Calming the Storm: Epilepsy in the Classroom
- Rachael Wells
- Apr 24, 2020
- 2 min read
What we can do to help persons with epilepsy in an educational setting:
“Special education and related services can be very helpful to children with epilepsy attending public school. Because the disorder affects memory and concentration, accommodations in the classroom and during testing are key to students’ academic success” (parentcenterhub.org)
School health services and school nurse services provide the child’s medication during the school day and should provide seizure management instruction to teachers.
Counseling services: Children deal with the psychological and social aspects of the condition. These can include but are not limited to public misperceptions and fear of seizures, loss of self-control during the seizure episodes, and compliance with medications.
Teachers and school staff should be informed about the condition and possible effects of epilepsy medication. These include rashes, dizziness, blurred vision, and differences in cognition and behavior.
If seizures happen over and over again, they can have a lasting effect on many of the brain's functions, from memory and language to planning and reasoning.
Some seizures are characterized by fixed staring. When a student has such a seizure, they aren’t able to comprehend what is going on. They have to be updated after the seizure. A child with epilepsy would benefit from frequent check-ins, peer support, or any other types of memory and task management, such as checklists, breaking lessons and assignments into small chunks, repetition and mnemonics.
Professionals working in any educational setting can benefit immensely from researching what to do in the case of a seizure. They can happen at any time, to anyone, whether they have been diagnosed with epilepsy or not.
Epilepsy falls under IDEA’s definition of “Other Health Impairment”
The nation’s special education law specifically mentions epilepsy in its definition of “Other Health Impairment,” a category under which children may be found eligible for special education and related services. Here’s IDEA’s definition.
(9) Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that—
(i) Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and
(ii) Adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
Please visit the following link for more important information on epilepsy, how to support those with epilepsy and how to spread the word!
Thank you so much for reading this post! By doing so, you are making a HUGE difference!
Comments