NAUGHTY OR NOT

or

PUBERTY AND BEYOND

Nina’s Story Part 2 

          Ah, the lucky people who have the pleasure of interacting with a pubescent girl or someone with PMS.  All kidding aside, when you have a combination of hormones and no ability to communicate, you are sitting on a time bomb.  Nina’s seizures and difficulty coping escalated in grade 5.  We talked about these changes at a team meeting. Were there any triggers that happened just before the seizures?  Was there a pattern to the seizures or the inability to cope? 

It was time for more observation and recording.   Three different charts were used to see if there were any links.  We recorded Nina’s menstrual cycle, the seizures, and what was happening before each seizure. (We may have also recorded the number of times she had difficulty coping.)  By drawing charts on transparencies, we were able to overlap them and see any connection. 

From what I recall (it’s been over 20 years after all), there was a connection between Nina’s menstrual cycle and the number of seizures. By knowing her cycle we were able to ease her work at the times she would be more likely to have increased seizure activity.

   

        Those nasty hormones can mix up any brain –girls, boys, adults.

A Side Note:  One woman I was tutoring was pregnant.  We were reviewing math and had to go back to grade 8 math.   One day she would remember how to do simple algebra and the next day it made no sense to her.  After delivery she had no problems at all!