Tools

This educational game based on the well-known snakes and ladders game board helps improve reading skills and knowledge of complex sounds. This tool is suggested for first-graders, but may well be useful for children with special needs at higher levels. In addition, it aims to work on decoding complex sounds, manipulating sounds and integrating these sounds into words. It can be played with a single student and a facilitator, or in sub-groups of 2 to 4 students. You'll need to print out the game board, and have a dice and counters. This fun and educational game lets students have fun while learning.

This tool suggests ways of intervening and attitudes to adopt with children who have difficulties with their bedtime routine or sleep hygiene. It is particularly applicable to children with special needs or diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, oppositional disorders, ADHD and many others. The tool is designed in the form of small cards to be cut out and put together using a ring. It can also be used to lead a discussion between professionals or parents by taking turns picking a card.

This tool enables us to better understand, validate and prevent behaviors in children or adolescents with sensory hyperreactivity or hyporesponsiveness difficulties. In addition, this tool enables us to explore a number of effective intervention approaches to mitigate inappropriate behaviors during sensory stimulation and daily activities. It has been designed for children and teenagers diagnosed with sensory modulation disorders, for example, or other disorders that can affect sensitivity thresholds to different stimuli (ADHD - attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity, autism spectrum disorder, Gilles-de-la-Tourette syndrome, etc.).

This tool suggests ways of intervening and attitudes to adopt with children who display particular eating behaviours. The cards can be cut out and assembled on a metal ring for quick reference at mealtime. The cards can be used by education professionals or parents.

This tool suggests a process for choosing the right CEGEP, based on a few criteria. It also provides important information to help you make your decision.

Friendships are like cakes: you need the right ingredients to make them work! This tool teaches children about the different factors that go into developing good friendships. The various "ingredients" can be printed and cut out to be presented as pictograms. The last two pages can also be printed on both sides to present the different prosocial behaviors to the child in the form of a game: the sentence is read to the child and he or she has to immitate/mimic the behavior, or conversely, the image is presented to the child and he or she has to guess the prosocial behavior in question.

Taken from the book "De l'opposition à la communication" written by our director, Dr. Benoît Hammarrenger, the Emotion Curve helps us to understand how all emotions are experienced by children and adults alike. For the parent or caregiver, the Emotional Curve helps to understand a child's sudden bursts of anger or crying spells, and above all to synchronize our interventions so that we can position ourselves as a team with the child or teenager, rather than entering into the cycle of opposition and argumentation.

In 1981, American psychologist Russell A. Barkley proposed the opposition cycle, maintained by endless argumentation between the parent (or caregiver) and the child. According to this model, the parent who seeks to explain his or her request, to justify it, and to put rational arguments behind it, is merely giving the child material with which to argue and oppose even more. Argumentation and explanations thus become the fuel of opposition. In 2022, our director Dr. Benoît Hammarrenger proposed an alternative model in which opposition is constructed, maintained and amplified within the anger cycle. The child's irritability or anger triggers and sustains the adult's irritability and anger, which in turn amplifies the child's anger, in a cycle that can only be explosive.

This tool guides children through the tracing of upper and lower case letters. Colorful, stimulating images help to associate the letter with the sound it produces (associating the grapheme with the phoneme). Children can also learn that in some cases, two or three letters are needed to produce a sound, such as "ou", "ch", "oi", "on", "eu", "eau", etc. Early learning of letter-sound correspondences is a key factor in the subsequent learning of reading and writing, as well as in the academic progress of children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dysorthographia.

But why do children constantly seek out games that involve combat or fighting? Should these games be banned because of their violent nature? Should we necessarily redirect children towards more collaborative and peaceful games? This tool explains in a simple, visual way the difference between battle games, which are fun and even favorable to children's development, and fights, which are aimed more at hurting and in which no one has any fun.

For some children who are more motor or agitated (including those with a diagnosis of ADHD), the concept of relaxation is sometimes very difficult to understand. Children who need to move find it difficult to simply stop and relax. Progressive muscle relaxation is an excellent option in this case, as it brings relaxation while satisfying the child's need to contract muscles. Controlled muscle contractions bring thinking back to the here and now, calming the whirlwind of ideas.

Entering secondary school imposes new demands that require a great deal of adaptation on the teenager. One of the main difficulties associated with this transition is the ability to manage a schedule and plan work and study, in different subjects, according to different deadlines. This tool is a one-page visual reminder to be hung in front of the student's workspace, to help them better manage their schedule.

Intervening on a child / teenager's anger is sometimes necessary. Understanding what triggered his/her anger, so that he/she feels heard and validated, is even better! From the book "From Opposition to Communication", Dr. Benoît Hammarrenger introduces us to the 8 triggers of anger, and how they interact in a cycle where the child's anger triggers the parent's, who in turn acts as a trigger for more anger in the child. Understanding what has triggered the child's anger enables us to empathize with the child and put an end to this destructive cycle.

Breathing goes without saying, doesn't it? We do it all the time without thinking about it! Yet slow, deep breathing, applied with the right method, calms overwhelming negative emotions and lowers the heart rate, which the brain interprets as a sign of stress. This tool gives children simple visual cues and applicable tips on how to perform these emotionally calming breaths.

Antidote is a powerful correction software that can be an indispensable work tool, especially for young people with learning disabilities such as dyslexia/dysorthographia. Here's a proofreading code to help you organize the various stages of text revision using this software.

This tool is intended for educators, teachers and other professionals, and outlines strategies to be implemented in prevention, on the spot, or after a stressful situation. Because you are your "work tool", it's essential to put in place the necessary means to promote well-being within your job.

Taken from the book "L'opposition, ces enfants qui vous faites en voir de toutes les couleurs", this fact sheet offers a practical visual summary of the various possible interventions when dealing with a child who displays oppositional behavior. Oppositional behavior often stems from a child's malaise (anxiety, disappointment, sibling issues), from a personality seeking to control (especially in oppositional defiant disorder), or from difficulty controlling impulsivity (in ADHD or Gilles-de-la-Tourette syndrome, for example).

"Did you revise your text before handing it in to the teacher?" "Yes, yes..." But what does revising a text really mean? The young person rereads but doesn't really know what to look for. He thinks he's revised, when in fact he's just reread the text. The SPACOH correction code enables high school students to revise pro-actively and in a directed way, to ensure that no errors are left in their text. The various correction steps are listed in this tool, enabling the child to follow them one by one, and tick them off once completed.

"Did you revise your text before handing it in to the teacher?" "Yes, yes..." But what does it really mean to revise a text? The youngster rereads his text but doesn't really know what to look for. He thinks he's revised it, when in fact he's just reread it. The SPACO correction code enables primary school students to revise their texts proactively and in a directed way, to ensure that no errors are left in the text. The various correction steps are listed in this tool, enabling the child to follow them one by one, and to tick them off once completed.

Antidote is a powerful writing and correction software. It is regularly recommended for young people with a diagnosis of a learning disability in reading or writing (dyslexia/dysorthographia). This fact sheet provides a reminder of some of the features, and explains the color coding used by the software to highlight different types of error.

Emotions follow us wherever we go. However, it's not always easy for children (young or old) to identify them. Since emotion management skills are developed in everyday situations, this tool provides easy access to pictograms of emotions. Simply print them out, cut them out and assemble them with a ring to form a quick and effective emotion keyring. You can carry it around in your handbag, hang it on your child's school bag or pencil case, or pin it to the family bulletin board at home. So, when your child is dealing with emotions and has difficulty identifying them precisely, the key ring comes in handy.