Hello, My 6 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Epilepsy. The EEG showed multiple types of seizure activity. All other tests were normal. The doctors cannot find a cause for her seizures. During the EEG, the technician commented that he also thinks she has a touch of sleep apnea. Although I have read that while sleeping, heavy or irregular breathing along with a period of “not breathing” can be a seizure…is this true? My daughter is currently on Trileptal. She began at 250 mg a day, but has gradually moved up to 750 mg. I am having trouble distinguishing her seizures since I think the ones during the day are so subtle and I have no clue about the ones she has during the night. Some mornings she wakes up with dried blood on her mouth so I just assume she had a seizure during the night. My biggest concern with her now is that she is struggling in school. She is only in Kindergarten and already has 2 tutors which are not helping much. Her teacher is considering having her held back. My daughter is a twin so I do not want her staying behind while her brother goes on to 1st grade. She would also be 7 in Kindergarten. Kindergarten is not mandatory so they cannot force me to hold her back. I am willing to take my chances and send her on to 1st grade. Anyway, it has been brought to my attention by her tutor that she may also have a learning disability in addition to the epilepsy. Is the LD a result of the epilepsy or something else all together? Section 504 has been recommended to me…is anyone familiar with this? She has 3 weeks left of school and she is just now mastering the alphabet but she is still struggling with the sounds of each letter. Her report card has gotten worse since she started with the tutors…not better! I just don’t know what to do. Her memory and concentration seem to be her biggest problems. She will answer every question correctly one day but the very next day you can ask her the same questions again and she will just look at you like she doesn’t have a clue! Her tutor told me that she gets each letter correct, in random order, when they use the flash cards…but when the tutor writes the same letters on a piece of paper my daughter will look at them as if they are letters she has never seen before. Her teacher also gave her a test with an “easy” part and a hard “part” and she did better on the hard part! She barely got half right on the easy side and only missed 3 on the hard side. I just don’t understand it! Her doctor feels that she should not be held back and that if she is having problems at school then we need to get her help which is what I am trying to do. He also said that we can’t blame all of her problems on the epilepsy, but I think it is either the epilepsy or her medication. I would appreciate any help that you may offer. Thanks in advance for your help.
it is a combination of the epilepsy and meds..
I work with kids who have epilepsy and constant seizure activity causes disruption in their learning. Many times these kids can tell when they are going to have a seizure so when they are seizure free they have issues with controlling things. Their body is out of control when the brain seizes so you can only imagine what happens when she is having little seizures all day long it interferes with her learning, memory and comprehension and retention of what she has been taught.
The meds act like a blanket on their irritated brain and this also fogs up their abilities to learn too. I know one of my kids has a vagus nerve stimulator and a magnet to activate it when she has a seizure when she has more seizures she loses more of what she already knew. It is difficult to help her because of the seizures…
My heart goes out to you…
Re: LD & Epilepsy???
I would get a referral to a neuropsychologist who can do testing to determine how the seizures/meds/possible LD effect her learning. The school can do some of the testing (and you should put a request for it in writing) but with the complicated profile your child presents you need someone who is experienced beyond the typical LD/ADHD diagnosis. It doesn’t sound like retaining her is a good option.
I don’t know epilepsy but I do know tutoring, and it sounds like your tutors are missing a part of the picture. Who are the tutors and what are their qualifications and experience?
A week or two ago I posted a long note on how to teach the letters and sounds — if you search under my name you’ll find it. Try using this method for a couple of weeks and see if you get some changes.
If the tutors *won’t* try anything new or different, then you need somebody else tutoring.
Can you talk to the doctor again about managing the epilepsy? If she is still having so much trouble, maybe she needs a change in treatment.
Sleep apnea can have a lot to do with uneven test results and behaviour. As I know from personal experience, being very short on sleep can really mix you up.
Repeating kindergarten can be useful if the child is immature and/or not ready for the stresses of Grade 1. But if the kindergarten has not succeeded in teaching her much of anything this year, more of the same is probably also going to have very few positive results. She needs something different.