Last year, Brian struggled with following directions and being respectful to staff. He often needed frequent breaks away from class because he failed to participate or stay on task. He instigated arguments with other students and often initiated negative behaviors among peers and staff. It was very hard for him to open up and trust his teachers, but Brian had a goal. Brian wanted to achieve gold level at school and to do so required a complete change to his behaviors and full staff support.

From the first day of the 2019-2020 school year, at The Center for Autism and Dyslexia, Brian’s teachers worked on building a foundation of trust for their relationships to grow. They encouraged him daily for every positive behavior he exhibited in order to build trust. Each day it was important to encourage Brian by pointing out each positive behavior they witnessed and by reminding him how close he was to gold. His teachers also reassured him daily that he was capable of making it to gold level. A lot of time, love, and patience has been put into helping Brian to be the best student he can be.

Brian’s teachers led by example and showed Brian respect. In return, he shows them the same respect back. Brian responded well to the behavior model because his goal from the beginning was to achieve gold level. To ensure he wouldn’t receive a minus, he made sure to ask for appropriate voluntary time outs and completed all of his work during rotations. He also wanted to work toward the freedoms and privileges that came with being gold.

Having a firm foundation is the key to future growth for Brian. Given Brian’s past behaviors it truly makes me proud to see how far he has come in my class. Brian is proud of himself too—you can see it by the way he carries himself. He smiles all the time and has become a joy to have in class!

R. Thompson, Middle School 2 Teacher

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