A Calm, Strengths-Based Autism Companion
Nello is a gentle, private companion for parents of autistic kids — and for autistic teens and adults tracking themselves. Log behaviors, meltdowns, sensory moments and wins in seconds; Nello finds the patterns behind the hard days, builds a calm kit, and helps you share your child's needs with a sitter, teacher, or doctor — all without the deficit framing.
What it does:
- Fast daily log — meltdown/shutdown, sensory, sleep, food, toileting, and wins in a tap or two
- Meltdown decoder — capture meltdowns as Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence (ABC)
- Win jar / "glimmers" — celebrate the small victories that protect your morale
- Calm kit — your child's personalized "what actually calms them," one tap away in a crisis
- Visual schedules, first-then boards & gentle transition timers
- A self-tracking mode so autistic people can track themselves, not just be tracked
- Local-first & private — your child's data never leaves the phone
How It Works
⚡ Fast Daily Log
Capture a meltdown or shutdown, a sensory moment, sleep, food, toileting, or a win — each in a tap or two. Logging is so quick you can do it in the middle of a hard moment, so your records actually stay complete.
🔍 Meltdown Decoder (ABC)
Record meltdowns as Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence in under a minute. Over time, the ABC view helps you see what really led up to a hard moment instead of just what happened.
✨ Win Jar & Glimmers
Nello isn't only for the hard days. Catch the small victories and the things that go right — the glimmers — because protecting a parent's morale is what keeps the whole system going.
💚 Calm Kit
Build your child's personalized list of what actually calms them — dim lights, deep pressure, a favorite song — so it's one tap away when you need it most. Stimming is regulation, not a problem to fix.
📊 FBA-Ready ABC Data Report
Frequency per day, duration, a time-of-day heatmap and the antecedent, consequence and setting tables a BCBA or IEP team reads, as PDF + CSV (Nello+). Need paper? The free printable ABC data sheet uses the same columns.
🏫 School-Day Log Link
Send the teacher or aide a link: a small web form logs a hard moment as ABC, or a win, straight into the family's shared record. No app and no account for school. How it works.
🔒 Private by Design
No account, no login. Every log lives in a local database on your phone. Share with family is optional: only then do entries travel, over an encrypted connection, so the other phones can fetch them. Photos never leave the phone.
A Look Inside
Made for Real Days
👪 Parents & Caregivers
- Turn chaotic days into patterns you can actually act on
- Capture meltdowns fast with ABC, even mid-moment
- Keep morale up with the win jar and daily glimmers
🧑 Autistic Teens & Adults
- Track yourself with a dedicated self-tracking mode — not just be tracked
- Notice your sensory seekers and avoiders, and what helps you regulate
- Affirming language throughout — a spiky profile, never "low-functioning"
🩺 Sharing With Your Circle
- Hand a sitter or teacher a clear snapshot of the calm kit and needs
- Bring a one-page advocate report to the pediatrician or IEP meeting
- Show the patterns, not weeks of half-remembered notes
Nello+
Nello's core tracking, calm kit, and full accessibility are free forever — no card needed to explore. Nello+ adds insight and sharing, and runs 100% on-device: pattern insights, a weekly recap built on the phone from your own logs, the advocate report and the FBA-ready ABC data report (PDF + CSV), and unlimited kids + history. Billing is store-managed — cancel anytime in Google Play or the App Store. No dark-pattern trials; we literally can't trap you.
Annual
Best value — works out to about $1.67/month, billed yearly.
Monthly
Flexible month-to-month access to Nello+.
Lifetime
A single one-time purchase — no subscription, yours to keep. The trust play for stretched families.
Prices may vary by region and are shown in the app at the time of purchase. All three options unlock the same Nello+ features. Manage or cancel a subscription anytime in your device's App Store or Google Play subscription settings. See our Terms for full subscription details.
What is Nello?
Nello is a calm, strengths-based autism tracking app for parents of autistic kids — and for autistic teens and adults tracking themselves. It logs meltdowns as Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC), sensory moments, sleep, food and wins, builds a calm kit, and surfaces patterns. It is local-first, and available on iOS and Android.
There is no account — your child's data is stored in a private database on your phone, and leaves it only if you turn on Share with family. The optional Nello+ upgrade adds pattern insights, a weekly recap built on the phone from your own logs, the advocate report and the FBA-ready ABC data report, and unlimited kids and history. Share with family (free) keeps one record across the family's phones, and a school-day log link lets a teacher add the school day with no app or account. Nello is not a diagnosis and not therapy.
Guides
- Free ABC data sheet: printable chart + online ABC log
- What an FBA-ready ABC summary contains (live sample)
- Home–school communication log: the school-day log link
- ABC data collection: antecedent, behavior, consequence
- Autistic meltdown vs tantrum vs shutdown: how to tell the difference
- Signs of sensory overload, and how a sensory profile is tracked
Frequently asked questions
What is the meltdown decoder (ABC)?
The meltdown decoder records a meltdown as Antecedent, Behavior and Consequence in under a minute — what led up to it, what happened, and what helped afterward. Over time, the ABC view helps you see what really led up to a hard moment instead of just what happened.
Is Nello available on iPhone and Android?
Yes. Nello is available on the App Store for iOS and on Google Play for Android.
How much does Nello cost?
Nello's core tracking, calm kit, and full accessibility are free forever — no card needed to explore. The optional Nello+ upgrade is $3.99 / month, $19.99 / year, or $39.99 once for lifetime access, and all three options unlock the same Nello+ features. Prices may vary by region and are shown in the app at the time of purchase.
Where is my child's data stored?
Everything stays on your phone. There is no account, no login and no cloud backend — profiles, daily logs, ABC records, sensory notes, wins and the calm kit are stored only in a local database on your device. The only data that ever leaves the phone is purchase and subscription data, handled by Apple, Google and RevenueCat to validate Nello+.
Does Nello work offline?
Yes. Because your data lives on your device, logging, the meltdown decoder, the calm kit and report generation all work without an internet connection. A connection is only needed to make or restore a purchase, or, if you share with family, to send and fetch entries; shared phones keep working offline and catch up later.
Can autistic teens and adults use Nello to track themselves?
Yes. Nello includes a self-tracking mode so autistic people can track themselves, not just be tracked. You can note your sensory seekers and avoiders, what helps you regulate, the hard moments and the wins, in affirming, strengths-based language.
Does Nello diagnose autism?
No. Nello is a calm self-tracking and organization tool that gently informs. It does not diagnose any condition, does not provide therapy, and is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or educational advice. Always consult a qualified professional.
How do I delete my data?
Because everything is stored on your device, you are in full control. You can delete individual entries in the app, clear the app's data from within the app or your device settings, or uninstall the app to permanently remove all of its locally stored data. There is no server-side copy for us to delete.
Privacy First — Your Child's Data Stays on the Phone
Nello is built local-first. Here's exactly how it works:
- No account, no cloud, no server. You don't sign up or log in. There is no backend that receives your data — nothing to leak and nothing to fail.
- Your data never leaves the device. Behavior, meltdown and ABC logs, sensory notes, wins, child profiles, the calm kit, and notes are stored only in a local database (SQLite) on your phone.
- On-device AI. The optional weekly digest runs a small model entirely on the phone (an opt-in download). It only summarizes your own logs — your child's data never leaves the device.
- You share, not us. Care-circle sharing and the advocate report are PDFs/snapshots generated on your device and shared only if and when you choose.
- One billing helper. The only data that ever leaves your phone is purchase/subscription data, handled by Apple, Google, and RevenueCat to validate Nello+. They never receive your child's or health data.
For complete details, see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.