After what seemed like months of working with teachers on Wesley’s behavior especially with respect to him not wanting to participate in their practices for the school’s spring program, Wesley has made significant strides in his behavior at school. For almost 2 and half weeks now, Wesley has consistently earned “2 thumbs up” approval from his teachers every day at school. This means that he listens well, does not do any harm to others, does not throw any fits at dropoff or during class, has a positivie attitude towards school, participates willingly and happily in their music practice, and is respectful of others. On his last report card, he scored high on all the academics but scored pretty low on all the social related items. All I can say is that if he can keep up this good behavior, he will have topped Nicholas’ record for miraculous turnarounds in behavior at school.

So you may ask… what is the biggest difference we have made to impact Wesley’s life in a positive way? Improved communication with him! Treated him like a little adult with a right to express how he feels and explain why he does what he does. We also worked to help him understand how his behavior and actions affect others, himself, and us. We also made sure that we consistently hold true to any promise we deliver (on the consequences part as well as on the reward part). I think Wesley’s been so well behaved, fun, and happy for most of his early childhood that we sort of forgotten about his needs and just assumed that he would always stay that way, but what I have learned in these past 9 months is that without constant nurturing… our kids can easily “go astray”.