
ERIC Number: EJ707431
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004-Sep-22
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-4056
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Managing Asthma in the Classroom
Hamm, Ellen M.
Childhood Education, v81 n1 p16 Fall 2004
Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting nearly 5 million children under the age of 18. Children with asthma account for 3 million hospital visits and 200,000 hospitalizations yearly. This adds up to an estimated $2 billion annually in health care costs (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999). A child with asthma has three times the number of school absences as compared to the average non-asthmatic child. And the number of children affected has been growing. Since 1980, there has been a 160 percent increase in the disease in children under age 4 (Poirot, 1999). In an average classroom, one or two children are likely to have asthma (Majer & Joy, 1993). Educators can take many steps to help their students manage asthma symptoms and cut down on the number of school days lost to this disease. An awareness of what triggers asthma and a few simple changes to the classroom could make a big difference for students with asthma. While asthma cannot be cured, it can be controlled to allow children to participate in typical school activities. This article provides several specific recommendations to assist teachers in working with students who have asthma. It concludes with a list of resources and additional web sites.
Descriptors: Diseases, Teacher Role, Psychological Patterns, Social Influences, Risk, Allergy, Child Health, School Health Services
Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) Subscriptions, 17904 Georgia Ave., Suite 215, Olney, MD 20832. Web site: http://www.acei.org.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A