Truth or Myth?: KPU students create game to teach neurodivergent children<\/p>\n
Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, April 15, 2026<\/p>\n
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) students have discovered a friendly and approachable way to teach sexual health.<\/p>\n
KPU students Natania Huckabay and Emmily Martins created a card game that helps neurodivergent children understand personal boundaries.<\/p>\n
Huckabay and Martins were assigned to create a project to educate others about human sexuality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both work with children and saw gaps in the sexual education literature for that age group. That\u2019s why we wanted to create a tool for them,\u201d says Huckabay in a KPU press release.<\/p>\n
The game is called \u201cTruth or Myth?\u201d and consists of cards with a statement written on one side. Players have to decide whether it\u2019s true or not, and then the correct answer is on the back. Cards are colour-coded by topic and cover everything from mental health to the media.<\/p>\n
Huckabay, who is in her final term of the bachelor of arts program at KPU majoring in psychology, works as a behavioural interventionist in the community and has incorporated the game into a sexual health program for neurodivergent children.<\/p>\n
Martins is a recent graduate of KPU. She is a literacy interventionist and says children often learn best by doing and benefit from the interactivity of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find that children who need that hands-on-learning experience benefit the most. Finding a way to share important health information in a fun, non-intimidating way is especially beneficial in this day and age,\u201d says Martins.<\/p>\n
They have received praise for the game, including from their professor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game was very well-received, and it\u2019s one of the tools we will use in the program. It has been helping children understand their sexual, emotional and mental health, and encouraging boundary formation and adherence,\u201d says Huckabay.<\/p>\n
Cory Pedersen, the psychology professor at KPU who assigned this project to her Psychology 3010 \u2013 Human Sexuality class, says she is proud of the work of her students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that my students have produced such a wide range of projects for such a wide range of populations outside the class \u2014 some which have actually been put into use \u2014 suggests that they are exceptionally creative and in-tune with the sexual education needs of these various stakeholders,\u201d says Pedersen, who specializes in human sexuality, development and education and gender identities.<\/p>\n
All three have realized that there is a lot more work to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the categories we created in the game is \u2018media myths and misconceptions.\u2019 It revealed gaps in the research that we\u2019re still seeking to fill and seeing how we can best engage students,\u201d says Huckabay.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope is students will learn many things, including that dissemination of knowledge about human sexuality should be rooted in science, not morals or ethics,\u201d says Pedersen. \u201cAlthough these are important for individuals, they impede effective education about such topics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Truth or Myth?: KPU students create game to teach neurodivergent children Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, April 15, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-608016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}