Ever since Rizza's daughter, Angel, was born, she constantly found herself in and out of the hospital.
Since Angel was born with a cleft lip and palate, doctor visits were part of the routine; albeit much more than many other kids at her school.
But when she was around three years old, something even more life-changing shook their family's boat even more... right in the hospital.
The medical intern who was administering Angel's pain meds accidentally gave her too much, causing her to overdose and go into respiratory arrest.
Because of this, Angel was paralyzed from the neck down, which stunted her physical development and brain development.
Rizza was trying to hold onto hope from the beginning. Since Angel was born, Rizza's life had been a constant emotional struggle, being in and out of surgeries and operations. For a while after the accident, school was the last thing in her mind, as Angel's health was always of priority. But four years later, Angel was starting to get back her movement, and school started becoming more of a stressor.
Things were looking up physically as Angel started regaining her movement, but not with math. Rizza knew that if Angel continued struggling in school like she was, her self-confidence would diminish even more than it has already.
Rizza wanted Angel to improve, but she had no problem with Angel's special education classes. They were small and intimate enough to get the personal attention she needed, especially as math concepts got more and more difficult.
One thing that makes math incredibly tricky is that if you don't have a solid foundation from the start, it's hard to catch up later.
Though she's now 13 years old and in 6th grade, Angel has a math understanding like an 8-year-old because of her absence from traditional learning.
Rizza wanted her to get up to speed, not only so her daughter wouldn't continue struggling in school but so she could start feeling more like the other kids. If she could have the same understanding of math as kids her age, she'd begin to feel less like an outsider and more like a regular student.
Rizza's intentions weren't to get her into "traditional" classes. She saw that Angel liked the personal attention. She wanted to build her confidence in her abilities compared to the other kids at her school.
So, Rizza searched long and hard to find the perfect program to help her daughter catch up and have fun in the process. She knew that drilling math problems wasn't the way to a seamless transition and long-term improvement, so instead, she got creative.
She scoured blogs from all parts of the internet: educational blogs, parenting blogs, special education blogs, everything.
And what she found was this gamified math platform called Elephant Learning proved to help kids far and wide; from age 2-16, for kids who are excelling in math and want a little boost, and for kids falling behind like Angel.
After reading success stories, parent testimonials, and even asking Angel's teachers about it, Rizza decided to give it a go.
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At first, Rizza wasn't sure how Angel would adapt to the platform. Angel had fun using gamified forms of learning in the past, but Rizza didn't typically know of games that didn't require a teacher or parent watching over to see their progress.
She was surprised to learn that with Elephant Learning, parents were given all of the insights into their child's performance, instructional videos, lessons, and suggestions on how to best support their child through the learning process.
For once, Rizza didn't feel like she had to hover over her daughter to know how well she was doing. She was able to see it all right in her email inbox whenever Angel finished a session.
And these sessions weren't long, either. Angel only needed to play for 10 minutes a day, three days a week (but often, she wanted to play much longer than that!).
Rizza saw a change in Angel's Elephant Age, but more importantly, she saw Angel finding success in something both fun and educational.
Angel was always open to trying new games on the computer. She was doing enough homework, so playing a game that was fun was always on the table.
Though she's 13 years old, her learning delays resulted in her testing at an Elephant Age of 6.32. She didn't pay much attention to the number because the game was as fun as it could get.
Since the tool uses AI, Elephant Learning math can track Angel's progress throughout the game, continuing to cater to how she's doing.
In school, it's typical that if she gets a question wrong, she'll get points off of her test. For Elephant Learning, instead of taking away years from her Elephant Age, the AI will continue testing the student's knowledge on questions until they walk away mastering the concepts instead of seeing a lousy grade or score on a quiz or test.
Rizza saw that Angel didn't have to be pushed to play Elephant Learning. She'd hop on after school and start playing, determined to get her Elephant Age higher and higher.
Elephant Learning's methods are simple: each child is guaranteed to learn a year's worth of math in 3 months.
Early-age education scientists created the math behind it to create a math academy where students learn at their own pace. The Founder and CEO, Dr. Aditya Nagrath, has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and Computer Science.
When he was 14, Dr. Nagrath taught himself C++ and read books on game development and neural networks-- what we now see in modern-day AI. He founded Elephant Learning math to empower children with mathematics, and they've helped over 100,000 students and growing.
Related: Kenesha’s Adversity Didn’t Stop Her From Helping Her Daughter in Math
For children like Angel who have had a rough go with math, it's crucial to fill the gap as quickly as possible before more concepts are piled on.
"Even if you have somebody who's in upper-level mathematics going into the university level who's struggling with basic mathematics, it's typically an idea that's missing in algebra or earlier," explains Aditya Nagrath, Founder and CEO of Elephant Learning.
Elephant Learning's system can fill that learning gap to enhance the child's ability to grasp more advanced math concepts. It's meant for children of all backgrounds and skills, and for Angel, it was exactly what she needed as a fun, educational way to bridge her struggles with math as she started getting healthier.
Now, she can practice math and have fun simultaneously as life starts improving for her and her family.
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