Audrey Leblanc Receives the 1st Antidote Scholarship in Remedial Education

Druide informatique is pleased to announce that Audrey Leblanc has been awarded the first Antidote Scholarship for remedial education in reading and writing. Leblanc is a PhD student in the Department of Language Didactics at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) working under the supervision of Professors Line Laplante and Marie-France Côté. The $25,000 scholarship is awarded as part of the research chair program for foundation learning in literacy, established through a donation made to UQAM by Druide informatique.

Leblanc has worked as a remedial teacher for over 15 years and holds a master’s degree in remedial education. She is a lecturer in UQAM’s Department of Language Didactics and a research assistant for various projects on reading and writing acquisition. Her doctoral studies focus on remedial interventions targeting morphosyntax and the transfer of learning in writing for students with developmental language disorders.

The Antidote Scholarship in Remedial Education is awarded annually to a student in UQAM’s Faculty of Education whose thesis or doctoral project relates to remedial education or to learning difficulties in reading and writing. It is granted as part of the research chair program for foundation learning in literacy, established through a $1 million donation from Druide on the 25th anniversary of the launch of its Antidote software.

Millions of people use Antidote to improve the quality of their writing in both English and French. Its corrector, dictionaries and guides also support those learning to write. Among other benefits, Antidote can counterbalance the varying degrees of spelling deficits associated with dyslexia, and Druide is working diligently on its development. Moreover, some of the chair’s work could guide this development to provide additional support to these learners.