I was diagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy when I was 18. However, I had epilepsy all while growing up that went undiagnosed. When I was in grade 6, I had a teacher write me up for daydreaming in class. Little did I know that those were actually absence seizures. I also started experiencing focal aware and focal impaired awareness seizures around that same age that appeared with visual and auditory hallucinations. For many years, I had teachers tell me that I needed to pay more attention in class.
I don’t blame them for not knowing that my daydreaming spells were actually seizures, but I do wonder if they had more education on what epilepsy can look like, if that would have been able to help me get a diagnosis earlier in life. Many forms of epilepsy are harder for medical teams to find and diagnose which is why that commentary from teachers can be so important.
This is why I strongly believe the BC Epilepsy Society’s Partners in Teaching Program is so important and why I am honored to be one of the facilitators of it.
Partners in Teaching provides free educational workshop presentations for schools that covers a variety of items including:
- What is Epilepsy
- What is a Seizure
- Seizure Types
- Seizure First Aid
- Potential Impacts of Epilepsy on Learning and Behaviour
Epilepsy affects one in 100 people and 1 in 10 people will experience a seizure at some point during their life. This means the chances of a teacher having a student with epilepsy or who experiences a seizure during their career is high and schools across BC will benefit from signing up for one of our Partners in Teaching workshops.
For more information on our Partners in Teaching program, please click here. To request a Partners in Teaching workshop for your classroom or school, please click here.