Seizure recognition trainer: watch it, then name it
Most seizures at school are not convulsions. Watch each one, read the scenario, and say what you are seeing. Nine scenarios a run, picked at random from a larger set.
Scenario 1 of 9Score 0
What are you watching?
Pick the answer you would give a colleague who asked you what just happened.
What you got, and what to carry back to your classroom
0right
0scenarios
The types, side by side
Look-alikes
A faint comes with warning signs and clears inside a minute. A tic repeats the same
movement and can be held back for a while. A daydreaming student looks up when you say their name and can repeat
back what you said. None of those three is a seizure, and all three get mistaken for one.
The rule that matters
Any convulsive seizure that passes five minutes is a medical emergency, so call 911.
When you are not sure what you are watching, time it and stay with the student.
How it started: a warning, a cry, a fall, or nothing at all
Whether the student answers their name or a touch on the shoulder
Where the movement is, and whether it stays there or spreads
How long from the first sign to the last, by the clock
How they are afterwards: straight back, or slow and confused
Whether they remember any of it
Those six notes are what a nurse, a family and a neurologist actually use. Write them down while
they are fresh.
When it is a 911 call
Convulsive seizure lasting more than 5 minutes
A second seizure before the person recovers
Trouble breathing, or they do not wake up
Injury, or the seizure happened in water
The person's first known seizure
Their seizure action plan says to call
Most seizures stop on their own. Recognising one correctly is what tells you whether the clock
matters.
This is practice, not medical advice and not a diagnosis. Only a healthcare provider can say whether
something was a seizure. A student's care is set by their provider and their seizure action plan.