I have an American friend that is raising both her daughters in France. One daughter has significant speech, OT, social and learning issues and NOTHING is being addressed. Nothing. This poor girl would have been in therapies for years that probably would have helped and in France, they just say, oh well, you are who you are, sink or swim in school.

There's a French mom on hunger strike because of how autism is (not) treated in France. I read somewhere that the going treatment for autism is psychoanalytic and also involves wrapping kids in frozen bedsheets...something like that. Don't quote me, but it sounded incredibly backward.

I'm so tired of hearing about how amazing French parents are. Stick a fork in me, I"m so done hearing about it! I have French in-laws who are total assholes with no tolerance for anyone's quirks but their own!

it's also been covered in this forum:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/310462.page#3642053

You know, this reminds me of my mother (who didn't get menstrual cramps), blithely informing me as I writhed in pain that cramps weren't invented until after Midol was introduced and I just needed to get my mind off myself.

It would be nice to think our problems are just cultural and those darn kids are too spoiled so they get ridiculous problems. But sorry, ADHD is real and it exists across all cultures.

It's really hard on the moms on this forum when you post things like this.

Perhaps you should think twice.

AGAIN this topic??? Argh. Like I wrote when the topic was discussed over a month ago, the French system makes average neurotypical students excel. I am French and I excelled. The French system refuses to cater to outliers, either gifted or learning disabled or both - my son is both. We fled French public education.

France is overall rather backwards, clinging to outdated education philosophies and pedopsychiatric research. Hopefully it will improve. I do like and implement strict French discipline and table manners, though

Anonymous wrote:Wanna bet?

wanna bet what?

Wanna bet?

It is really misleading.

What they say is that French kids don't get treated for ADHD.

I have been in the French school system and it has no tolerance for differences -- my guess is that ADHD kids are shuttled off on the technical/vocational track pretty quickly.

I know it's Psychology Today, which isn't exactly, shall we say, a credible source. And I know that the author here is trying to sell a book.

But, I found the stats in this to be interesting:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd