Lyme Disease and Impact In School

Children with chronic symptoms, can suffer not only physically but academically as well. Neurological, psychiatric and cognitive symptoms can greatly impair their ability to learn and grow in the classroom. Adolescents may struggle socially, unable to connect with their peers or participate, as they once could, in extracurricular activities.

The impact these symptoms can have on a child should not be underestimated. Tager et al. described 20 children, ages 8 to 16, with “marked fatigue (100%), arthralgias (100%), frequent and severe headaches (100%), irritability/depression (94%), short-term memory problems (94%), schoolwork deterioration (94%), myalgias (88%), brain fog (88%), neck pain (88%), insomnia (82%), distractibility (82%), word-finding problems (82%), severe flu (80%), sensory hyperacusis to sound (58%) and/or light (74%); insomnia (77%); and radicular pains (56%)”[1] despite antibiotic treatment.

In one study, children with Lyme disease reported more “learning and attention problems, feelings of ineffectiveness, and mood problems” than controls.[1] McAuliffe et al. described 25 adolescents with “significant deficits in cognition (short-term visual memory, short-term and delayed verbal memory, all forms of recognition memory), as well as worse attendance, grades, and subjective reports of memory problems” that were far worse than controls.[2]

In order to achieve their academic goals, children and adolescents may need their school to make special accommodations. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Individualized Education Program, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has been implemented may help children with Lyme disease. Other accommodations may include, shorter school days, untimed tests, alternative testing methods, separate/quieter testing locations, modified home instruction programs, and elimination of unnecessary requirements.