The Allié program: An alliance to assist students with behavioural disorders
This article describes the Allié intervention program which was designed to meet the needs expressed by schools in their handling of children with behavioural disorders. The purpose of the program is to prevent the entrenchment and aggravation of problem behaviours in children aged 8 to 12 years. The program consists of two complementary components: 1) the participation of children with behavioural disorders and their classmates (peer helpers) in a training program for developing social skills and interpersonal problem solving and 2) the participation of parents in a program for improving parenting skills and educational practices. The intervention seeks, on the one hand, to reinforce protection factors by supporting the development of cognitive, behavioural, and social skills in the children and, on the other hand, by countering certain risk factors that already exist in the developmental trajectory of these children. The Allié program uses an interactive teaching approach and diversified intervention strategies to foster the adoption, maintenance, and generalization of behaviours associated with social competence in children with behavioural disorders. The complexity of the program implementation is proving, however, to be an ongoing concern, both for the program designers and for the schools that are implementing the program. The article also discusses the conditions that are favourable for implementing a multimodal program and suggests a graduated implementation model that respects the particular needs of the school environment where it is being applied.