Fidjit

Fidjit is a multifaceted digital programme facilitating high-quality support for primary-aged neurodiverse children with potential mental health or emotional regulatory difficulties.

What we did:

Big Change funded Dominic Starkey as a finalist in our Big Education Challenge in 2024.
Early- stage funding and tailored support from Big Change enabled Dominic to test the Fidjit programme with schools and enhance the programme's features.

The Spark

Following changes to SEND diagnosis and provision in 2010, more students with special educational needs are placed in mainstream education. Staff are challenged with teaching a diverse range of students and must navigate rigid systems in order to give their students tailored support, and they often need to do this without up to date evidence and data of their students’ needs.

The current digital tools addressing this issue often focus on the medical side of mental health, do not meet staff needs, and are diagnosis dependent.

The impact

Fidjit facilitates holistic and personalised support for young people with special educational needs. This is through a series of tailored CBT-style interactive activities, AI generated reporting and trend tracking to capture the child’s needs on a daily basis, and a chat feature to enable quick and easy communication between home and school. Parents and teachers are empowered to work together to create a learning environment that promotes the child's mental health and emotional regulation.

Early-stage funding and tailored support from Big Change enabled Dominc to test the Fidjit programme with schools and enhance the programme's features.

Dominic’s ultimate vision for this project is to launch this service so it is accessible to all children within the UK, enhancing the education experience for over 1.5 million students.

Fidjit is a movement with an enormous mission to create an inclusive and accessible society for all. We understand and celebrate human individuality and see neurodiversity as a superpower which should be unleashed and nourished to flourish.
Dominic Starkey

The Big Changemaker

Dominic Starkey

Dominic found a love of tailoring support for children and young people to optimise their learning through completing an apprenticeship working closely with a child with autism and working as a special educational needs teaching assistant. During his time teaching first aid in Kenya, Dominic advocated for the need for more inclusive and adaptive learning environments.

His passion for education, and in particular SEND, also stems from his experience of growing up with a sister with autism which demonstrated the daily struggles of neurodiversity as well as the talents neurodiverse young people possess. This lived experience has driven Dominc to create Fidjit and build a team of people dedicated to making real change for neurodiverse young people.