You will probably get loads of replies.
My two children have both been put through orthophoniste, orthos.... psychologistes - you name it they've had it. The oldest arrived at 18 months and the younger was born here. I also consider my kids to be within the normal range, but the French education system is an animal that I think I will never understand. Perhaps you are at the beginning of that journey! As far as I can tell it is not like in UK when they only refer v serious cases (I think anyway as I never had to face it in UK with my very oldest who was educated there). The education authority is not responsible for these things which comes under health. I think teachers are very keen to syphon kids off very early on.
The education program here is unremittingly academic and pushy and although they do subjects in repeating cycles over the cycle of about 3 years, nevertheless, time for reflection and assimilation is non existent and in the meantime they judge and test children on what they cannot possibly assimilate in the first stages of the cycle. Some of the work I have seen is almost incomprehensible to me - I am not dim. For example - they learn (by rote) at the age of 8 - 9 very complex grammar rules which are incomprehensible to most normal adults except lexicographers. It is strange then that I see so many errors by French people in their written work - very straightforward things like the misuse of the accent on the word for mother (mere) I have frequently seen the acute accent being used instead of the grave. I have seen worse and I believe there is an acknowledged problem. So a question to the French government - why is the teaching not working? In the meantime my children are being made to feel they are to blame!
Homework on top of their very long day is unrelenting. It breaks my heart to force my kids to do homework but as I say to them - you have to do it - so you choose - do it and go to school feeling ok or don't do it and go to school worried with the likelihood the teacher will tell you off (which they do at anything).
Praise and rewards are few and far between and any awards ceremonies are slap dash and half hearted. I have found it to be a system which sucks any self esteem out of many children. I am so sorry to be negative but my children are finding it pretty tough and I don't know what to do (except of course go back to UK which we don't want to do).
My son also went through the spelling horrors - but suddenly (probably at the moment his brain reached a critical maturation point) he got it and it has been ok since.
I have gone through giving them extra lessons at home myself, private home tutors, sending them to an English speaking psychologist, punishment/reward regimes - you name it I've done it and I've fretted and bickered with my husband, felt guilty and still do.
As for the orthophoniste bilan itself - I will predict that you will take child along and they will do a test and the Orthophoniste will tell you in very grave terms how your child will need x sessions and then another bilan probably followed by more sessions. You will go along with it and there may or may not be a perceptible difference. Then in another academic year you will get it all again (possibly fuelled by a teacher who has a slightly unhealthy fascination with the English thing).
At first I treated these offerings (with a good Ortho) as free french lessons for child number 1. For child 2 - different Ortho - they amounted to nothing. I came to the conclusion that his brain was not yet ready for these complex phonics and I was right. Instinct counts for a lot, I have found.
I have for two years now refused intervention for my son based on our experience with poor number 1. I basically tell them that I have found intervention rarely works, more importantly, I have also found that intervention seems to reduce the self esteem of the child in his own eyes and also in that of his classmates and so begins a vicious cycle. I always then fear what reprisals will follow as a result of my refusal. I am certain this year that he will be recommended for redoublement. I have also refused that in the case of my older daughter for the same reasons but also I felt it was not offered in an appropriate year.
I realise this makes for grim reading and probably won't help you but perhaps to be forewarned is to be forearmed. I may come across as someone in denial. I truly am not - I started off trusting the authorities believing that they knew best and embraced these wonderful services. But a complex web involving amongst other things, a disinclination to teach to differentiated learning styles and the liberal use of sledgehammer interventions have, I believe, seriously harmed my daughter's prospects.
I think us Brits and probably Americans are at such odds to the approach to education here that there is in fact no meeting of minds. Steel yourself and protect your son.
I am sure I am not alone.
Best wishes
Amanda