Playing, learning and education
Preschool children with arthritis
Many children who develop arthritis are very young. Parents have to deal with the shock of the illness and treatment, but also how arthritis affects normal things like going to school and making friends. Sometimes the child already attends school when they become ill and so both the family and the school together have to adjust to the new situation. Changing schools is another time when there are particular and predictable anxieties about how the child and school will manage.
From research and from talking to parents we know that school issues arouse parents’ anxiety and deep concern because the children’s happiness and future can be profoundly affected by their experiences in school. Education is about so much more than just lessons.
Parents want their children to learn and enjoy being at school, and sometimes feel unprepared and ill equipped to explain about the child’s arthritis and needs. At the beginning, asking for help is not easy, especially if school staff seem unapproachable.
Parents’ Tips
- Ask other parents about their experiences of local nurseries or schools. Judge for yourself which nursery/school seems best for your child.
- Spend some time with key nursery or school staff, get to know them before starting the detailed discussion about your child.
- Explain about the strengths your child has, then how arthritis affects your child.
- Be honest about your worries, and any problems you know your child has.
- Discuss ideas from the nursery/school, from the child and from you.
- Find ways that the school could help in nursery/school time and how you can support their work at home.
- The school and you should have the same focus – the happiness and education of your child.
- If you work at the relationships with the nursery/school then your partnership with them will outlast any misunderstandings that may develop later.
