Samboards – Tactile Sensory Boards for Neurodivergent Minds

Samboards is a small company in Dursley, Gloucestershire, that designs tactile sensory boards and makes them by hand in Britain. A board is a surface of textured squares to run a thumb or fingers across — a quiet, screen-free way for an autistic person, someone with ADHD, or anyone managing anxiety to steady themselves or hold focus when a room, a meeting or a lesson is asking too much. Alongside the full boards there are smaller pieces made to clip onto keys or a lanyard, so the texture can travel with the person rather than stay on a desk.

The boards were developed with outside input rather than taken from a catalogue. Early prototypes were 3D printed with the Gloucestershire Research and Innovation Programme, trialled in schools, and refined with engineering students at the University of Gloucestershire, who tested materials for durability, texture and cost. The company's board brings experience of autism, mental health and dementia care alongside product design, 3D printing and intellectual property, and health professionals, teachers and therapists were consulted along the way. The boards are food-safe and dishwasher safe — a practical point in a classroom or care setting where the same board passes between many hands.

Samboards also applies the idea to learning. Its SATPIN letter board carries the six letters taught first in UK phonics — S, A, T, P, I and N — in textured form, enough to build more than a hundred words by touch, and suits early readers and anyone who learns better through their hands. The company sells a sensory kit put together for Access to Work applications, individual square fidgets, and tools for people living with dementia and in later life. Its customers include NHS services, schools, therapists and families, and it takes requests for custom pieces. It is a product maker rather than a service, so there is no assessment or programme attached — the boards are designed to be picked up and used.