Seizure Recognition Trainer¶
Most seizures at school are not convulsions, and those are the ones staff miss. This trainer shows you each seizure type as a short animation before it asks you to name it. Nine scenarios a run, drawn at random from a larger set, so a second run is a different set of questions.
How to use it¶
- Watch the figure first. The movement is the question, and the text underneath only sets the scene.
- Choose one of the four answers. Nothing changes after you commit, so look twice.
- Read the explanation. Each one tells you what to look for next time, how long that type usually lasts, and what a staff member should actually do.
- At the end you get the types you missed, a table of all six side by side, and the one rule worth memorising.
There is a reduce-motion switch at the top. It freezes every animation and shows a labelled still instead, and it turns itself on if your device already asks for reduced motion.
What it teaches¶
- Absence seizures look like a blank stare with the eyes open and fixed, usually under 15 seconds, and they cannot be interrupted by a name or a touch.
- Focal aware seizures stay in one part of the body while the student is awake and knows what is happening.
- Focal seizures with impaired awareness bring lip smacking, chewing, plucking at clothes or wandering, with open eyes and no useful answer. These get read as defiance.
- Tonic-clonic seizures run in order: a cry, stiffening, a fall, rhythmic jerking, then a slow and heavy recovery.
- Atonic seizures drop the student without warning, so the injury risk is the fall itself.
- A myoclonic jerk is one jolt, over before you can react, with awareness intact.
- Fainting, tics and daydreaming all get mistaken for seizures. The trainer covers each one and how to tell it apart.
- The rule underneath all of it: a convulsive seizure past five minutes is an emergency, and when you are unsure what you are watching, time it and stay.
Warning
A learning tool, not medical advice and not a diagnostic test. Only a healthcare provider can diagnose seizures. A student's care is set by their provider and their seizure action plan. For free training in Minnesota, see the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota.
About this trainer¶
- One HTML file with inline SVG and CSS animation, so it works offline and on a phone.
- Keyboard usable throughout, with the feedback announced to screen readers.
- Learning objective: tell the main seizure types apart by sight, and separate them from the common look-alikes.
- Source chapters: Seizure First Aid and Seizure First Aid.