F. has mobility difficulties. She wears braces on her legs often needs physical support to move around safely. She cannot walk long distances on her own and relies heavily on the adult next to her.

She has a twin sister who attends another class at the same school. Her sister has learning difficulties and has been diagnosed with ADHD, but does not have mobility problems. The two sisters have a good relationship with each other, there is love and connection, but the difference in their difficulties creates comparisons.

When F. joined elementary school, in first grade, the atmosphere was encouraging. Many of her classmates were eager to help her, to accompany her during recess, to keep her company. The presence of a parallel support teacher was helpful, and F. felt that she belonged to the group.

In the following school years, however, things changed. As the children grew older, the groups began to shrink. Her classmates seemed to “get tired” of her. Spontaneous offers of help became fewer and fewer, and F. began to spend more and more breaks in the classroom or with her parallel support teacher. Not because she didn’t want to go outside, but because the playground became a difficult place, full of movement, running, and games in which she could not participate equally.

Physical education class is one of the most demanding moments of her school life. The activities are often not adapted to her abilities, resulting in her participation being limited or symbolic. Similar difficulties arise on school trips, especially when they involve travel and a lot of walking. F. tries to keep up, but often falls behind, both literally and figuratively. Some teachers express hesitation or refusal to accompany her, stating that she has “grown up” and that it is now physically more difficult to support her, as she leans on them too much. These statements, although practical, reveal the lack of adequate support from the school and the shifting of responsibility to the individual rather than the system.

In the family environment, F.’s parents have high expectations. They pressure her to be an excellent student, devoting many hours to reading, revision, and extra lessons at home. For them, academic success seems to be the way to “compensate” for her difficulties. For F., however, this pressure often translates into fatigue, anxiety, and fear of failure. F. is growing up in an environment where physical limitations, social isolation, and high expectations coexist. Her story is not just the story of a child with motor difficulties, but a case study that highlights the importance of meaningful inclusion, empathy, and collective responsibility on the part of the school, family, and society.

This analysis follows the Most Significant Change (MSC) methodology, a participatory form of monitoring and evaluation focused on identifying impactful shifts within social and educational programs. Unlike traditional indicator-based monitoring, MSC allows us to capture the "messy," unexpected, or indirect consequences of an intervention—including those that highlight systemic failures or "lessons learned".

Significant Change