Epilepsy Newfoundland and Labrador (ENL) is delighted to partner with the Learning Disabilities Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (LDANL), to offer tutoring for children and adults living with epilepsy in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Most people with epilepsy have similar intellectual abilities to those without epilepsy. However, people with epilepsy have a greater chance of experiencing learning challenges than their peers.
Some common Learning Challenges for people with Epilepsy are:
• Paying attention and concentrating
• Understanding instructions
• Using information
• Describing things to other people
• Remembering things
• Working out how to do something new
• Organizing thoughts or tasks
• Feeling a lack of energy to do things
• Feeling muddled or confused
• Feeling sad or tearful
• Feeling short tempered or grumpy
• Working out sums
• Writing or copying figures
• Developmental delays
Causes:
Frequency of seizures
A person who is experiencing frequent seizures, may not fully recover between seizures.
Location of seizure activity in the brain
When seizures are focused in a particular area of the brain, they may also affect functions controlled in that part of the brain.
Type of seizures
When a person loses consciousness during a seizure, their mental functioning can be disrupted for up to several days.
Absence seizures appear to disrupt short-term memory for information presented immediately before the seizure.
Tonic-clonic seizures are followed by a period of drowsiness or inattentiveness.
Research has shown a correlation between cognitive/behavioural problems and focal dyscognitive seizures (previously called complex partial seizures).
Medication side effects
Some anti-seizure medications may make some people tired, less alert, or hyperactive.
Someone taking more than one anti-seizure medication is more likely to experience negative side effects than someone taking a single anti-seizure medication.
Herbal remedies can interact with prescribed medications in ways that will disrupt learning.
Age of onset
When a person begins to have seizures while their brain is still in development, the seizures can interrupt that particular stage of development. If the person is an older adult seizures can exacerbate conditions related to natural age progression.
Epilepsy and Learning Challenges
• Type of epilepsy syndrome
Some epilepsy syndromes (e.g. Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome) involve learning and thinking difficulties.
• Epileptic (interictal) discharges
Some children appear to be seizure-free but may be experiencing epileptic discharges in the brain, called interictal discharges or sub-clinical seizures. Interictal discharges may produce restlessness, distractibility, inability to focus, decreased capacity for taking in new information, and behavioural disturbances.
• The underlying neurological problem causing the seizures can also impact learning and behaviour.
• Other related conditions
There are a number of other conditions that are more likely to occur in people with epilepsy than the general population, including Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Learning Disabilities, and Autism Spectrum Disorders.
KINDERGARTEN to GRADE 12 Registration form:
Kindergarten to Grade 12 Teacher recommendation form (required for registration):
Adult Registration form:
CRA PROOF OF INCOME STATEMENT Website Link (required for all programs)
CANCELLATION POLICY FOR PROGRAMS
Financial Information Regarding Sliding Scale for Funding:
A single person with annual income less than $18,000;
A single person with one child annual income less than $24,000;
Family of four with annual income less than $31,000 will pay 15% of tutoring cost.
HOWEVER, if the student completes all required classes in the allotted time, their $15% payment will be returned to them.
· Annual income of $31,001-$40,000 will pay $15%
· Annual income of $40,001- $50,000 will pay $20%
· There is no subsidy for an annual income above $50, 000
For more information about the program please visit the Learning Disabilities Association of Newfoundland: