Success Story: Matthew

Matthew has been a Learner at Bloom360 for the past five years and has grown tremendously in his ability to communicate with the Learning Guides and his peers about how he feels and what he needs. When he started with Bloom360 he could talk about being happy or sad and would become dysregulated when feeling angry, frustrated or annoyed. Now, Matthew is able to name many emotions, talk about them, and most importantly, he is empowered to choose tools to help him self-regulate during times of big emotions. Recently, when another learner’s voice was too loud for Matthew he was able to say, “That’s so loud! I need to take a walk.” He took a walk down the hall, was able to self-regulate and then returned to the sensory gym to continue the session with the other Learner. This is a great example of the strides that Matthew has made and the new behaviors he’s learning and modeling to younger Learners. Matthew is also giving high fives and saying he has a new friend!

Matthew has gone from doing short learning activities at the table where he was hesitant to try new things to being able to not only engage in longer projects but also share his creative work! This fall he did a big project on emotions, using A Little Spot of Feelings, exploring love and love of learning. This was his first project presenting to all his peers and Learning Guides and he rocked it!  This is part of the outcome when Social/Emotional Learning comes first, that is, a learner like Matthew feels emotionally safe to learn new things, develops a strong sense of acceptance, grows the confidence to present his project and  expresses pride in this accomplishment!

“I have seen so much growth in Matthew since he has been at Bloom 360,” says Matthew’s mother. “He’s grown so much with identifying and dealing with emotions. He’s learned how to socialize appropriately with other peers and teachers, and he’s also progressed so much in all his subjects, especially math. The teachers have so much patience and care, and it truly shows!”