The start of a new adventure

For a few years, I had been deeply nurturing the idea of developing books and materials to facilitate communication learning for young children. This project seemed to me to be a real and relevant need for children, parents, and educators alike. My job as a speech therapist with preschool-aged children constantly inspired me with new projects. It was, in fact, through my work that I began to create materials specifically adapted to my clientele. Witnessing their children's successes, parents started asking me if it was possible to purchase my materials. Unfortunately, I had to say no, but things were about to change...

On December 23, 2012, I flew to Asia. I had decided to take a six-month break from my regular job to devote myself to creating children's books and games, specializing in communication development. I also brought my boyfriend along in my suitcase, who had decided to believe in the project and wanted to get involved in this adventure that took us to the other side of the world.

We headed to the island of Bali in Indonesia. This little corner of paradise would be our home for the next few months. The first steps! The much-desired project to provide support to children, parents, and educators would come to fruition under the name of Symbolicone.

Along the way, we met talented and hardworking people who contributed to the realization of our project. Our illustrator, met quite by chance, owned a small hotel, the Frangipani, in Ubud. We lived there for 5 months, and our room was transformed into a small SME. A graphic designer later joined to complete the team. What was initially just an idea finally took shape in reality. We were far from suspecting that designing products for children could be such a complex task. The working hours accumulated, and time flew by. The departure time arrived, and on June 12, 2013, we were back in Quebec. In our luggage, beautiful achievements to present to parents, friends, and their children... and the continuation of a wonderful adventure!

We now have over 25 playbooks to help children with pronunciation, sentence construction, and communication through pictograms. We also have the OrthoPicto app, which has been downloaded nearly 200,000 times!