- EMS Program
Your child is bright. French school is just built for a different kind of learner.
If your English-speaking child is falling behind in French reading or spelling — despite real effort, tutors, and time — the problem is almost certainly not French. It’s the way French is being taught. EMS is the structured, multisensory approach that finally works.
- What Is EMS?
A different way to learn French — one that works with your child’s brain
EMS stands for Enseignement Multisensoriel Simultané — Simultaneous Multisensory Teaching. It is a structured French reading and spelling program based on the internationally recognised Orton-Gillingham method, adapted specifically for the French language.
French is a famously difficult language to learn to read. Unlike English, where words are largely phonetic, French orthography is primarily visual — the written form of a word often does not reflect how it sounds. Approximately 80% of French is visual, and only 20% is phonetic. This means that the auditory strategies that help many children learn to read in English simply do not transfer to French.
For an English-speaking child placed in a French school under Bill 101, this is not a small hurdle. It is a fundamental mismatch between how the language works and how it is typically taught — and it is a mismatch that standard tutoring almost never addresses.
EMS is designed specifically for this challenge. It engages the visual, auditory, tactile, and kinaesthetic pathways simultaneously, teaching students to decode and encode French through all their senses at once. Students learn the structure of the French language — the rules, the patterns, the exceptions — in a way that builds lasting, transferable skills rather than short-term memorisation.
- How EMS Works
What makes EMS different from everything else that’s been tried
- Who Is EMS For?
You might be in the right place if any of these sound familiar
EMS is designed for students of all ages who are struggling with French reading or spelling despite adequate instruction and genuine effort. The families we see most often in this program fit one or more of these descriptions:
- Your child is in a French school (public or private) and is falling behind in French language arts, reading, or writing — despite working hard
- French tutors have helped temporarily, but the improvement doesn’t stick
- Your child reads French words out loud but doesn’t retain what they’ve read, or cannot spell words they’ve studied repeatedly
- Your child has been assessed and received a diagnosis of dyslexia or a reading disability, and the school’s support has not been sufficient
- Your child is an adult — a federal employee, a professional, or a post-secondary student — who has struggled with French for years and was told their difficulty was a matter of effort or aptitude
- Your child has received a negative learning prognosis in French and you are looking for a genuine alternative
A note on adult learners
EMS was originally developed in part for anglophone federal employees in Canada who, after multiple attempts to learn French as a second language, were still unable to master the language. It has helped many adults overcome a difficulty that was consistently misattributed to lack of willingness, intellectual laziness, or inability to learn — none of which were true. If this is your story, we want you to know: the program is available to you at any age.
- Why Standard French Tutoring Doesn’t Work
The difference between re-teaching French and actually building French
Most parents come to us after months or years of French tutoring that didn’t close the gap. There is a clear reason for this, and it is not the tutor’s fault.
Standard tutoring re-exposes a student to content they couldn’t retain the first time. If the reason they couldn’t retain it is that the visual processing pathway for French text hasn’t developed properly, more of the same instruction produces more of the same result. The foundation is not there. Re-teaching does not build the foundation.
Standard French tutoring
- Re-teaches vocabulary and grammar rules the student has already seen
- Assumes the student’s reading mechanism is intact
- Improvements are often temporary — the student forgets between sessions
- Works well for students who just need more exposure or explanation
- Uses the same teaching modality that wasn’t working in school
- Can continue indefinitely without closing the gap
French Reading Program Montreal | EMS Remediation for French Schools | SLC
- Builds the foundational visual-auditory processing skills that French requires
- Addresses the specific reason the reading mechanism is not working in French
- Improvements are structural — built into the neural pathway, not stored in short-term memory
- Designed specifically for students for whom more exposure hasn’t worked
- Uses simultaneous multisensory delivery that creates a new route to French literacy
- Designed to end when the skills are genuinely built
- Why French Is Particularly Hard
It is not your child. It is the language — and how it’s taught.
French is widely recognised as one of the most difficult languages to master in terms of orthography — the relationship between how words are written and how they sound.
In English, each word is accented, which makes it possible for the ear to perceive words as distinct units. In French, stress falls on groups of words rather than individual words, which makes it much harder to hear where one word ends and another begins. Without that auditory boundary, a struggling reader cannot rely on sound to decode the written form.
