About 5% of the school-aged population would be diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder, according to our partner The Conversation.
But this medicalization of academic difficulties is paradoxical because striving for the success of all students would require an increasingly exhaustive labeling of the difficulties encountered by each.
The analysis of this phenomenon was carried out by Cécile Charazas, doctoral student in Educational Sciences and lecturer at the University of Bordeaux.
"Dyslexic", "precocious", "attention deficit disorder": we have all heard at least one of these terms, most often to describe a child encountering difficulties in school.
These “school diagnoses” are described, explored and supported by researchers and practitioners from different disciplines (psychology, neuropsychology, psychiatry, etc.) and benefit from a variety of treatments for rehabilitation (psychomotricity, speech therapy, occupational therapy, etc.).
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Even within the scientific field, there is no consensus on these diagnoses: the mainly neurological approach of ADHD (attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder) is criticized there, the effects and the limits of the diagnoses of dys- and HPI disorders. (high intellectual potential) are questioned there.
Dys disorders as well as ADHD are considered to be neurodevelopmental disorders and are the subject of recommendations by the Haute Autorité de Santé.
Public policies insist on the need for early detection, then the implementation of remedies and re-education for this type of disorder.
A grid of devices
Despite the lack of scientific consensus, high potential as well as dys disorders appear in the Education Code, opening the right to adjustments in the content and pace of teaching, as well as to adaptations of terminal exams. for diagnosed students.
Thus, if these disorders do not systematically give rise to the recognition of a handicap, different forms of individualized projects are all the same proposed in the school framework.
These different systems reveal the real impact that these diagnoses - which concern around 5% of the school-age population - have on the career path of the pupils concerned.
This medicalization of academic difficulties is paradoxical: indeed, striving for the success of all students would require an increasingly exhaustive labeling of the difficulties encountered by each.
As part of individualized projects, children with learning disabilities follow speech therapy or psychomotricity sessions, for example © Shutterstock (via The Conversation)
It is difficult to criticize a speech aimed at helping children in difficulty in the name of greater equality, with the aim of supporting their attachment to school and learning.
However, there is indeed a strong paradox between the desire to make each student succeed and, at the same time, the increasingly detailed breakdown of the categories that we are going to attribute to these students.
This division goes hand in hand with an increasingly tight grid of devices: early identification, support, educational adaptations going up to the adaptation of terminal exams.
These categories are therefore not without effect on these pupils and the adults who accompany them.
Increased screening
Forty-seven players in education and care responded to us on the definition they give, and their way of dealing with it, in their daily practice.
This sample includes ordinary or specialized teachers, national education inspectors, doctors and school psychologists, as well as various professions involved with children and adolescents with educational difficulties - AESH, educators, nurses.
These people work in different establishments (elementary school, college, information and guidance center, day hospital) which are divided between rural, semi-urban and urban sectors, as well as between priority education network (REP). and more privileged environment.
The qualitative analysis of these discourses makes it possible to reveal the representations which cross the social world: let us explore what this categorization produces as effects, in the reality of practices.
All the players agree on the sharp increase in these disorders as an explanation for the difficulties in school over the past twenty years, accompanied by increased and increasingly early screening.
A teacher emphasizes that "as soon as there is a difficulty, we look for a disorder", summarizing the now dominant idea that a certain proportion of children have been diagnosed with disorders (diagnosed or not) since the early 2000s.
Educational dispossession?
Our interviews shed light on very disparate ways of identifying these “disorders” in the classes, with, for example, a form of “independent diagnosis” on the part of certain teachers, without medical consultation, and sometimes even without speech therapy.
A psychologist tries to explain this tendency:
It quickly passes into everyday language, and when, for example, a pupil just reverses two letters […] the teachers, or the parents will tend to say: maybe it is dyslexia.
According to a national education inspector, a significant proportion of children are considered to be carriers of dys disorders - within the school, without even having met a doctor to objectify this diagnosis.
Do we have to be worried if a child is bored in class? © Shutterstock (via The Conversation)
This tendency to spontaneously designate a child as dyslexic, or even hyperactive, goes hand in hand with an effect of educational dispossession: the majority of teachers have the feeling of lacking training in dealing with these specific disorders.
For the most part, they seek to train themselves independently, and themselves manufacture or finance materials suitable for the children they welcome in their class.
These observations could remain anecdotal if these disorders were not described - by the scientific literature - as “lasting”, a notion that a senior from a REP college appropriates: “It's not curable, dyslexia is really a problem. neurological path which is different ”, sharing with the majority of respondents the idea that as long as the child is in learning, he will require compensation and rehabilitation.
An individualization of the courses?
Without claiming to summarize the many questions raised by these “learning disorders”, our results question the interest that public policies may have in systematizing the identification of these disorders within the school, and proposing a variety of arrangements and solutions. 'orientations opposite.
This massive early identification can indeed be compared to the exceptional nature of repetition since 2014, but also the high numbers in each class from elementary school.
The actors stress that pedagogical individualization is thus made very difficult, even though it is - before any adaptation device is put in place - the basis of the teaching profession.
The massive early identification of academic difficulties raises the question of leeway to individualize classroom learning © Shutterstock (via The Conversation)
Recognizing a child as a carrier of a particular disorder already produces an effect, known as labeling, according to Becker's famous theory, which warns of potential effects of compliance with the label affixed. .
The child designated dysgraphic or hyperactive could well have difficulty freeing himself from this designation, since he will benefit from specific care, educational interactions and adaptation of the teachings which will mark the existence of his "disorder" incessantly. , including within the school and within the family.
Our "School" file
It is therefore not just a question of scientific or educational controversies, but of a phenomenon of categorization with implications and effects in the education of children and adolescents today.
The proliferation of increasingly early diagnoses conditions access to the knowledge of the young people concerned, in the context of a school allowing less and less spontaneous individualization of the learning rhythm.
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This analysis was written by Cécile Charazas, doctoral student in Educational Sciences and lecturer at the University of Bordeaux.
The original article was published on The Conversation website.
Declaration of interests
Cécile Charazas does not work, does not advise, does not own shares, does not receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has not declared any affiliation other than her research organization.
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