Justin Bowman had a dream his son would be autistic before the boy was even born. He woke up, told his pregnant wife about it, and never forgot it. Years later, his son Sawyer was diagnosed with level 1 autism.
Justin is a tech guy. He works in product, he codes, he describes himself as a fixer. And autism parenting handed him the one problem a fixer can't solve. You can't fix autism. So he did the next best thing. He built something to support his son. It's called VizyPlan, and this week he came back on the show for a deeper dive than his Seen and Heard episode earlier this season.
What you'll hear
The dream Justin had before Sawyer was born
Why waiting on evaluation results feels like waiting on the SATs
The fixer instinct dads struggle with, and a healthier reframe
The grocery-store meltdowns that inspired VizyPlan
The moment Sawyer saw himself as the hero character and it clicked
How VizyPlan handles IEP transcription, social stories, visual schedules, and advocacy
Why one app beats juggling six
Privacy: VizyPlan does not train its models on your child's data
"I would have paid any amount of money to help him. Any amount of money."
Justin Bowman
Who is Justin Bowman?
Justin Bowman is the founder and CEO of VizyPlan and Associate Director of Product Management at Chewy. He's based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, coaches varsity hockey, and is an autism dad. He and his wife Danielle, a speech-language pathologist, have two children: Sawyer, who is turning six and is diagnosed with level 1 autism, and Peyton, who is four.
What inspired Justin to build VizyPlan?
The honest answer is parking lots. Justin and Danielle would sit outside a Target or a Home Depot for an hour because Sawyer couldn't understand what was about to happen, and the not-knowing turned into pure anxiety.
They tried the playbook every autism parent is handed. Stick figures. Laminated cutouts. A three-ring binder with 300 images they could flip through to show Sawyer what came next. It worked, but it wasn't practical, and life moves faster than a binder.
Then came a small family party at his sister's house. Fifteen people. Sawyer couldn't go in. Justin sat in the other room with his son and felt helpless. That was the moment. He works in tech, so he asked himself: is there something I can build that could help with this?
What was the moment VizyPlan clicked?
Justin took a photo of Sawyer and made him the hero character of his own daily routine, showing him doing the next thing on the schedule. Sawyer lit up. "That's me, and we're going there." That was the proof. A child who couldn't always process what was coming could see himself doing it, and it changed how he felt about it.
What does VizyPlan actually do?
VizyPlan started as a visual routine app and grew into an all-in-one support tool. In one app it includes:
Visual schedules with your child as the hero character (a real photo, or a generated avatar if you prefer privacy)
Social story creation, printable, with your child as the star (some services charge $50 to $150 for these)
IEP and appointment transcription that summarizes the meeting, flags service gaps, and suggests questions to ask
An advocacy playbook ("Busy Advocate") that tells you what to ask and what the process looks like in your area
A provider module so therapists' goals and objectives translate into plain language for parents
Calendar integration with Google and Apple Calendar
Visual timers and emotional regulation tools
A copilot that builds out your weekly schedule and generates the images for you
How does VizyPlan help with IEP meetings?
This was the feature Rob keyed in on. Walking into an IEP meeting on no sleep, you forget the questions you meant to ask and you leave unsure of what was actually said. VizyPlan's transcriber (with a built-in consent prompt) records the meeting, summarizes it, flags potential service gaps, and suggests next steps and questions. Providers get their own view that suggests goals and objectives from the same conversation. As Justin put it, it isn't a gotcha. It's a collaboration tool that meets parents and providers in the middle.
Is my child's data safe with VizyPlan?
Justin was direct about this. VizyPlan does not train its AI models on your child's data or your information. The models are already built to take information in and support you, not to harvest data. Privacy terms are written out in the app. For families putting sensitive information about their kids into any tool, this matters.
How much does VizyPlan cost?
VizyPlan is $9.99 a month for your whole family, with full access to every feature. It's on the Apple App Store and available as a web app at vizyplan.com, with Google Play coming soon. Listeners of The Autism Dad Podcast get a 30-day free trial with code theautismdad at vizyplan.com/app.
The bigger theme: fix versus support
The thread running through this whole conversation is the fixer instinct, and how many dads break against it. You see your kid struggling, you want to make it stop, and when you can't, you start to feel like a failure.
Justin's reframe is the healthy one. You can't fix autism, and there's nothing broken to fix. But you can support your kid, meet him where he is, and build the scaffolding that makes his day make sense. VizyPlan is that idea turned into software. It isn't a silver bullet, and Justin is the first to say so. It's a support tool.
Try VizyPlan
30-day free trial with code theautismdad at vizyplan.com/app. Just $9.99 a month for your whole family.
Sponsors this week
Best Part Kids sensory-friendly multivitamin (code AUTISMDAD, bestpartkids.com)
Mightier emotional-regulation games (code theautismdad22, mightier.com)
Algonot science-backed supplements (code ROB5, algonot.com)
About Rob
Rob Gorski is the founder of The Autism Dad, a blog and podcast dedicated to supporting parents raising kids on the autism spectrum. As a dad of three autistic sons with over 25 years of experience, Rob brings lived experience, honesty, and heart to every conversation.
Rob's first book, So Your Child Was Just Diagnosed with Autism, is out December 29, 2026 from Quarto. Preorder and updates at theautismdad.com/book.
