I need help stressing the importance of documenting seizure activity to my son's first grade teacher.

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LindaJ asks:

My first grader has asthma and a seizure disorder. Any ideas of how to stress the importance of documenting any seizure activity (or behavior changes that may signal something may need attention.no matter how small the teacher feels it is. My concern is the overall picture.

In Topics: Working with my child's teacher(s), Special needs

> 60 days ago

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Louiseasl

Aug 27, 2009

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What the Expert Says:

Hello Linda,

This is an excellent question. I know that the teacher is most likely concerned, however, overwhelmed by meeting the needs of all the students. Perhaps you may ask the school to assign a special assistant to tabulate seizure activity and other behaviors a day or so a week. Also, consider having a camera set up to capture snippets of your child's day. As a School Psychologist, I often would conduct behavioral observations for children with learning disorders and medical complications to see the impact on academic learning within the classroom. Perhaps the School Psychologist could also become involved. The psychologist also can provide the teacher with a simple checklist that can be used to simply tabulate suspected changes in behavior / possible seizures / probable seizures.

I know that medical data is very important for physicians and parents to access. Thus, asking for assistance from the school from time to time is not unreasonable.

Good luck.

Louise Masin Sattler, NCSP
Nationally Certified School Psychologist
Owner of Signing Families
http://www.Signingfamilies.com

Resources:

http://www.nasponline.org

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Additional Answers (3)

SarahRubar writes:

I'm sure someone here might have better suggestions than I will, but for what it's worth, I personally would meet with both the teacher and the principal and stress how important it is. I wouldn't doubt the teacher will say that it's hard to document what is a change in behavior when she's got a classroom full of kids to keep an eye on, but still, she should at least try. Having the principal involved in the discussion will at least give you some back up, I would think. And like you said, any change that may be signaling something major needs to be documented.

I guess this kind of brings up the question, just how much responsibility for this kind of watching of kids belongs to the teacher?

I wish I could be of help.

Sarah

> 60 days ago

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michaelbart... writes:

Hi Linda,

I agree with Sarah, meet with the teacher and school nurse if one is available. As a former teacher I always kept up with student's health disorders. Last year I had a first grade student with a heart disorder. I had his emergency information and a brief description of his disorder and what to look for as signs when he might need medical assistance right next to my computer.

I am a list person, so I would suggest typing out a bulleted list of what the teacher needs to look out for and what to do once the seizures and asthma hit. The teacher can pass this out to others in the school who work with your child. The teacher will do their best to monitor. As well I know other teachers in the school should be aware of what to watch because his general teacher might not be there.

> 60 days ago

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