HeroMe is an AI-powered platform that creates personalized bedtime stories for children ages 4-12. Each story is designed to help children overcome specific challenges like anxiety, fears, and big emotions through engaging adventures where they are the hero.

How does HeroMe work?

HeroMe works in 3 simple steps: 1) Tell us about your child and their challenges, 2) Our AI creates a unique 12-chapter adventure with research-informed storytelling elements, 3) Read one chapter each night at bedtime and watch your child grow.

Is HeroMe safe for children?

Yes, HeroMe is fully COPPA compliant and designed with child safety as a top priority. All content is reviewed for age-appropriateness and quality. We use child-safe AI that never collects personal information from children.

What age range is HeroMe designed for?

HeroMe is designed for children ages 4-12. Our AI adapts the story complexity, vocabulary, and themes based on your child's specific age to ensure the content is engaging and appropriate.

How is ADHD different from normal childhood distractibility?

All children are distractible at times—it's developmentally normal, especially in early childhood. ADHD becomes a clinical concern when attention difficulties are present in multiple settings (home, school, social situations), are significantly more severe than developmental peers, have been present for at least six months, and meaningfully impair academic, social, or family functioning. A formal diagnosis requires comprehensive evaluation by a qualified professional.

What strategies actually help children with focus challenges at home?

The most effective home strategies create external structure that compensates for internal regulation challenges: consistent routines, visual schedules, tasks broken into single steps, and brief movement breaks before demanding work. Avoid asking children to 'just try harder'—instead, identify which environmental modifications make success more achievable. Grounding techniques like pressing feet into the floor or holding a smooth object also help children anchor their attention when their mind is buzzing.

At what age can ADHD be reliably diagnosed?

ADHD can be reliably diagnosed as early as age 4-5, though many children are not identified until school demands exceed their self-regulation capacity, often between ages 6-9. Symptoms must be present before age 12 to meet diagnostic criteria. Girls are often diagnosed later than boys because they tend to present with inattentive rather than hyperactive symptoms, which are less disruptive and therefore less likely to prompt referral.

When should I seek a professional evaluation for my child's attention challenges?

Seek professional evaluation if attention difficulties persist across multiple settings (home, school, and social situations), have been present for more than six months, are significantly more severe than peers of the same age, or are creating meaningful problems in academic achievement, friendships, or family life. Start with your pediatrician, who can rule out other contributors and provide referrals to a child psychologist or neuropsychologist for comprehensive assessment.

How do therapeutic stories help children with focus and ADHD?

Therapeutic stories engage the narrative brain—the part of cognition that remains highly active even in children with attention challenges. When a story features a hero who battles Glitch Gremlins and learns to use the Lens of Focus, children internalize those coping strategies through emotional identification rather than instruction. Personalized stories that mirror a child's specific challenges are particularly powerful because the child sees their own experience reflected and legitimized, and the hero's victory becomes their felt possibility.

Tools That Meet Restless Minds

Helping Your Child Find Focus

Children with focus and attention challenges experience the world as overwhelming, fragmented, and impossibly fast—not because they aren't trying, but because their brain is wired differently. Learn the signs, discover what really helps, and find tools that work.

1 in 9 children are diagnosed with ADHD

Structure helps build lasting focus skills

Learn the signs first

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Personalized for your child

What Are Signs of ADHD and Focus Issues in Children?

Focus challenges and ADHD in children show up as inattention (difficulty following instructions, losing things, easily distracted), hyperactivity (constant movement, inability to sit still), and impulsivity (interrupting, acting without thinking, difficulty waiting). These patterns must be consistent across settings.

Focus struggles don't always look like daydreaming. They often show up as impulsivity, disorganization, or emotional intensity that can be mistaken for laziness, defiance, or immaturity.

Attention Signs

Difficulty finishing tasks, even ones the child genuinely wants to complete
Easily distracted by sounds, sights, or internal thoughts
Frequently losing belongings like homework, toys, or clothing
Appearing not to listen even when spoken to directly
Difficulty following multi-step instructions without reminders

Physical Signs

Constant fidgeting, squirming, or need to touch everything nearby
Difficulty remaining seated for age-appropriate periods
Talking excessively, often interrupting or blurting out answers
Appearing driven by a motor—always "on the go" with no off switch
Difficulty engaging in quiet activities without becoming restless

Behavioral Signs

Impulsive decisions without thinking through consequences
Difficulty organizing tasks, backpacks, or bedroom without help
Emotional outbursts when required to switch between activities
Hyperfocus on highly interesting activities while ignoring everything else
Chronic avoidance of tasks that require sustained mental effort

Remember: Every child is different, and some degree of distractibility is developmentally normal. These signs don't mean your child has ADHD—but they do suggest your child might benefit from structured support and focus-building strategies.

