‘Your body's not scary’: KPU students create card game for neurodivergent kids
The game was created for a psychology class project and covers sexual, emotional, and mental health
Natania Huckabay (left) and Emmily Martins (right) created the game "Truth or Myth?" for an upper-level psychology course. (Submitted)
Two Kwantlen Polytechnic University students created a card game to support neurodivergent children in the community.
Natania Huckabay and Emmily Martins, a recent graduate, were tasked with creating a community education project for psychology instructor Cory Pedersen’s PSYC 3010: Human Sexuality class.
Soon after receiving the assignment, Huckabay and Martins began brainstorming ideas. During early discussions, they discovered their shared experience working with children, specifically those with autism, and noticed gaps in sex education resources for younger kids.
“A lot of teachers are just teachers generally. They don’t really have an education or background in sex ed necessarily,” Huckabay says. “We wanted to make a resource for educators to use that was evidence-based.”
Both Martins and Huckabay reflected on the kinds of things they use in both their jobs that help kids learn. Over the following weeks, they developed “Truth or Myth?” — an interactive, kid-friendly card game that required no training for educators to use.
The two designed cards in different colours for each topic. Every card features a statement, either true or a myth, with the reverse side showing the correct answer along with a supporting fact.
The cards are grouped into sections like media myths and body-related topics, beginning with the less sensitive topics and saving the more sensitive ones for last.
Martins says the pair wanted the game to encourage kids to speak up and spark conversations.
“It’s a nice game where you can sit and talk with your peers,” Martins says. “We wanted that nice communication aspect, as well as creating that safe space for kids or whoever’s playing this game to ask questions about their body and just sex ed in general.”
Martins and Huckabay also experienced challenges along the way, which included finding appropriate research to fit into their project. Huckabay says the research they found was more focused on teenagers rather than younger kids.
“The main thing we had to pull from was the B.C. curriculum on sex ed, which is geared more towards teenagers. So we had to make our cards more appropriate for a younger age group, while still following the ethical guidelines and teaching guidelines,” Huckabay says.
Despite those challenges, the duo presented their game on the last day of the term. Pedersen and fellow classmates visited each project.
Martins says the card game was “really well received.”
“People really liked the concept of the game — having something super simple yet super effective in starting conversations [and] creating safe spaces for kids,” Martins says.
She adds that classmates loved the design and noted a lack of sexual education tools like this when they were growing up.
After presenting their game, Martins and Huckabay learned that their instructor pushed their project internally. When Matt Hoekstra of KPU’s media department reached out, they realized the game was much more than just a class project.
“We have another [psychology] professor who’s willing to print them out and share it,” Martins adds.
With the game now being shared beyond the classroom, Huckabay and Martins hope it leaves players with a core message.
“Your body’s not scary,” Huckabay says. “Everyone grows at their own pace. There’s not one way to just be ‘normal’ — just keep going. You’ve got this.”
