Nurture Society for Learning and Development

05/26/2026

June is just around the corner and for lots of our kids. It’s a pretty tricky time with end of year changes to routine, concerts, recitals, sports days, and new transitions. Sometimes things start getting pretty sticky and really kids are just over capacity. This is your permission to keep things simple, lower your expectations and focus on engagement and regulation! Lots of our kids do much better when we provide visuals and written or drawn plan. ALL of our kids do better when we make sure their communication and sensory supports are available! What helps you and your child get back to a better place?

05/22/2026

We love our monthly family nights at Nurture! This free evening for Nurture families gives a chance for kids and families to play together. Last night there was magic in the treehouse with kids playing hide and seek- no words needed!

05/20/2026

Humans need their needs in all kinds of different ways. Sometimes when we’re thinking about kids we focus on what need they are meeting (hunger? Connection? Boredom?) - that’s a super important question, but we also need to ask, why are they meeting their needs this way?

Sometimes when kids are struggling to meet a need, they might:

*have a fight or flight response,

*be over capacity and not able to access more sophisticated approach (like words!)

*not have the skills they need to meet their need in healthier ways.

*be stuck in a pattern they’ve become used to.

* be using an approach their brain has decided is the most efficient way to meet that need.

This is not an exhaustive list! What other reasons for meeting a need in a less than ideal way can you think of?

05/12/2026

For the last two days our CEO and Clinical Director, Dr. Kate Ballem Chase had the opportunity to be at the Greater Purpose Conference, where purpose led businesses and nonprofit groups came together for two days of learning and connection. Big thanks to and for the bursary! We are excited to bring the learning to work at .learning as we serve families and advocate for better supports for all children who need them. Thank you for the insights and thanks for the great good .

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and especially the moms in our .learning family!! We ❤️ you!

05/07/2026

05/04/2026

Thanks for inviting Nurture’s Clinical Director Dr. Kate Ballem Chase to talk about the science of language processing, language development, autism, and joint engagement last week!

03/20/2026

It was so great to share .training with our friends and colleagues at and Coast Karma Academy. A wonderful week of learning together!

03/05/2026

Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation (JASPER) supports the development of social communication skills, play skills, social engagement and regulation in autistic children.

01/19/2026

Neurobiology or behaviour?

We often make distinctions about "biology or behaviour" as we try to understand how little humans interact with the world. With this way of looking at things, behaviour is under control, "on purpose", while actions caused by "neurobiology" are not.

This is a trick question! All of our behaviour is controleld by our brain... a collection of synapses firing in different patters! Neurobiology! Learning anything, whether it's how to make a friend, how to ride a bike, or how to pick up a spoon, requires neurochemical changes in the brain.

When we start to dive deep to understand brains and how they work in relationship to their environment, and how experiences shape learning, that's where we really start be able to understand and nurture little ones as they grow.