About Stages Learning
A woman-owned business since 1997
Diversity in leadership brings strength, empathy, and innovation — and that has shaped Stages Learning from day one.
Founded by Angela Nelson
Angela Nelson founded Stages Learning in 1997 with a simple conviction: every child can learn — given the right tools, the right structure, and a teacher or parent who believes in them.
From that conviction came the Language Builder Picture Cards — a deck so widely adopted that “the green box” became shorthand for early autism instruction in clinics and classrooms across the country.
Today Stages Learning serves families, schools, and clinics in all 50 states with the Academic Readiness Intervention System (ARIS) — a complete curriculum descended from those early picture cards.
Why it matters
Special education and early intervention are fields where most front-line workers — teachers, paraprofessionals, RBTs, parents — are women. Building tools for those workers benefits from leadership that has lived a similar professional reality.
We're proud of being woman-owned not because it's a label, but because it's shaped what we make and how we make it.