Agency or disempowerment: Children with learning disorders in France

Abstract

The paper deals with the agency of children with learning disorders, living in France. Conducted by qualitative methodology with children, parents and professionals, the research opens up the debate on how adults speak for the children and create diagnostics and care trajectories for them. It also questions the silences of the children, the ways they interpret and make sense of their world (Corsaro, 2018). Finally, we question how children are able to act by following Hirschman's (1970) three options: exit, voice and loyalty. As in the sociology of minorities, questioning the agency of children comes down to highlighting not only the processes and systems to which they are subjected, but also the diversion tactics, secondary adjustments, avoidance strategies and resistance techniques that enable them to take hold of issues.