Case Study: Kelly and Erin's Story
How Erin is overcoming her worries about going to school
“I don’t know if it’s because she’s had more time with me and that’s helped her, along with doing the game, you know. It could be a kind of a combination of it all really. The last two weeks, she’s been really good. Even other mums messaged me to say ‘didn’t Erin go in really well this morning’.”
Meet Erin, a 6-year girl who lives in Wigan, North West England.
Erin enjoys being a 6-year old girl living with her mum, dad and little sister. She enjoys most things which most children of her age enjoy, but she has some fears which can really get in the way sometimes.
School can be one of those fears. According to Erin’s mum Kelly, Erin struggles in the morning - “The mornings can be quite stressful, with avoidance tactics shall we say. So it can take quite a while for Erin to get dressed for school, which obviously has an impact on everybody.” Erin explains that it’s “because I want to be late so I don’t have to go to school”. Although Erin finds it difficult to explain what her school fears are, Kelly knows that lining up in the playground in the morning is hard - “she doesn’t want mummy to go, it makes her cry”. Once she’s in, although things seem a little better - “I feel a little bit sad, but my friends help me” - she’d rather be at home playing.
Kelly finds it upsetting when teachers report that “[Erin asks] for me several times in the day and is quite teary with it”. Erin says, “every time when I go to the playground at snack time, I ask the teacher when it's hometime and then when it's nearly the end of the day, I ask, and they say ‘in a little minute’.” She finds it comforting when “mummy gives me a heart on my hand. When I miss Mummy or Daddy, I just look at my heart.” But as Kelly points out, “Erin will get a little bit panicky if we've not remembered to do it. She can get very upset. So it's become a thing where we have to remember that now.”
Erin’s worries have been building up since early years in school. “When I was in reception, I went to clubs and I missed Mummy”. Although she has formed good friendships in school, she struggles to sometimes understand relationships in the playground with other children. She will sometimes mistake other children’s behaviour as being mean. Erin tried new clubs, such as her local Rainbow’s group, but struggled when the shouting “hurt her ears”. Kelly knew that Erin would enjoy social activities more if she didn’t let her worries get in the way.
“I think those first three [challenges in the game] were really powerful... and it’s funny because she keeps saying she wants to go back and watch [the video of] those children in school. She thinks it’s fun, and then because she’s gone back to revisit a previous task, she gets the rewards… But what I’ve noticed is she’s said once or twice now, “Come on Luminaut. You can do it!” and I was really laughing to myself because that’s just something she’s picked up, which is really good.”
Taking a step to face her worries with Lumi Nova
Things escalated to the point where Kelly felt “we really went backwards... She would be clinging on to me in the line [at school] and really hysterical… We were having a really bad time every morning.” Kelly works in education support, in Wigan, advising schools and assessing children's needs. It was through this work that Kelly found out about Lumi Nova - an evidence-based mobile game using an approach which appeals to young people. After trying some of her own strategies at home, and finding things which sometimes helped but sometimes didn’t, Kelly decided they would like to try Lumi Nova.
Noticing changes since playing Lumi Nova, and finding the time to work on worries
Erin started to challenge her fears through Lumi Nova while on half term holiday from school and Kelly saw a positive change in her on returning to school. Kelly said, “I don't know if it's because she's had more time with me and that's helped her, along with doing the game, you know. It could be a kind of a combination of it all really. The last two weeks, she's been really good. Even other mums messaged me to say ‘didn't Erin go in really well this morning’.” Teachers in school said she was much better in class.
“I think those first three [challenges in the game] were really powerful,” said Kelly, “and it's funny because she keeps saying she wants to go back and watch [the video of] those children in school. She thinks it's fun, and then because she’s gone back to revisit a previous task, she gets the rewards…. But what I've noticed is she’s said once or twice now, ‘Come on Luminaut. You can do it!’ and I was really laughing to myself because that's just something she's picked up, which is really good.”
Sadly, despite Erin’s great progress, her worries did start to creep back. Kelly felt it could be related to the difficulties in getting one-to-one time together during their busy week. Given her professional insight and expertise in children’s support, Kelly observed, “because of needing that parental engagement, it's a sad reflection, really, it's forced me to see that if I'm finding it difficult to find time to do this, you know, is that part of the problem?” But at the same time, “[Erin] knows she has to go [to school]. She just doesn't like it, but she's coping with it better than she was a few weeks ago. Overall, she just seems happier.” And in terms of doing more challenges in the game, “she wants to do them because she likes seeing herself jump to the next number and getting closer to the end. She knows she only needs one more fragment in the game”.
Kelly was very happy to report that Erin had asked to start swimming lessons and had actually been enjoying them. “She just got on with the whole lesson and was laughing and smiling and happy. And so that's a really big achievement that she's doing something extracurricular! We're doing swimming lessons and we weren't at the beginning. And that's a real successful thing that again, it's like drawing back to the game ‘You've got to try new things. You've got to be brave and everything will be OK.’ and you're kind of mimicking those statements that she's heard through the game in the hope that you're drip feeding it in.”
Dealing with difficulties and making progress
Through Erin’s journey in Lumi Nova, she did struggle with some difficulties navigating the tasks in the game, and this impacted on how often she wanted to play. As Kelly described, “That side of things has been a bit demotivating for her.” She did, however, reach the end of her goal and celebrated her achievement “smiling and visibly enjoyed seeing the whole ending. I think because of this, when it asked about doing another goal, she said she wanted to.”
As Erin gained confidence over her first goal, she and her mum were able to do the initial bit of learning together before each new challenge and then Erin played the game. In Kelly’s view, “it's about that conversation and the narrative about what she’s learning, reinforcing ‘oh well done you!’. It's quite clear that adults need to be involved for that first ten minutes when we're thinking about their feelings. It’s a product for CBT and for therapy and a child probably would go to therapy with an adult. Lumi Nova is a game but there’s still that need for the adult at an appropriate point.”
Since beginning to play Lumi Nova, Erin’s overall anxiety scores have improved. Kelly agrees that, “these scores reflect how she is I would say. Moved forward but still not 100% there. We still have, you know, blips and I'd still say she's quite emotional and still says ‘I don't want to go to school’, but she doesn't do what she was doing to that extent. You know, so I think it's not something that's going to change overnight either. The game came to us at a time when things were really bad and she wasn't letting us leave her in her bedroom, to go to sleep on her own. Now we can leave while she’s still awake. The goal was about school but as a whole person I do think Lumi Nova was part of what's helped us to move on.”
“The game came to us at a time when things were really bad and she wasn’t letting us leave her in her bedroom, to go to sleep on her own. Now we can leave while she’s still awake. The goal was about school but as a whole person I do think Lumi Nova was part of what’s helped us to move on.”