Living in France means having to embrace acronyms. From SPANC for the septic tank (I kid you not) to ACCRE for setting up setting up businesses passing by CAF, APE,,, it's a whirlwind.
In the case of a child with special needs or learning difficulties there is a bewildering cornocopia of PPRE, PPS, PAI, PAP, MDPH to name but a few. However, I want to chat about the PAP or plan d'accompanement personnalisé in full.
When we went through the process of having my son diagnosed with dyslexia this was with the aim of seeing what adjustments he might need to help him in his school work. The process was that we had him tested and based on that diagnosis we would have his level of "handicap" measured and help would be given based on that - and guidelines would be given to the teachers about how to make his work more user-friendly. And only after this was in place would the teachers be obliged to follow the guidelines. The waiting list for testing is around 6 months and the MDPH - handicapping body would take another additonal 6 months to study his file. Valuable time would be lost.
However, during this process we moved house and changed school and we felt that his teacher seemed more open to making adjustments on an informal basis, so even after we got the formal diagnosis of dyslexia we didn't bother following up with getting him labelled handicapped. This was in December 2014.
One of the recommendations for my son was to cut down his writing due to the cognitive effort that reading and writing pose him. So I agreed with his teacher that I would reformat all his history and geography lessons and print them in a dyslexia friendly font in a colour that he finds less taxing. All great until I discovered that she still made him copy it all down - just from the sheets I provided. This went against the grain of all the recommendations that we had for him and against the adjustments she was making - gapfill exercises, multiple choice ....
Enough was enough and we felt it was time to put in place a formal PLAN. So I began to research how to put in place a PPS - and felt saddened by the need to declare my bright and clever 8 year old handicapped when on the http://www.apedys.org/ website I found a fabulous chart http://www.apedys.org/dyslexie/article.php?sid=836 which listed all the possibilities open to us. And I discovered that in September 2014 a new plan - the PAP had been introduced. It's very target was children that need adjustments but not as far as needing a person with them (AVS) to help them. It allowed for changes to testing, allowing for the spoken word and not the written word, lightening the loads. It was also exactly what my son needed. We didn't need to get him formally assessed for a handicap but a written contract would be created with us the parents, the head teacher and the medécin scholaire of the Education Nationale. How cool was that. As we didn't have to pass throught the MDPH then it is much quicker and easier to put in place. It allows for a yearly assessment of the child and can follow a child all through their school life from maternelle all the way to lycée.
I'm not saying that we won't have to change the plan when he reaches exam time, however, I feel it will be a lot easier as the building blocks of his adjustments will already be in place. I am also thinking ahead for when he goes to collège in 2 years and the PAP should make his transition much easier.
Here's to the PAP
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