Case Study Two

 Luke was born into a hard working family living in area of high unemployment and social deprivation. Luke was black in a predominantly white community. His mother's principles were to always stay out of trouble.

But Luke was fiery, aggressive, with a great determination to make things happen and to make them happen quickly. Everything Luke did was done in a rush.

At home Luke's drive could be managed but at school his teachers found Luke's behaviour increasingly difficult to tolerate and manage. He was forever restless, fidgeting and disturbing the other children around him. Luke later expressed his feelings saying he felt incredibly frustrated and impatient with other people's slowness.

His mother came to spiritedkids because she wanted to sort it out and was worried that her child was going to be excluded permanently. She felt that Luke was being unfairly treated and being judged. She felt the teachers were blaming Luke's behaviour on his father who at that time was in prison.

Luke's personality profile revealed that he was a highly competitive child, something that his teachers and mother could agree on and accept.

Very quickly through a change in classroom management style and by sharing Luke's profile with him, Luke's behaviour improved. His performance, ability to socialise and self-esteem became noticeably better. In fact his teacher described him as "a little poppet."

Who knows what Luke will end up doing in his life but there is no doubt that he now understands a lot about who he is, and has a life of opportunity ahead of him - something that would never have been dreamt of a few years ago!

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