Parents and Childrens Epilepsy

Parents Should Tell Teachers About Their Child’s Epilepsy

When teachers know that a child has epilepsy, they can try to help.  Teachers will understand that a child’s performance can vary if antiepileptic drugs have to be changed.  Teachers can also try to make sure that a child with epilepsy is accepted by their classmates and does not feel excluded.

Most children with epilepsy are otherwise healthy.  Often, the only thing they know about their seizures is how people around them will react to the attacks.  Poorly informed adults may react to seizures  with fear or panic, which the children may not understand at all.

In some children, epileptic seizures are caused by other diseases, for instance disorders of the body’s metabolism.  Such children may have other problems as well as epilepsy.

Children who only have epilepsy can do just as well at school at other children.

Like all students, those with epilepsy should feel safe and accepted.

Whether these goals are achieved depends on other people’s understanding of epilepsy, their ability to respond to seizures, and their beliefs about the abilities of students with epilepsy.

Epilepsy education and awareness should be part of the school curriculum whenever one or more students at the school have epilepsy.  Because seizures are unpredictable, anyone at school may need to respond to a seizure.  Epilepsy education usually involves bringing in outside speakers from a local Epilepsy Foundation affiliate or a nearby epilepsy center.

Ideally, epilepsy education should begin before there is a crisis at school, rather than after a seizure has caught everyone by surprise.  Therefore, the parents of a child with epilepsy (or college students themselves) should consider notifying the school before classes start.  Discussion of the best response to a seizure can be supplemented with specific instructions from the student’s doctor and input from the school nurse and health educator.