'Striking' work being done with autistic children inspires visit from French mayor

An area the size of a football pitch in the vast Brazil forest is being cleared every minute.

The work being done with autistic children in New Zealand inspired the mayor of a tiny French town to visit.

Christophe Villemain’s here with a small delegation from Mosnes, which has a population of just 800 people.

While in the country, the group’s making stops at different education centres in Wellington and Auckland.

“We've come here to New Zealand to see how the New Zealand system functions and collect best practices, to bring them home.”

The mayor has plans to open a new school in Mosnes, similar to what he sees here.

“France is probably quite advanced in terms of research when it comes to autism, the scientific part of things, but when it comes to implementation of policies, it's another game altogether," Mr Villemain said.

The school he wants to open would be the first of its kind in France, funded mostly by the Government.

Mr Villemain hopes it’ll set an example.

“We would love for this idea to replicated throughout France," he said.

His inspiration to visit New Zealand came following news of a centre being built in Wellington, by Autism New Zealand.

The site’s architect is French.

Chief executive Dane Dougan says the site will be a “one stop shop for autism support”.

He told 1 NEWS that in France, the approach to autism is more medical.

“From my understanding, over there you get diagnosed with autism and people try to fix that person," he said.

“Over here we take a social model, so it's more about changing the environment than the child with autism.”

That’s what the team from Mosnes is hoping to take away.

Mr Villemain said, “New Zealand is probably very advanced when it comes to inclusion and mixing children with disabilities with regular children”.

The group have been exploring what an inclusive setting looks like in New Zealand, visiting both mainstream and specialist schools.

Arohanui special school principal, James Le Marquand, took care of the group today, showing them a number of his satellite classrooms across Auckland.

“We need to understand that there is no actual clear definition of what inclusion is, but what we know is that different children have different pathways and different needs," Mr Le Marquand said.

He said our system still has a long way to go, but said the international interest was a good reminder of our progress.

“In New Zealand we easily beat ourselves up, and just to take a little bit of stock and think we are doing this pretty well," he said.

“Our regular school teachers are incredible when you consider the level of inclusion they are able to achieve with the level of resource they do not get.”

Those working with the autistic community here say we can also learn from what is done in France.

“It's an exchange of information, it does go both ways," said Mr Dougan.

“We are telling them that we might have the attitude but we don't have the resource, they seem to have the ability to create the resource but don't have the attitude," said Mr Le Marquand.

Mr Villemain is planning to fundraise for the construction of his school, with hopes it’ll open in 2021.


 

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