Teaching Students with Epilepsy

Teachers who are told one of their students is epileptic may be confused. They may wonder what they are supposed to do if a student has a seizure and how to recognize a seizure. Few seem to consider that epilepsy may have an effect on students' ability to learn, but epilepsy can cause learning problems, particularly with working memory. The problems in school can be caused by damage from the disorder, the medication for the disorder, or even the missed time from school. The majority of students with epilepsy and no additional impairments have normal intelligence levels and are mainstreamed, so the regular classroom teacher needs to know how to work with epileptic students effectively.

Recognize a seizure

While many teachers may expect an epileptic seizure to be pretty obvious, a petit mal seizure may be difficult to spot. Many times, the students may look like they are daydreaming, staring off into space. Place these students where you can observe if they have such a seizure. If you are in the middle of a lesson when one occurs, don't move on to the next portion of the lesson until the seizure has passed and the student is able to focus again.

Use many formats

Give information in multiple ways so the student can look at the ideas again later in case some of the lesson was missed or more practice is needed to move the information into longer memory. You might develop a written explanation of the lesson or tape record a lecture.

Delineate steps

When we are first exposed to ideas, they remain in working memory until we can connect them with some purpose or other detail we already know, which then allows them to move to longer memory. Since epilepsy can interfere with working memory, storage of ideas doesn't always work right, leading to difficulty retrieving information. Breaking instructions down into small, understandable steps helps students understand relationships among ideas more clearly and so store them and retrieve them faster and easier. If the student is having trouble with the lesson, taking the student through the process step-by-step also allows the teacher to see where the learning process is breaking down, as well.

Modify assignments and tests

Students with epilepsy or other students with working memory difficulties may not perform well on assignments or exams that require them to use strict recall. Instead of requiring specific terms in a vocabulary test, for instance, let students explain ideas using any terminology. This will give you a better idea of the students' understanding.

Similarly, letting epileptic students use prompts still requires them to understand concepts but isn't affected by recall. For example, let students use a number line to figure math problems or graphic organizers for reading assignments.

Communication

Be vigilant about the epileptic students' progress. Stay in contact with parents and special education or resource room staff. If students start to have too much trouble keeping up with others, the situation needs to be addressed early. Epilepsy does not necessarily indicate learning problems, but many academic issues can be avoided and real learning can take place if teachers are aware and open-minded about how epilepsy affects academics.

References

"Teaching Students with Epilepsy." Growing Up with Epilepsy. Massgeneral.org.

"Education of Kids with Epilepsy." Epilepsy.com.