Christian is currently a Grade 7 student in SAIS. He has difficulties in meeting the demands of the school curriculum and performs below grade level expectations. Teachers also reported that Chris displays task avoidance behaviors and requires more support to understand instructions when it comes to academic tasks. Socially, he finds it hard to communicate his ideas and understand social cues. Hence, he tends to misunderstand social situations, which may lead to conflicts with his peers.

We engaged the services of Nurture Pods. The behavior therapists worked together with the school teachers to provide a differentiated curriculum for Chris to have meaningful learning. They also did pre-teaching, homework and unit test preparations with learning materials customized to Christian’s strengths and needs. Apart from that, the therapists would also provide us necessary information for us to be involve with Christian’s academics. This has greatly decreased the frustration that we used to experience when doing homework with Christian. With their involvement in Christian’s academics, we have received lots of positive feedback during IEP meetings that Christian is much more engaged during lessons and teachers find him enthusiastic in his learning. He is able to recall and make connections to content being taught in class, displaying his understanding of what he had learnt prior to lesson.

Besides academics, the behavior therapists employ strategies that encouraged Christian’s good behaviors. Their pre-teaching has encouraged Christian to be appropriately on-topic during lessons. With the use of token economy and natural consequences reinforcement, Christian’s task avoidance behaviors when it comes to academics have greatly decreased. Not only that he is willing to work hard to attain good grades, at times he would even initiate to start working on his homework.

The therapists also worked with Christian to manage his frustration. Their use of social stories and behavior management strategies have provided Christian a sense of control over his emotions. Apart from decreasing his frustration, Christian is also able to deal with his frustration in more appropriate ways. Christian and the therapists would practise the strategies at home. In school, the therapists would prime him to prepare him for situations that may cause frustration. With many practices, Christian is able to generalize and employ the strategies independently in school and at home most of the time.

Christian has improved so much. He is having a much more positive learning experience in school. His IEP, previously focused on academics and academic-related behaviors, has now moved on to cultivating his social skills. We are happy with the services provided by Nurture Pods and excited to continue our journey with them.