As a School Life Assistant (SLA) or Accompanist for Students with Disabilities (ASD), your role is at the heart of the inclusive education system. You are the bridge between the student and their school environment, the facilitator that allows learning and integration to take shape. Each day brings its share of challenges: capturing attention, breaking down complex tasks, managing frustration, and above all, finding the right balance between the assistance provided and the development of the student’s autonomy. In the face of this complex mission, it is essential to equip yourself with tools and methods that structure and energize your support.
This is where “CLINT” comes in. It is not a person, but an approach, a guiding thread for organizing your interventions. CLINT is a simple acronym for Game, Objective, Evaluation. Far from being a magic formula, this method offers a framework for thinking to transform each moment of support into a targeted, engaging, and measurable learning opportunity. This article invites you to explore how to integrate CLINT into your daily practice to make your individualized support even more relevant and effective.
The strength of the CLINT approach lies in its simplicity and logic. It invites you to think of each intervention not as a simple task to accomplish, but as a mini-project in three stages. Each of its letters is a pillar that supports the entire structure. By assembling them, you build solid and coherent support.
The “G” for Game: Gamification in the Service of Learning
Play is often perceived as the opposite of schoolwork. This is a fundamental mistake. For a child, and even for a teenager, play is the natural language of discovery and experimentation. Integrating a playful dimension into support is not just a simple distraction; it is a powerful pedagogical strategy. Play acts as a key that unlocks the door to motivation. It de-dramatizes effort, reduces anxiety related to failure, and promotes concentration.
Specifically, “gamifying” an activity means introducing rules, a goal, a challenge, or a narrative.
- Example in mathematics: Instead of doing a simple series of additions, transform it into a “mission.” The student becomes an explorer who must solve puzzles (the additions) to find a treasure. Each correct answer allows them to advance one space on a game board that you have drawn.
- Example in French: To work on sentence construction, use illustrated cards (subject, verb, complement). The student must draw cards and create the funniest or most logical sentence possible. The goal is no longer to “do grammar,” but to create a fun story.
Play allows the student to engage actively. They are no longer a passive receiver of information, but an actor in their own learning.
The “O” for Objective: Giving Direction to Each Activity
Without a clear objective, an activity, even playful, risks being just a passing entertainment. The letter “O” is the helm of your intervention. It reminds you that each action must serve a specific purpose, aligned with the Student’s Personalized Schooling Project (PPS) and the teacher’s expectations. A well-defined objective must be simple, concrete, and achievable.
It is about moving from a vague intention to a precise target.
- Vague intention: “Help Leo write better.”
- Clear objective: “Today, Leo must manage to write his name while respecting the line, with a capital letter at the beginning.”
This objective is the beacon that guides your session. It allows you to know exactly what to do and why you are doing it. For the student, the clarity of the objective is equally crucial. Knowing where one is going makes the path less intimidating. You can even make the objective visible by writing it on a board or representing it with a pictogram. This gives meaning to the effort required and allows the student to visualize their own progress.
The “E” for Evaluation: Measuring the Journey Taken, Not Just the Destination
Evaluation is often associated with the stress of grades and exams. In the CLINT approach, its role is quite different. It is a formative, supportive evaluation that serves both the student and yourself. It is not there to sanction, but to observe, adjust, and value. It is the logbook of your support journey.
Evaluation can take many forms, often very simple:
- An observation grid: You can create a small grid with the day’s objective (“Count to 10 without error”) and check off successes or note difficulties encountered.
- Verbal feedback: “Look, this morning, you had trouble tracing the letter ‘a’. Now, you are doing it very well. Well done!”
- Self-evaluation: Ask the student how they found the exercise. “What was easy for you? What was more difficult?”
This constant evaluation allows you to adjust your strategy in real-time. If a game is not working or if an objective is too ambitious, you will know quickly and can propose something else. For the student, seeing their progress, even minimal, is an extremely powerful motivator. Each small victory recognized and celebrated is a brick that builds the wall of their self-confidence.
Integrating CLINT into Daily Life: From Theory to Practice
Knowing what CLINT means is one thing. Applying it concretely in the hustle and bustle of a school day is another. The idea is not to radically transform your way of working overnight, but to gradually integrate this logic into your preparations and interactions.
Planning a Session with CLINT
The key is to take a few minutes beforehand to structure your thoughts. Whether it’s the night before or the morning before classes start, ask yourself these three questions in order:
- Objective (O): What is the main goal of my intervention today? What should the student be able to do by the end of the session? (Refer to the teacher’s instructions or the IEP).
- Game (J): How can I make this learning more engaging? What fun activity, challenge, or story can I propose to achieve this goal?
- Evaluation (É): How will I know if the goal has been reached or is on track to be reached? What simple indicator will I observe to measure progress?
This simple preparation routine will allow you to arrive with a clear action plan while remaining flexible enough to adapt to the mood and needs of the student on the day.
Concrete Example for Managing Emotions
Let’s take the case of a student who has difficulty identifying and expressing their emotions, leading to frustration outbursts.
- Objective (O): The student must be able to name three basic emotions (joy, sadness, anger) by associating them with simple situations.
