[Educational strategies for diabetic children and adolescents]

Therapeutic education in pediatric diabetology aims to reconcile the medical requirements related to the disease, its risks, and its treatment, and to promote children's acquisition of skills to assist them in living with the disease. This can only be accomplished by individualized support based on team work. The approach is systemic with educational assessment, core skills guide, objectives, learning sessions, and evaluation. The skills are defined by domain and in relation to children's capacities according to age, based on Piaget's developmental stages. Therapeutic education is part of the children's treatment plan and requires taking into account their dependence on the adults they live with as well as their interpersonal surroundings. These educational programs are addressed not only at the child, both individually and collectively, but also to parents who are learning to develop patient-parent and parent-care-giver skills without losing sight of the child as the beneficiary. It seems important to work on transferring the parents' skills to the child. Therapeutic education is proposed throughout the child's care, from announcement of the diagnosis to the transition to adult diabetology departments. Programs designed to accompany siblings, grandparents, teachers, or other resource people cannot be ignored so that children with diabetes are cared for in their entirety and they can achieve their full potential.