Contents:
- Medical Video: Sickle Cell Disease at School
- Ensure adequate hydration
- Allow rest to the bathroom
- Allow accommodation during extreme conditions
- Allow rest during physical activities
- Be careful of injuries
- Watch for signs of stroke
- Pay attention to emotional well-being
- Maintain communication to stay open with parents
Medical Video: Sickle Cell Disease at School
Photo source: smsta.msta.org
If you are a teacher and have students in a school diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, here's what you can do to support it while maintaining your health while at school.
Ensure adequate hydration
Staying well hydrated by drinking lots of water can help prevent pain and other health problems. Thus, unlimited access to water throughout the school day is very important. Often, drinking a small amount of water is better than trying to drink large amounts of liquid at one time. Allow access to bottled water in class is another option.
Allow rest to the bathroom
Children with sickle cell anemia produce large amounts of runny urine even when they are dehydrated. Thus, children with sickle cell anemia may need to go to the bathroom more often than other children. Do not limit students with sickle cell anemia to go to the bathroom at rest.
Provide special bathroom permits to limit disruption in instruction and to minimize attention to students who are out of class.
Allow accommodation during extreme conditions
Cold or hot weather can trigger an emergency. Teachers should not place students with sickle cell anemia in windy locations, directly in front of the fan or under AC ventilation. Allow layered clothes in the classroom. Remind students with sickle cell anemia to wear a jacket outside during cold or rainy weather or remove layers of clothing when it's hot. Children with sickle cell anemia should not exercise in extreme conditions (for example, avoiding cold and high heat and humidity).
Allow rest during physical activities
Most children with sickle cell anemia can be involved in moderate exercise, including walking, swimming, jumping, and riding a bicycle. However, teachers can modify the curriculum so that children who experience health problems related to sickle cell anemia can participate in physical education in less severe roles, such as being "assistants," physical education teachers or becoming "note takers," or "referees."
Recognizing fatigue, which may be due to anemia, may be embarrassing or attract unwanted attention to children with this disease. Even with moderate exercise, regular breaks or short periods of rest after physical activity may be needed. In addition, make a schedule for frequent breaks with a plan of physical activity. Teachers and administrators may want to consult with their parents or ask for their children's level of activity to be tolerated at rest. Also, remember, never allow children with sickle cell anemia to exercise in cold weather without an extra layer of clothing to stay warm.
Be careful of injuries
Never apply cold compresses for injury or illness if the child with sickle cell anemia is injured during the school day. However, other first aid measures are safe for children with sickle-sick anemia at school.
First aid should be provided if needed, including applying direct pressure for bleeding, wrapping with a bandage, or lifting a sick limb.
Watch for signs of stroke
Some children who live with sickle cell anemia may have learning difficulties because of health problems associated with stroke (blockage of blood vessels in the brain which then causes brain damage). Stroke may be difficult to detect when it affects a small part of the brain, but it is very important to note because this event is relatively common in the early years of schooling in children with sickle cell disease. The teacher must be aware that a decrease in academic performance, inability to maintain attention, difficulties with the organization, and delays in vocabulary development, may occur due to cerebral injury caused by a stroke.
In addition, teachers are in a unique position to see changes in school performance that might indicate stroke, and not only assume that lack of attention in class is due to lack of motivation. The teacher must contact parents when changes in learning or children's attention are detected so that pediatricians can be notified.
Formal neurocognitive and educational testing may be needed to determine learning difficulties caused by stroke. Testing can help school personnel to develop the best teaching strategies for students.
Pay attention to emotional well-being
Not all children with sickle cell anemia have signs of outward disease. However, children with sickle cell anemia may be smaller in body size, delayed puberty, or experience jaundice (skin and eyes). In the case of inj sometimes occurring, outward signs might make children living with sickle cell anemia to be bullied and intimidated. Students with sickle cell anemia may overcome their differences by being aggressive, isolating themselves, or avoiding social situations with peers.
Like other children with medical challenges, children with sickle cell anemia may not have many opportunities to play with other children, recreational activities or group-based classroom assignments can serve as opportunities to develop good interpersonal skills and increase self-esteem students. The teacher can also help children identify special interests and talents that can help them identify career goals.
Maintain communication to stay open with parents
Teachers can help create positive relationships between home and school and a sense of continuity for students by maintaining open communication with the child's family through notes, e-mail, telephone contacts, or conferences to discuss student performance and well-being in class and at home. Regular contact with parents of students is very important for children with chronic diseases, such as sickle cell anemia. Some children with sickle cell anemia will have a period when they are unable to attend school, but may not be hospitalized.
For students who are hospitalized or stay at home because of health problems associated with sickle cell anemia, the teacher must give students the opportunity to complete all the work needed. Thus, it may be very important for teachers to talk to parents about school plans that cannot be followed due to disease conditions (tutoring, assignment plans, second set of books to stay at home, or online learning materials for class work). When designing assignments for each child with a chronic medical condition, the teacher may want to consider the quality of the assignment rather than the quantity. Finally, teachers and school nurses must keep in contact with parents and student doctors for up to date in an emergency.
