Mendability launched its first addiction recovery program with great success, greatly multiplying the effect of current standard practices for more resilience and a lower dependence.