Research-Backed

How Can Parents Support a Child With ADHD?

Support children with focus challenges through structured routines, breaking tasks into small steps, using visual schedules, incorporating movement breaks, minimizing distractions, and choosing stories with short chapters and high engagement. Consistency and patience matter more than any single strategy.

You don't need a clinical diagnosis to help your child build focus skills. These research-informed strategies create the external structure that helps children with attention challenges thrive.

Create Structure and Predictable Environments

Children with focus challenges struggle most in unstructured, unpredictable environments. Consistent routines—for mornings, homework time, and bedtime—remove the cognitive load of figuring out 'what's next,' freeing mental energy for actual tasks. Visual schedules and checklists make the structure tangible and accessible.

Post a simple visual routine where your child can check off each step independently.

Break Tasks Into Small, Concrete Chunks

'Clean your room' is paralyzing. 'Put your books on the shelf' is achievable. Children with attention challenges are not lazy—they genuinely struggle to sequence and initiate complex tasks. Breaking work into one-step instructions with clear endpoints transforms impossible tasks into a series of winnable moments.

Use a timer: '5 minutes on picking up clothes.' A visible countdown externalizes time, which often feels abstract for these children.

Build in Movement Breaks

The body and the brain are not separate. Children with hyperactivity or ADHD process information better after physical movement—it's not a reward for good behavior, it's a neurological need. Short movement breaks (5-10 minutes) before homework or difficult tasks measurably improve attention and output quality.

Try a quick dance, jumping jacks, or a walk outside before homework. Notice the difference.

Use Grounding and Body Awareness Techniques

When a child's mind is buzzing like a storm, helping them notice their physical body creates an anchor. Simple techniques—pressing feet into the floor, holding a smooth stone, noticing five things they can see—activate the sensory system and help children return to the present moment. This is the 'Anchor Stone' skill.

Keep a small, smooth object in your child's backpack as a literal focus anchor they can hold when overwhelmed.

Avoid 'Just Pay Attention'

Telling a child with focus challenges to 'just pay attention' or 'try harder' is like telling a child with poor eyesight to just see better. It creates shame without creating ability. Instead, ask 'What would help you focus right now?' This builds self-awareness and teaches children to identify and ask for the supports they need.

Replace 'Pay attention' with 'I notice you're having a hard time focusing. What do you need?'

Celebrate Effort and Completion, Not Perfection

Children with attention challenges experience more failure feedback than their peers—their best efforts often fall short of standard expectations. Deliberately noticing and naming their effort ('You stayed with that for a whole 10 minutes—that was hard!') builds the resilience and self-concept that sustain long-term progress.

End each day by naming one thing your child persisted through. Make the effort visible.

The Power of Stories

Why Stories Help Children Quiet the Buzzing Storm

Children with attention and focus challenges often struggle to connect with traditional educational approaches—but they connect deeply with stories. Narrative captures attention in a way that worksheets and instructions cannot, because the brain is wired for story.

When a child hears about a hero battling Glitch Gremlins—those mischievous creatures that scramble thoughts and steal focus—something shifts. The struggle is named without shame. The hero finds the Lens of Focus, learns to use the Anchor Stone, and discovers that a different kind of mind can be a superpower with the right tools.

HeroMe stories meet children exactly where they are. They use the child's name, their specific challenges, and their world to create adventures that feel true—because they are, just told in the language of myth rather than diagnosis.

92%

of parents report improved bedtime experience

15min

of connected reading before bed recommended

What Makes HeroMe Different

Personalized to Your Child

Stories feature your child's name, their specific focus challenges, and their real-world distractions transformed into conquerable story obstacles a hero can face and overcome.

Evidence-Based Framework

Every story arc is built on evidence-based CBT approaches—Selective Attention Training and Grounding and Body Awareness—woven naturally into narratives that are impossible to put down.

Perfect for Bedtime

12 chapters designed to be read one per night—creating a calming, predictable routine that helps transition restless minds toward rest.

Parent Guidance Included

Each chapter comes with discussion prompts and real-world activities that translate story skills—like the Anchor Stone—into practical daily strategies.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions parents ask about childhood focus challenges and ADHD.

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Your child's story of focus starts tonight

In just 5 minutes, create a personalized adventure that helps your child quiet the Buzzing Storm and discover the Lens of Focus—all through a story made just for them.

Takes 5 minutes

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