Review - FiLIP2 - Watch, Phone, and Tracking Device

I have been waiting a while to write this review. I wanted to make sure the review was as accurate as possible. Based on our lack of success previously, I wanted to make sure that I actually thought that this product would work. For our previous failure you can read my review of AngleSense (I think it is a great product, but it did not work for my high functioning daughter).

I looked at a lot of websites before purchasing another product. I talked with my daughter through it all also. The reality is that she was perfectly capable of destroying anything that I purchased - so I might as well not bother if she is going to do another toilet flush.

It is a PHONE!

When I came across the FiLIP2 phone I was ecstatic. My first thought is that this is one product that I can sell to my daughter. She had a cell phone, but at ten she often left it in her backpack, and then complained because she did not have it when she needed to call me. My daughter has random bits of separation anxiety that seems to come and goes. A cell phone has been a way we have been dealing with that for a while now.

It also had the parental controls that I had on her other cell phone. If anything this phone is even more locked down. You can choose up to five numbers that can call the phone, and that the phone can also call back. Only those numbers have access - no one can slip through.

The names are stored in the phone. The child can select the name they want to call and it dials. It took my daughter all of four seconds to figure out the two buttons and what they did.

The phone only works on speaker phone. Everyone around can hear the conversation. The volume is not overly loud, so if we are in public it is not concerning. It is great if your daughter calls you because the bus showed up in front of the house 30 minutes early, and you just left work. The bus driver can hear you as you explain where you are and how soon you will be there (yep that happened this week).

I read about complains in hearing the child speak. I do not have any complaints. As long as she holds the watch up near her mouth I hear her just fine. We have tested it (a lot) with grandma (who has problems hearing everyone) and it worked just fine - so it passed with flying colors.

It is a WATCH!

About this same time my daughter was insistent about wearing a watch. If your child hates watches. . . this may not work. Ultimately it is a watch.

No one needs to know that this is a cell phone. My daughter wears it to school with zero problems. That being said the teachers probably found out it was a cell phone is less then 30 seconds, knew it was to replace the device she flushed down the toilet at school (ie - if she runs at school this will help them also), and she is currently not in a mainstream classroom. Still, it really would not be hard for this to pass as just a watch.

The clock face is really cool. There are different options for displaying the time. You have your traditional number format, and you have the time written out in words. My daughter prefers the words. Her watch will say Nine Seventeen instead of 9:17. If there are other displays I never see them. My daughter keeps it on the words consistently now.

The watch is big. Some people may not like this. I love it. It makes it easy to find when she puts it down. She takes it off all the time - she does everything - and fidgets with it. Sometimes it just put down, sometimes it gets put back on. I developed a rule before she got it - she had to have it on anytime she is out of the house. She took it off a lot at first. She kept it off for most of the time at therapy at first. Now it is on almost all the time. She even forgets to take it off for Taekwondo class - so if she can get used to it. . . besides big is in - and I really like that it is hard to loose.

If you do loose it - you can also call it - BONUS!

You can send MESSAGES!

L currently has therapy three times a week. It is a group program. Most of the time I tag team drop off and pick up with Grandma (family is great). When I arrive to pick her up I open my app and text her that I am there. She gets a simple notification that tells her to look at her phone.

Text messaging is one way. At first this drove L nuts - she was used to using her phone to text me. Now she just calls me back if she needs to. Adding a way for the watch to text back would be pretty impractical with the design. Besides, L's text messages were always interesting anyway, I prefer a phone call.

The phone only has one option for services. It goes through AT&T. We are a Sprint family so it is the only phone on a different network, but I am pretty ok with it. The service is only ten dollars a month and includes unlimited calling and unlimited data. The truth is that this phone is not made for your child to call you a ton, and it really does not eat up data since that is only used for the GPS. However, it is nice not having to worry about it at all.

A Review of AngelSense GPS Tracking Device

I first heard about the AngelSense GPS Tracking Device from the blog Autism Daddy. At the time L was just released from the ER, she was completely unstable, but they could not find her a bed in an inpatient hospital.

L was running more then three times a week. I was loosing track of her for more then 30 minutes at a time. She was suicidal and prone to risky behaviors - and she was running on the side of busy roads (in SoCal try and not find a busy road!).

I needed to try something and the AngelSense device looked perfect.

This is where I will interrupt my review to say that I was looking at this device for a gifted child with Aspergers who's IQ score for visual spatial ability is in the 99th percentile for her age. I say this because she is a kid who can figure out things that should not be figured out. My review is based on this.

If you are looking at this device for a child who is a bit more compliant then I would recommend that you check out the review by Autism Daddy - it will probably be more relevant (of course you can also finish reading mine).

The device website is great. You can chat with a customer service representative, all of which are autistic parents who are working from home. My first area of concern was that the device was secure. I was instructed that the device would securely attach to the inside of a pocket. I figured that with thirty days to try the device I would let L test it out. If she could detach it then I would return it - no loss on my part (all good intentions right?).

The interaction for the device is pretty great. It is a website that can be saved like an app on your mobile device - or activated directly from the website. You can call the device to hear where your child is, and you can receive updates when your child leaves or enters a location. I loved knowing that L left her Grandma's house, saw the bus schedule, and saw that she made it to school. The information was text to my phone and I did not have to worry.

About nine in the morning I decided to see how the dial feature worked. It didn't. I checked into the device and found that the signal could no longer be located. I honestly thought that maybe the signal was blocked by the school building.

No such luck. Less then four hours after attaching the device to the inside of my daughter's pocket she ripped it out and flushed it down the toilet. The device is not waterproof - at all!

It was extremely easy for her to detach the device. The tracker is put in a cloth case.

On both sides of the case their are little pins that go through the device and secure it to the pocket.

The pins themselves are only detached by a strong powerful magnet. It is pretty impressive.

What is not impressive is that the cloth itself is venerable. If you attach it to the inside of the pocket then the cloth is easy to rip - L is 10 and she apparently ripped it out with her bare hands without any problem. If you attach it to the outside material of the pocket then you can see the metal pins. It also could be cut out pretty easy, and depending on the material of the outside of the pants, it also could be ripped out. The case itself is cloth, so even if the pins stay to the clothes, the device's pouch could pretty easily be damaged.

L complained that she felt self conscious of having the device on her - which is why she flushed it down the toilet. However, she ripped it off because it was causing sensory problems.

With no device to return I paid the company a hundred dollars and they cancelled my service. The customer service was nice, and I think that AngelSense can do a lot of good for a lot of people. I wish I could write a raving review - I really want to. It would be a lie. For higher functioning children this device will, for the most part, be a waste of money. My main concern for children who are more compliant, and would not think of ripping the device out of their pocket, is that it may cause sensory overload.

The interaction with the device is great.

The updates from the device is great.

The security of the device on the person is severely flawed.

The durability of the device is almost non existent - it lasted less then four hours for us.

There is a concern of the device causing sensory issues. This is not a problem if the device is placed in a backpack - but what child takes their backpack when they wonder or run????

The company is great from my experience. I think the line could expand to something that would be more usable for other families.

L destroyed the device at the beginning of the school day. At the end of the day she ran. Thankfully her new school is better equipped at handling the running and she was ok. I, however, am still on the lookout for something that would better help us.