Carte routière vers le préscolaire – Guide pour soutenir une

transition de qualité des enfants ayant des besoins particuliers

1) Category:
• Tool

2) Issues:
• The transition to preschool of children with special needs is a significant stage in their
life. The success or failure of this transition can have a major long-term impact on how
they feel about school. Whether the feelings are positive or negative, their entire
journey through school will be affected.
• The first formal contact with the school community means numerous changes. The
children must adapt to a new environment and new ways of doing things, which may
trigger insecurity. Everyone in the child’s life is responsible for the quality of this
transition.
• Their parents, health and social services workers and childcare service staff have sound
knowledge of the children with special needs under their care. It has been shown that
often these people, who could help smooth the children’s entry into school, do not
share this information enough because of lack of service continuity, communication
problems, value clashes and lack of collaboration, which adds to the complexity of the
circumstances surrounding the transition.

3) Objectives:
• Strengthen collaboration between the family, childcare, health and social services
workers and educators.
• Foster introduction of a structured and consistent transition plan in order to make it
easier for special-needs children to enter the school system.
• Ensure the seamlessness of the children’s living environments.
• Promote the children’s adaptation and continued development.

4) Environment:
• Childcare services and primary schools
• Community (health and social services)
• Families

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 1 of 4
5) Target Group:
• 5-year-olds with special needs
• Parents
• Early childhood educators
• School staff, including preschool teachers
• Health and social services workers

6) Key Words:
• Carte routière vers le préscolaire, cœuréaction, school-family-community partnership,
tool, strategies, transition, collaboration, communication, planning, starting school,
ADHD, adaptation, preschool, childcare service, health and social services

7) Description:
• Carte routière vers le préscolaire is a directory of strategies and tools for planning a
successful transition to preschool, in particular, for children with special needs. The
ultimate goal is to provide support for their adaptation to different living environments
and for their ongoing development.
• The tool is designed so that a given environment can choose, adapt and give priority to
specific components or activities in the Carte routière conducive to communication
among all stakeholders. The planning that is carried out for this purpose takes into
account the players present, the child’s characteristics, and the environments
concerned.
• This inter-sector collaborative initiative by all the adults who live or work with the child
enables the pooling of a range of experiences and knowledge.
• The Carte routière vers le préscolaire was developed for the transition of children with
special needs, but many of the strategies can be applied for all children and other
environments.

8) Steps:
• There are no specific steps. Use of the tool varies according to the environment and to
needs.

9) Activities/Actions:
• Carte routière features strategies under six components that form its blueprint:
o Planning: Strategies for helping organizations, families and services better
orchestrate the transition (work schedule, phases, actions and responsibilities)
o Intake: Strategies for ways of easing the children’s and their parents’ first contact
with the school at registration and at the start of school
o Information: Information to share between the children’s living environments so
that more is known about the children, about the resources lined up, and about the
strategies employed

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 o Preparation: Strategies for facilitating the children’s and their parents’ adaptation
to new educational environments
o Awareness: Strategies for raising the awareness of school staff, students and their
families so that they form a community open to differences
o Relation: Strategies that foster collaborative interaction and effective
communication between the people involved with the children during the transition

10) Resources Required:

• This tool is free, no additional resources are required.

11) Roles of the Participants:

• The persons in the children’s lives during the transition (parents, early childhood
educators, school staff, preschool teachers, health and social services workers):
o plan the children’s transition by sharing their experiences and knowledge;
o refer to the strategies and resources proposed in the Carte routière vers le
préscolaire and employ those that correspond to their needs;
o launch long-term collaboration.

12) Scientific Basis or Validity:

• Carte routière vers le préscolaire is the result of a number of studies on the problem of
the transition to preschool of children with special needs:
o Travail en réseau, savoirs en partage et processus en jeu en contexte d’innovation :
une transition planifiée vers le préscolaire d’enfants ayant des besoins particuliers :
A dissertation by Julie Ruel at Université du Québec en Outaouais, submitted in
August 2010. The dissertation laid the groundwork for the action-research project
that led up to the Carte routière vers le préscolaire.
o An inter-sector action-research project called Carte routière pour soutenir une
transition de qualité des enfants EHDAA vers le préscolaire (Bourdeau, Ruel and
Moreau, 2006-2008) in two phases: 1) development of Carte routière and 2) testing
of the tool in three schools. The project enabled exploration of local transition
issues, selection of the components of Carte routière to develop, validation of the
content, and support for its appropriation and dissemination.
o The project is also based on a review of the literature (scientific articles, studies,
books, other written material and various websites) on the transition to preschool
and the various issues. To see this material, go to:
http://w3.uqo.ca/transition/carte/2_ref.htm. [in French only]
• This research confirmed that positive relations between the child’s living environments
fosters his/her adaptation and acts as a protective factor. Resiliency is strongest when
the resources of all stakeholders come together and are dedicated the child’s
development. Family involvement, communication and transfer of information among
the living environments concerned are elements that contribute to educational
continuity.

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 3 of 4
13) Material:
• Carte routière vers le préscolaire website: http://w3.uqo.ca/transition [in French only]
• CD-Rom available upon request (see Contacts)

14) Additional Information:

• The information contained in this factsheet was taken, in whole or in part, from:
http://w3.uqo.ca/transition.
• Articles stemming from the action-research project and the dissertation [in French
only]:
o Ruel, J., Moreau, A., Bourdeau, L. and Lehoux, N. (2008). Carte routière vers le
préscolaire. Guide pour soutenir une transition de qualité des enfants ayant des
besoins particuliers. Gatineau: Groupe de recherche en éducation des communautés
inclusives au préscolaire. (http://w3.uqo.ca/transition)
o Ruel, J. (2009). Situation de handicap et enjeux de la transition vers la maternelle.
Dans V. Guerdan, G. Petitpierre, J.-P. Moulin and M.-C. Haelewyck (Dir.),
Participation et responsabilités sociales. Un nouveau paradigme pour l’inclusion
des personnes avec une déficience intellectuelle (p. 405-416, CD Rom). Berne :
Peter Lang.
o Ruel, J. (2009). Les transitions de vie : un regard sur la première transition scolaire.
Revue Préscolaire, 47 (2), 20-27.
o Ruel, J., Moreau, A. C. and Bourdeau, L. (2007). Soutenir une transition de qualité
vers le préscolaire : ce qu’en pense un groupe d’intervenants de l’Outaouais. Revue
francophone de la déficience intellectuelle. Actes du Colloque Recherche Défi
Institut québécois de la déficience intellectuelle, 18 (Special Issue), p. 5-9.
(http://www.rfdi.org/files/RUEL_v18sp.pdf)
o Ruel, J., Moreau, A. C. and Bourdeau, L. (2008). Démarche de transition planifiée et
continuité éducative. Revue francophone de la déficience intellectuelle, 19, 41-48.
(http://www.rfdi.org/files/RUEL_v19.pdf)

15) Contacts:
• Julie Ruel, Author
124, rue Lois
Gatineau (Québec) J8Y 3R7
Tel.: 819 770-1022, extension 248
Email: julie_ruel@ssss.gouv.qc.ca
recherche@pavillonduparc.qc.ca

• To refer to Carte routière:

Ruel, J., Moreau, A., Bourdeau, L. and Lehoux, N. (2008). Carte routière vers le
préscolaire. Guide pour soutenir une transition de qualité des enfants ayant
des besoins particuliers. Gatineau: Groupe de recherche en éducation des
communautés inclusives au préscolaire. http://w3.uqo.ca/transition

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 4 of 4