Home support (6-12 years)
Home reading is at the heart of our action. Each year, dozens of children with learning difficulties in reading are referred by first and second grade teachers in the five Montreal boroughs.
Following this referral, our educational coordinators visit the families of these children at home to assess the child's needs and to introduce the parents to the workings and approach of our reading support programme.
In order to offer this service to a family, JAME also needs to recruit and train volunteer readers. Once recruited, the volunteer receives basic training to prepare them for their match.
The volunteer is then matched with a child and visits the child's home once or twice a week for about an hour. The meeting always takes place in the presence of a parent.
The aim of these meetings is to develop the child's taste for reading and to support them in their school learning by reading books, telling stories, playing with words, etc.
As our approach is based on the pleasure of reading, the important thing is to create a warm and trusting atmosphere where the child can feel comfortable progressing at his own pace. We never force a child to read, it is the best way to create the opposite effect of the desired goal!
Last year, 180 children aged 5 to 12, not counting the little brothers and sisters who attended the readings, received weekly home visits from 140 volunteer readers!