- Game (J): Use an “emotion charades game.” You draw a card with a smiley (joy, sadness, anger) and act out the emotion. The student must guess which emotion it is. Then, roles are reversed. You can make it more complex by asking: “When do you feel like this?”
- Evaluation (É): At the end of the session, you simply note whether the student was able to correctly name the three emotions. You can also observe if they managed to give a personal example for at least one of them. The mere fact of actively participating is already a success to be valued.
Concrete Example for Independence in Work
For an older student who struggles to organize themselves and start their work independently.
- Objective (O): The student must start the math exercise assigned by the teacher independently, following a list of 3 defined steps.
- Game (J): Transform the task into a “mission checklist.” Together, you create a small sheet with 3 clear steps: 1. Take out the correct notebook and book. 2. Read the instructions and highlight them. 3. Start the first calculation. Each checked step is a victory. The “game” here is to manage to check all the boxes of the mission without help.
- Evaluation (É): The evaluation is the checklist itself. Did they manage to complete the first step alone? Did they need a reminder for the second? This gives you very precise information about the blockage point and allows you to congratulate the student for each step taken independently.
The Benefits of the CLINT Approach for the Student
The adoption of this structured method has direct and positive repercussions on the student you are supporting. The benefits go far beyond mere academic success.
Enhancing Motivation and Engagement
The main enemy of learning is discouragement. By introducing play, you change the perception of effort. The school task is no longer a mountain to climb, but a path strewn with small fun challenges. The student becomes willing, curious, and less fearful of the possibility of making mistakes. Mistakes are part of the game; they are no longer experienced as personal failures.
Developing Independence and Initiative
Clear objectives empower the student. They understand what is expected of them and can better measure their own efforts. The playful format often encourages them to take initiatives, to try strategies on their own to “win” the game or succeed in the “mission.” Little by little, they learn to rely on their own abilities rather than waiting for your validation.
Making Progress Visible and Valued
Through simple and regular evaluation, the student can visualize their journey. They no longer only see what they cannot do, but everything they have learned to do. Celebrating together the fact that they can now tie their shoes, write a complete sentence, or wait their turn is fundamental. These successes, no matter how small, nourish their self-esteem and give them the strength to tackle bigger challenges.
The Role of the AESH: Becoming an Architect of Support
Adopting the CLINT approach also transforms your own professional posture. You are no longer just an “executor” who applies instructions, but a true architect of individualized support, who designs, adapts, and adjusts their interventions based on the student.
Collaboration with the Educational Team
This method strengthens your legitimacy within the educational team. By speaking in terms of objectives and evaluation, you use a common language with teachers. You can provide them with precise and factual feedback: “We worked on the objective of syllable recognition with a card game. I observed that they have a good grasp of simple syllables, but they still struggle with ‘on’ and ‘an’.” This type of feedback is infinitely more useful than a simple “it was difficult in reading today.”
The importance of flexibility and observation
CLINT is a framework, not a prison. Your greatest quality remains your ability to observe and adapt. You are like a gardener tending to a unique plant. You have a plan (to water it, to give it light), but you must constantly observe its reactions to adjust the amount of water or move it if it is not feeling well. If the game you have prepared does not spark any interest in the student, it is pointless to insist. Your role is then to analyze why and propose an alternative, while keeping the same objective in mind.
The challenges and limits of the CLINT method
It would be dishonest to present CLINT as a miracle solution without drawbacks. Adopting this approach requires investment and awareness of its limits.
The time factor and preparation
Yes, thinking in terms of CLINT requires a bit more preparation time than improvising. Creating a small card game or drawing a game board takes a few minutes. However, this time invested upfront is often largely regained during the session, as an engaged student is a more cooperative and focused student. Start small, by preparing one “CLINT” activity per day, then gradually increase.
Adapting to the age and profile of the student
The “Game” must be adapted. A board game will not work with a high school student. For older students, the game can take the form of a challenge (solving a riddle in a limited time), using an educational digital application, or a concrete situation (simulating an interview, managing a fictional budget). Creativity is essential to adapt the playful principle to the maturity and interests of the student.
Avoiding the pitfall of “game-only”
The risk is to focus on the “G” and forget the “O”. The ultimate goal remains learning and skill acquisition. The game is a vehicle, not the destination. If the activity is very fun but the educational objective is not achieved, it has failed. It is therefore crucial to always keep the objective in sight and ensure that the rules of the game serve that objective.
In conclusion, integrating the CLINT approach (Game, Objective, Evaluation) into your practice as an AESH or AVS is a way to provide more structure, meaning, and effectiveness to your support. It is a compass that helps you navigate the complexity of your mission. By placing the objective at the center, using the game as a driving force and evaluation as a tool for enhancement, you are not just helping a student with their homework. You are giving them tools to learn how to learn, to regain confidence in themselves, and to become, step by step, the main actor in their own success.
The article “AVS and AESH: integrating CLINT into individualized support” highlights the importance of using digital tools to improve the support of students with disabilities. In this context, a relevant article to consult is the one on sports activities in extracurricular activities, which emphasizes how these activities can promote the health and well-being of children. By integrating innovative approaches like CLINT, it is possible to create a more inclusive and beneficial learning environment for all students.