We have three stages of learning outcomes. To move onto the next stage we must have met the outcomes of the previous stage, as follows:

Stage 1: Building a working relationship

This includes the young person feeling able to say no and trusting that I will respect this (unless their is a health & safety reason but knowing that I will always explain why), and for the young person to feel safe to express their preferences. As the learning facilitator at this stage we need to develop a clear understanding of what matters to the young person - their hobbies, aspirations, their needs and barriers to learning and what they want to get out of our service. 

Stage 2: Supporting mental health, sensory integration, emotional regulation, self advocacy skills & communication

In stage 2 we use canine assisted activities (such as training the dog & young person to communicate via signing or AAC), assistive tasks and mentoring to explore & support their needs.

This can include teaching them how to teach their dog assistive tasks to promote inepdendence and emotional regulation, such as:

• deep pressure therapy
• teaching their dog to interrupt self harm
• find a support grown up 
• alert to increasing anxiety
• fetch assistive items 

We will sometimes be using or building on strategies implemented by health services (including private OT's) or other educational facilities i (for example strategies being implemented by Equine facilitated learning centres) as long as the young person finds these approaches helpful and they're not ABA/PBS or other strategies which are likely to prove harmful. Our aims are never behaviourist or compliance centred.  

For some young people stage 2 will be very short if they already have the support & tools in place to meet their needs and are now able to re-engage with an educational service which supports their way of learning. 

Stage 3: Developing relevant life, academic & employability skills as appropriate

At stage 3, the young person will start working towards relevant life skills, academic and/or employability skills. We tailor this stage to the learning style of the young person. Our learners who are wonderful self directed learners can completely decide for themselves what they want to learn and we take the role of facilitator, equally for learners who do best with parallel learning, we can both complete the same activity alongside one another or we can make suggestions and offer choices of topics and activities. It really is completely tailored to what is right for that learner. 

 At this stage, if appropriate for the young person we encourage them to begin to create a learning record in a format that works for them (e.g. learning log, photo diary etc).