Migraines And School Performance

Migraine headaches are a challenge for anyone, but they can be especially troublesome for school-age children.  How do these pounding, painful, and persistent headaches impact student performance in the classroom?  In a time when student expectations are at an all-time high, our children cannot afford to be missing school or unable to focus in the classroom.  It’s important to know the impact migraines may have on your child during their school day and ways to support them.

Childhood Challenges

Migraines during childhood may have a negative effect on a child’s abilities and overall performance in the classroom.  If your child complains frequently about having headaches, it is important to get a proper diagnosis, so that appropriate treatment can be started.  If your child is diagnosed with migraines, your doctor or neurologist can recommend ways for them for prevent or avoid headaches, especially during the school day.  Migraines impact roughly 5% of children below the age of 12 and it increases to 10% during teen years.  In children between the ages of 9 and 18 suffering from headaches, about 1 in 10 experience headaches that limit their ability to function at a normal level.

Headaches can affect how well a child performs in the classroom.  Nearly 40% of children with migraines report poor school performance during migraine episodes.  Many pediatricians believe that school related triggers for migraines include noise, bright lights, and peer problems.  Students with migraines report that they struggle to concentrate in class and on assignments during an attack, trying to “tune out” noise and clear their heads.  Preadolescent children with migraines are more likely to miss school than their peers without headaches, reportedly missing up to 6 days of school each month.  In a recent study, researchers found that three factors contribute to a student’s poor performance and chronic absenteeism – frequency of migraine, experiencing nausea or vomiting during an attack, and having to deal with sensitivity issues such as lights, sounds and smells.

When school attendance starts to become an issue, that pressure can also become an unexpected trigger for future attacks.  Overtime, the students will slowly fall further behind their peers making school, in general, a stressor for them.  In teens, this could lead to dropouts, as they feel they are unable to catch up and just can’t seem to “win” so why bother attending school at all!  Before things can get that severe, it is important to find an effective treatment plan that will focus on controlling the headache and creating a plan for managing school-related triggers.

Handling Headaches At School

When students are faced with migraines severe enough to impact their ability to function at their normal ability level, parents and students must communicate clearly with school personnel on how to manage these headaches and have a plan in place for future episodes.  Your physician should be able to provide the school with a document showing the diagnosis and suggestions for managing migraine pains at school.  If medication is required during the school day, be sure to contact your school nurse or administration to find out how prescription medications can be administered to your child during the school day and follow the proper directions for getting those items to school.  You might even suggest to the classroom teacher or specialists that if the child feels a migraine coming on, they may need a designated “quiet place” to take a brief break from class to close their eyes, relax and hopefully ward off the impending attack.  They would return to class when they feel they have things under control.

Many neurologists that specialize in the treatment of migraines believe it is important for a young person to stay in school and go about their normal routine, even in the presence of pain.  It is important that any attending adult stay calm when helping a child through their discomfort, as the reaction you may provide could add additional stress or concern to the child.  Be sure that all supporting parties work together to acknowledge the pain, but also encourage the child to work hard, do their best, and participate in school activities.  At no point in time do you want your child to believe that their migraines are a “get out of school free pass.”

Tags: children and migraines, chronic migraines, hormonal changes, migraine, migraine headaches, migraine symptoms, migraine trigger, parenting