Summer camp in Montreal helps children with language disorder

A summer camp program in Montreal is helping young children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) prepare for kindergarten in September.

The Camp 1, 2, 3 Maternelle nous voici offers specialized activities to help children around four to five years old enhance their communication skills.

“How to use their lunchbox, how to interact with adults, to adapt to new rules, new environment,” said Francis St-Onge, one of the psychoeducators of the program.

Launched in 2021, the summer camp starts in late May and runs until mid-August. Each week, a new group of children attend the camp, benefiting from the support of special education teachers, speech therapists and more.

“During the pandemic, we had big bunch of children who entered our services and we wanted to find something to help them with maximum services before they enter school,” said St-Onge.

Classes run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and class sizes are small with around five to seven students per class.

The camp takes place in the Raymond-Dewar Rehabilitation Centre, located on Laurier Avenue East.

So far this year, the camp saw around 60 students in total.

DLD is pretty common, affecting one in 14 kids. It’s a disorder people live with their entire lives but with individualized supports that can include regular speech-language therapy and educational adjustments people with the disorder can thrive.

“The speech therapist has to determine that the child has persistent difficulties in comprehension and verbal expression,” said speech therapist, Carole-Anne Desrosiers.

Parents are also involved in the process as they meet with the team on the first day and last day of the camp to hear about their child’s progress.

“I think the parents are very happy with the improvements that their kids are making,” said Desrosiers.

Adding, “It’s not just playing to play, but the goal is really to prepare them for school.”

The service is only offered in French and was created by the the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, as part of its Language and Auditory Processing Disorder program.