Epilepsy and Early Childhood Development

Date Released: Mon, 30 May 2011 13:12 +0200

A vacant stare, a sudden loss in concentration, and a 5 to 10 second period of unresponsiveness, after which the child promptly resumes activity with full consciousness. Many times they were not even aware that they were unresponsive. Such absence spells are commonly mistaken by parents or teachers as simply a lack of concentration, pure disinterest or even a lack of discipline.
This is one type of epileptic manifestation that occurs in especially young children suffering from epilepsy. The most common type of seizure is the convulsive seizure where the person experiences a loss of motor control and their arms and legs are jerking quite vigorously. It is quite traumatic to witness and for the epileptic even more so because they have no control over it. It is estimated that 1 out of 20 people suffer an epileptic fit at one stage or another and epilepsy can develop at any stage in your life. The exact causes of why people develop it though still remains largely unexplained but it is clear that there is some abnormal chemical activity of the brain. The reasons may be hereditary, due to traumatic damage to the brain or due to chemical or hormonal imbalances.

As part of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Training courses offered by The Centre for Social Development (CSD) at Rhodes University, practitioners are taught to look at the child holistically rather than focus only on the teaching. Factors that influence the learning of a child is highlighted and discussed with practitioners in an effort for them to address the ECD of a child as a whole.

Recently Dr E Galpin From the Settlers day Clinic spoke to CSD staff on what epilepsy was and how to deal with it. This was followed by a workshop held with the Level 4 ECD practitioners currently attending a contact session at CSD as part of their training. The workshop was facilitated by Heidi van Niekerk from the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development (ECD) who is working closely with CSD throughout their network of crèches in the Grahamstown area. She discussed with the students on how to deal with a child having an attack in the class as well as how to assist the families. She emphasised that for most people with epilepsy, the biggest problem they have to face is other people's attitudes to the illness. It is easily controllable with medication but what they need most need is understanding and acceptance from the public.

The following first aid should be done when somebody is having a seizure:

FIRST AID FOR SEIZURES
Medical help is usually not necessary, but should be sought if the seizures are repetitive and the person is unable to regain consciousness or there are any signs of physical danger.
Usually it should be enough to put the person in the recovery position, which allows the person to lie in a stable position and keep the airway open. It also prevents the tongue from blocking the airway. When a baby has a seizure, they should be held on their side, head tilted as if you were giving them a cuddle, with their head lowed than their tummy.
The epilepsy workshop is but one in a series of health workshop being presented by CSD as part of their approach of not looking at the child’s education in isolation from their wellbeing and their communities. Nutrition workshops as well as HIV/AIDS workshops have been scheduled as part of their courses.

Picture: Staff had a talk with Dr Galpin of the Settler's Day Hospital.