Tonight I left my house (3 year old sobbing for Mama not to leave) to attend a workshop about Autism and Seizures. The free workshop was put on by my favorite Autism organization, POAC, in their brand new offices located in Brick, NJ. A speaker came from the Epilepsy Foundation of NJ and gave a presentation, showed a video, and took questions and answers from the parents and teachers who attended.
I'd really not heard of children with Autism having seizures until I read Jenny McCarthy's book Louder Than Words and I started talking to other parents of children with autism in my 'network'. What I found out was that it was a lot more common than I imagined but it seemed like no one ever talked about it or mentioned it. Why the hush hush? It is reported that 1 in 4 with Autism will experience seizures usually around puberty but many of the parents I have talked to have children the same age as my son (7) or younger. There are many types of seizures other than the most often portrayed/described Tonic-Clonic (formerly called Grand Mal) and many times these seizures go undetected "fly under the radar" because they mirror behaviors typically associated with autism (Absence, Partial, Complex partial seizures are a few of the types).
The most important thing that I learned was:
T - Turn person having a seizure onto their side so that their throat doesn't become blocked.
R - Remove all objects from the immediate area to keep them safe.
U - Use something soft under their head (or place your hand under their head)
S - Stay calm during the seizure and stay with them during & afterwards
T - Time the seizure
I learned a lot tonight and encourage parents, teachers, aides, bus drivers dealing with the autistic population to become educated about seizures.
Does your child with Autism also have seizures?
Some more info about Autism & Seizures:
Autism, Puberty, and the Possibility of Seizures
Autism-Seizures
MSN Group article: Seizures and Autism
Epilepsy/seizures and autism
12 comments:
Both of my sons have had seizures. Taz has epilepsy that is currently controlled by medication; we believe that his earlier, prolonged seizures caused damage to his brain. Rocky had two when he was a preschooler, then never had one again; but I worry because some kids have a recurrence of seizures during adolescence.
A great book for families to read if they have school-age kids with autism and seizures is Growing Up With Epilepsy by Lynn Bennett Blackburn. She has handy charts re how different forms of epilepsy (frontal, temporal, parietal) affect learning -- great for IEPs!
This is great information! Thank you for sharing. I hope I never have to use it, but if I do at least I will be that much more prepared!
I've just started to learn about this too. My son had a febrile seizure (after his MMR) and many of my friends children did too. Then, like you, I heard from my friends with teens that they had started to experience seizures again as puberty came on. This is important information to post. Thanks for writing about it!
Katherine
P.S. I am also looking for the Turtle Mountain coconut yogurt that Kim showed on Age of Autism. Here's hoping both our local stores get it soon!
Thanks for the advice. I work with a lot of children, but I didn't know what to do in a seizure situation.
Subject near and dear to my heart except mine sort of happened in "reverse". My typically developing son had many febrile seizures during a virus that he couldn't kick. After that, all sorts of neurological signs started showing up... OCD being the major component. Later on we realized the the OCD was really a byproduct of his Aspergers (which wasn't dx'ed until he started showing that he lacked social skills in certain situations). With him I wonder if it the autism was already there but just hadn't presented itself and the seizures brought it out, or if the seizures in fact "caused" it in some way.
It's a 'chicken or the egg' type of question but I'm sure they're related regardless of which came first.
I'd love to see more research done on this. It may not reflect all cases, but some of them indeed.
Great article!
Thank you for this post, I am more aware of what to do now when I have my nephew who has autism.
This post is a wonderful resource. Thank you.
Great information for people to know! Will pass on to my friend's with autistic children.
Seizures are definitely something I've been concerned about, having heard that they often occur with the onset of puberty. Thanks for this informative post and the helpful links!
Thanks for a great resource! This is good to know.
Yeah. I have several friends whose children are testing positive for seizure activity. The seizures are so subtle that they just seemed zoned out for a bleep of a moment. My daughter might have that too so I am keeping my eye out for it.
AC
Life of a Juggernaut
crazyjugs.blogspot.com
hi, my 4 yr. old ASD daughter suffers from seizures. she mainly has sub-clinical seizures in which her brain is in continuous spike mode. we're in the midst of trying an experimental drug protocol right now to control the seizures, with more EEGs this week. i posted a link to a recent news story on autism and seizures on my blog: http://rhemashope.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/this-is-an-abnormal-study/
thanks for this post!
Post a Comment