Children who have Special Health Care Needs

Children who have Special Health Care Needs

Since Bill 82 came into effect in 1980, many more children with special health care needs are attending regular schools, often in regular classrooms. Although it is common for children with mild medical problems to be at school, due to life saving technology even children with severe and life threatening conditions can now attend regular public schools.

With the exceptions of asthma and allergies, most are low incidence conditions. However, school staff, including educational assistants, need to be aware of the special physical and emotional needs of these exceptional students as well as their educational challenges due to loss of school time, fatigue, decreased attention span and side effects from medications or treatments.

Examples of diseases and conditions requiring special health care needs are spina bifida, diabetes, asthma, cancer, AIDS and arthritis. It is important to remember that children who have special health care needs do not necessarily have any impairment in other functioning, including their intellectual abilities (Winzer, 2008).

Definitions (from Winzer, 2008)

Special health care needs: Diseases         Orthopedic condition: A condition 
and  conditions that affect the lives                 that affects mobility as well as a
and functioning of children and adults             child's educational performance

Acute illness: A severe or serious                 Musculoskeletal impairment: Disorder
illness that can be resolved so that                 involving bones and/or muscles that
an individual recovers                                      impede bodily movements in the absence
                                                                         of damage to the central nervous system
Chronic illness: An ongoing
illness that can not be resolved                       Neuromuscular disease:An acquired 
                                                                         or inherited condition that affects cells 
Episodic illness: An illness where                 in the spinal cord, the peripheral motor 
an  individual experiences normal                    nerves, the myoneural functions between 
functioning during periods between                 the nerves and muscles and 
attacks                                                              the muscles themselves
                                                                         
Progressive illness: An illness that              Technology dependent: A situation 
becomes more serious over time                    where a person needs technological 
                                                                         intervention, a medical device to 
Health impairment: Having limited                 compensate for the loss of a vital
strength, vitality, or alertness due to                bodily function and requires 
chronic or acute health problems or                substantial ongoing nursing care to 
disabilities that adversely affects a                  avert death or further disability
child’s educational performance                       
                                                                         Medically fragile child: A child who
Physical disability: A disability that                 requires specialized technological 
affects body systems, including                       health care procedures for life support,
health disorders and problems                         including during the school day
related to mobility and motor skills