This is why French is described as primarily a visual language — it must be learned through its written structure, its etymology, and its visual patterns, not primarily through sound. Students with visual processing difficulties, or students whose visual French processing has never been properly developed, find this genuinely and neurologically hard. Not because they lack intelligence. Because they lack the right instruction.
The research on visual dyslexia and French
Students with visual dyslexia (dyseidesia) are particularly disadvantaged in learning French, because French literacy depends more heavily on visual processing than English does. This may explain the persistent difficulty of some anglophone students who have no trouble in English but cannot master written French — a challenge that has too often been misread as a lack of motivation or aptitude. EMS has helped many such students overcome this difficulty.
- Signs to Watch For
What French reading difficulty actually looks like at home and at school
French reading and spelling difficulty does not always look like obvious struggle. These are the patterns that consistently appear in the students who benefit most from EMS:
- Spells the same French word three different ways in the same paragraph — and cannot hear that it is inconsistent
- Reads French words aloud adequately but cannot retain or reproduce them
- Takes significantly longer to complete French written work than peers, even when the content is understood
- French dictations are consistently poor despite studying
- Can speak French adequately but written French is far weaker
- Has mastered English reading but French literacy has not developed comparably
- Becomes frustrated or avoidant specifically around French reading and writing tasks
- Has received extra help, tutors, or resource support at school for French — with inconsistent or temporary results
You don’t need a formal diagnosis to reach out to us.
. If several of these patterns sound familiar, a consultation is the right next step. We will listen carefully to your child’s story and tell you honestly whether EMS is likely to help — and what the program would look like for them specifically.
- EMS at Strategic Learning Clinic
What to expect when you come to us
Assessment first | Every student begins with a consultation. We review existing reports, listen to your child’s history with French, and determine whether formal assessment is appropriate. We do not place a student in EMS until we understand their specific profile. |
Individualised program | Each student’s EMS program is built around their specific gaps. Material is sequenced to address what that student is missing, at their pace. No two programs are identical. |
Qualified specialists | Our EMS practitioners are trained in the program and in the broader Orton-Gillingham framework. They work exclusively one-on-one. |
Regular progress reports | We reassess at regular intervals and share results with parents in plain language. You will always know exactly where things stand. |
Available in person and virtually | EMS sessions at SLC are available in person at our Ville Saint-Laurent clinic and virtually for families anywhere in Canada and the United States. |
For students of all ages | EMS is appropriate for elementary students, secondary students, CEGEP students, and adults. It has never been too late for the students we have worked with. |
- FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
No. A formal diagnosis is not required to begin a consultation or to enrol in EMS. Many of the students who benefit most from this program have never been formally assessed — they have simply struggled with French reading and spelling for years without a clear explanation. If you are concerned, the right first step is a conversation with our team.
EMS is primarily designed for students learning to read and write in French. If your child is in an English school but taking French as a second language and struggling significantly, a consultation will help us determine whether EMS or another approach is more appropriate.
The duration varies depending on the student’s specific gaps, age, and frequency of sessions. We do not give a fixed length before completing a thorough assessment, because no two students’ profiles are identical. What we commit to is regular progress monitoring so that the program ends when the skills are genuinely built — not before, and not after.
This is the most common question we hear, and it has a clear answer. French tutoring re-teaches vocabulary, grammar rules, and content. EMS builds the foundational visual-auditory processing skills that French literacy requires — skills that tutoring does not address. If the reason French isn’t sticking is a gap in how the brain processes written French, more instruction on top of that gap produces the same result. EMS goes underneath.
Yes. All EMS sessions at SLC are available both in person at our Ville Saint-Laurent clinic and virtually, via video session. Families across Canada and the United States are welcome.
EMS sessions are one-on-one, typically 50 minutes in length, and follow a structured lesson format. Each session builds directly on the previous one. Students are not expected to memorise rules in isolation — they are taught to understand and apply the structure of the French language through simultaneous multisensory engagement.
- Contact
Your child’s French story doesn’t end here.
Every student we have worked with in EMS came to us carrying a version of the same belief: that French was simply not for them. In almost every case, that belief was wrong. What was missing was not ability. It was the right approach.
We offer a free consultation to every family considering EMS. It is an unhurried conversation — about your child, their history with French, what has been tried, and what we honestly think we can do. There is no pressure and no obligation.