Child Epilepsy Essay

At times, parents report that students with brain disorders are being excluded from extracurricular activities, being sent home repeatedly for safety reasons, or placed in a more “restrictive “class setting for his or her abilities. All students deserve a chance to show their skill in a classroom, instead of immediately being place in a “lower level” class. “The most common neurological condition that occurs in school is epilepsy. Because it often occurs in childhood, epilepsy is likely the most common neurological condition encountered by teachers”(Barnett). Students should talk to their neurologist or counselor to provide a special plan to follow in case of seizures, anxiety attacks, or mental breakdowns in school. This will reduce the anxiety

Epilepsy is due to an upset in brain chemistry, which means that the messages that travel between nerve cells or neurons become scrambled. Because of this, the activity of neurons is disturbed and results in a seizure or loss of consciousness. Many types of seizure can occur and epilepsy can affect anyone at any age.

As a result, epilepsy and narcolepsy are pretty major disabilities, from all of the symptoms to the

Firstly, Epilepsy diagnosis is higher in young children then in adults and every 1 in 200 children has epilepsy. This means that most young children cannot have a proper education since they experience unexpected seizures and may have to have a carer or adult with them at all times. Also, behavior issues are constantly being linked with epileptic children due to low self-esteem from overprotection and embarrassment about their ‘disability’. Many parents of epileptic children feel out of control, and give their child too much leeway in other parts of life – this also causes more behavioral issues. If we simply had a cure for epilepsy, all of these children could be saved.

With ever-increasing cases of pediatric epilepsy, studies detailing the etiology of epilepsy and its association with developmental delay are progressively

Even though many adults have epilepsy, it is also common in childhood. Sometimes, in childhood epilepsy, the disorder just “disappears” and they can live a totally normal adulthood.

Every year, approximately four million children are born in the United States; in those four million children, “one and five children are born with or will have a childhood disorder” (U.S. Department of Human Health and Services, 2015). Childhood disorders range from attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD), autism, however, these are only a couple well-known disorders. Be that as it may, some individuals are dysfunctional from the myelination, limited working memory or selective attention, all of which can contribute or be linked to ADHD and autism, hence the executive function of individuals are affected by these disorder.

Seizure and epilepsy are problems that occur in the nervous system. In a seizure, it is an abrupt occurrence where the brain is having abnormal electrical activity that becomes uncontrollable. An individual that has a seizure can become unconscious and have a sudden change in their abilities such as talking and moving. Seizures occur in different ways, one way is the tonic-clonic. As a seizure can occur as tonic-clonic, which it is when the body becomes stiff (tonic phase) that then transitions into the clonic phase of where the entire body is experiencing jerking movements. In other occasions, these phases can occur independently without having the other phase.

Albert P. Educational Underachievement in Children with Epilepsy: A Model to Predict the Effects of Epilepsy on Educational Achievement. J Child Neurol, 2005; 20:175-180.

Epilepsy is a very common disorder and the international researches and surveys shows that 1 adult from 200 people suffers by epilepsy. There are several forms of epilepsy and every form causes another epileptic attack. Epilepsy is spread world wide, but it is a fact that this disorder is not well understood. Epilepsy strikes whomever at any age and it is not true, as many sources indicates, that epilepsy strikes children only. This disorder can not be genetically caught from a family member and you can not catch it from somebody. Epilepsy does not limit a person’s ability and the person with epilepsy can lead normal and happy live.

In some cases, epilepsy can be prevented. However, most of the time, this isn’t the case. Usually, epilepsy is genetic. Another common cause is traumatic head injury from an accident. Preventing falls can lower your risk of getting epilepsy. In most cases, though, it is hereditary. Normally, epilepsy occurs in someone who has a family history of seizures.

The participants in these studies are separated into two groups, one group being children with epilepsy and one being normally functioning peers, the group of students with epilepsy typically do poorer on communication tests compared to those in the typically developing peers group. Looking at a study done by medical researchers from the Department of Hearing and Speech Science at the University of Maryland, Mara Steinberg, Nan Bernstein Ratner, William Gaillard, & Madison Berl (2013), the research shows that the participants with epilepsy had far more errors in speech, grammar and communication noted as disfluencies than the other study group which consisted of typically functioning peers without epilepsy. Their study sought to look at the effects of epilepsy on children’s language performance in comparison to a control group of like children who do not have epilepsy. This participants in this study were separated into four groups. Group one consisted of ten children under the age of five who have just recently been diagnosed with epilepsy. Group two mirrored the first, ten children within the same age range who are typically developing. Group three consisted of sixteen children who have chronic epilepsy and group four included sixteen students of the same age and genders as the third group but were typically developing without epilepsy (Steinberg, at el.,

Epilepsy is classified as a chronic neurological disorder characterized by repetitive seizures. Recurring seizures are caused by disruptions in the brain's nerve cell activity. These disruptions can result in seizures, odd behavior, strange sensations, and in some cases blackouts or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy covers a large spectrum of brain disorders that range from benign and minor to severe and life-threatening or disabling.

According to health expert Stacey Chillemi, Epilepsy affects millions of people worldwide, with more than two million people in the United States suffering from the disorder (Chillemi 2006). There are several learning issues that can affect children with epilepsy. Dr. Amy Morgan states that “Approximately half of the children who have epilepsy will have some sort of learning difficulty. The most common difficulties would be attention language and memory”(Morgan 2006). Even when seizures are controlled epilepsy still has an effect on a child’s development and ability to function normally. Cognitive impairments that affect language,

to the Departmental Committee on Defective and Epileptic Children to create the subgroup - ‘the