About Us

Specializing in products for special needs children, we love to help parents create the ideal environment for their children to thrive in. We are here to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. Dedicated to helping families and children through our products, digital courses & community, we are passionate about finding every avenue to create as much impact as possible.

Our Company

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THE LONG

Harkla started in 2015 with the goal of helping those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. From the start, we have always provided high-quality products backed by bend-over-backward customer service and a lifetime guarantee.

While the company started with the founder, Casey Ames, working out of a small apartment alone, we’ve been able to grow into a bigger & greater company. With our Harkla Happiness Team behind the scenes, we are always striving to have a larger impact in the sensory & special needs community.

With our growth, we’ve been able to add additional ways to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We now offer digital courses, a membership group, and informational podcast all focused around sensory challenges and facilitating child development. We are passionate about helping families and therapists navigate the sensory world in order to help more people struggling with their sensory processing abilities.

Here at Harkla, we don’t want our relationship to become transactional. We love to engage with our customers and community. We are here to support and give them the tools and resources to live a holistic and healthy life. Our entire team’s goal is to help therapists and families everywhere have the ability to understand their children or themselves and meet their sensory needs.

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THE SHORT

Harkla was started over five years ago with a mission to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives.

Over the years, Harkla has helped over one hundred thousand families feel more calm at home, focus in the classroom, and more growth, development, and joy.

Our Mission

Our mission is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives

How We Help

High quality products

The main way we accomplish our mission of improving the lives of those with special needs is by providing the highest-quality products we possibly can.

We focus on creating products that help improve sleep and comfort at home, focus and behavior in the classroom, and growth and development at therapy.

We are here to provide the sensory and special needs community with quality over quantity when it comes to the products & resources that help the most.

Actionable Advice & Supportive Community

At Harkla, we don’t feel like our relationship should revolve around you purchasing a product. Between our weekly podcast and YouTube videos, library of actionable articles, and our Instagram filled with tips, we want to continue helping you raise confident and happy kiddos.

On top of our endless free content, we work hard to provide in-depth trainings for parents, teachers, and therapists when it comes to child development. We’ll help you become a sensory rockstar in no time!

How You Help

We couldn’t Do it Without YOU

To continue our mission and to support the sensory community, we donate 1% of every sale to the University of Washington Autism Center.

This means that part of every purchase you make with us makes an impact on someone else’s life. The money donated funds research focused on autism, covers the expenses of therapy for families in need, and provides summer camp scholarships to children in the special needs community.

Learn More

The Values We Hold

At Harkla, we have a lot of strongly held beliefs on how our company should accomplish our mission.

Products should last a lifetime

We understand that a lot of the products we make are going to get heavily used in classrooms, therapy, and at home. That’s why we spend extra time working to create high-quality, heavy-duty products.

Since we truly believe they should last a lifetime, we offer a guarantee that lasts a lifetime.

If a product doesn’t work for you, you shouldn’t have to pay for it

Anyone familiar with special needs knows every child is different. A product that works miracles for one family may not work for another.

If this is the case, there is no reason you should be stuck with it. That’s why we provide a lifetime guarantee and pay for return shipping for any order.

Interacting with our company should feel like talking with a friend

You have too much going on to deal with unfriendly customer service. We believe in bend-over-backward & caring customer service. When you interact with our team, you’ll know you’re talking to a real human who cares (you may even become best friends). You’ll feel confident reaching out to us with any issues, questions, or concerns.

Meet The Harkla Happiness Team

Casey Ames

Founder & CEO

Amelia Tiedemann

BRAND MANAGER |
GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Jessica Hill

IN-HOUSE EXPERT |
COTA/L

Nicole Przychodzen

Customer Care Lead

Samantha Castillo

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Rachel Harrington

IN-HOUSE EXPERT |
COTA/L, AC

Casey Ames

Founder & CEO

Nicole Przychodzen

Customer Care Lead

Amelia Tiedemann

BRAND MANAGER |
GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Samantha Castillo

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Jessica Hill

IN-HOUSE EXPERT |
COTA/L

Rachel Harrington

IN-HOUSE EXPERT |
COTA/L, AC

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Our In-House Sensory & Development Experts

Learn from OUR two passionate (& Super fun) Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants

Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC and Jessica Hill, COTA/L joined Harkla in early 2021 as the team’s in-house experts.

They are both Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants who specialize in Sensory Integration and Primitive Reflex Integration.

After over 6 years of working with children in outpatient settings, they realized they wanted to bring their expertise to more families and therapists. With this mission in mind, they started the All Things Sensory Podcast, and have been creating in-depth trainings to help children with sensory issues and retained primitive reflexes.

Their goal at Harkla is to empower and educate families, caregivers, therapists, and educators and ultimately create strong, confident children!
Rachel Harrington

COTA/L, AC

Rachel is a Pediatric Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant who is dedicated to helping children with different abilities feel confident in their own skin. She holds her Autism Certificate, and is continuing her education in Handwriting Without Tears, Primitive Reflex Integration, Sensory Integration, and more! Rachel lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, young son, and dog, and can be found outside hiking, playing games, and not taking life too seriously!
Jessica Hill
Jessica Hill

COTA/L

Jessica is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant who specializes in Pediatrics. She is passionate about helping children become healthy, happy, and confident members of society. She has training and experience in Primitive Reflex Integration, Sensory Integration, feeding, and parent training. Jessica and her son live in Boise, Idaho with their two crazy cats and enjoy hiking, swimming, and traveling!

Our Team Of Expert Writers

We work with experts in the special needs world to bring you high-quality, helpful advice on the Harkla Blog

Dr. Cara Koscinski

OTD, MOT, OTR/L

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Shea Brogren

MOT, OTR/L

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Molly Shaw Wilson

MS OTR/L, BCP

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Alescia Ford-Lanza

MS OTR/L, ATP

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Our Team Of Expert Writers

We work with experts in the special needs world to bring you high-quality, helpful advice on the Harkla Blog

Dr. Cara Koscinski

OTD, MOT, OTR/L

+
Shea Brogren

MOT, OTR/L

+
Molly Shaw Wilson

MS OTR/L, BCP

+
Alescia Ford-Lanza

MS OTR/L, ATP

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Featured In + Awards

Giving Back On Our Sales

1% of all Sales go to the University of Washington Autism CenteR

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At Harkla, our goal is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. To continue this mission, we donate 1% of every sale to the University of Washington Autism Center. This money gets split between providing families in the Seattle area access to therapy they can’t afford, funding cutting edge autism research, and our annual scholarship to the University of Washington Autism Center’s APEX Summer Camp.

“As a business committed to supporting families, Harkla has generously provided multiple scholarships so that children with autism and ADHD can attend our summer camp at the UW Autism Center. We’re grateful for Harkla’s support!”

Benjamin Aaronson, PhD
Director, APEX Summer Camp Program
University of Washington Autism Center

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