How do you adapt schoolwork for a child with epilepsy, a brain injury or autism?

Short answer: you do not change what your child learns, but the form it comes in. The material from school stays the same; the way it arrives on the table follows what your child can manage that day. In practice that comes down to eight things: less at a time, smaller steps, more repetition, no time pressure, a fixed structure, literal language, less noise around the task and a clear ending.

Start with the school's own material, not a separate programme

When school is not working, it is tempting to look for something separate. Usually that is not what helps. A child following its own programme drifts away from the class, and in the long run that costs more than it gains. The school also sets the learning goals and the order they come in, and there is a reason for that.

What does work: the same sums, the same words, the same concepts, just presented more calmly. Then your child practises exactly what the class is working on and can join in on Monday. Adapting is about the form, not the content.

Eight adaptations that make the difference

Small chunks. One idea per step, in short pieces. Working memory can only hold a few things at once, and a tired child loses the thread as soon as three ideas share a paragraph.
Less at a time. Short sentences, few new terms per step. Anything that does not contribute to what your child needs to learn still costs attention.
Repetition, spread through the lesson. The core comes back a few times. Recalling something yourself makes it stick better than reading it again, and spacing that repetition works better than doing it all at once.
No clock. Time pressure takes up room in the head that your child needs for the task itself. At a slower pace, a time limit mostly measures speed rather than what your child knows.
The same structure every time. If the form is always the same, your child does not have to spend attention working out how it works. For autistic children that predictability is often what makes learning possible at all.
Literal language. No metaphors, no double meanings. Figurative language needs an extra translation step, and that either costs attention or goes wrong entirely.
Strip out the noise. Cut the story around a sum back to what actually matters. Otherwise your child has to filter before it can start working.
A clear ending. A short summary that links back to what your child already knew. New knowledge sticks better when it is attached to something, and a clear ending brings calm.

They work together, so this is a set rather than an order. Which one matters most differs per child: with fatigue after a seizure, breaking things into small chunks matters most; for autistic children it is usually predictability.

Where these adaptations come from

These eight were not invented at our kitchen table. That working memory is limited, and that unnecessary information gets in the way of learning, comes from John Sweller's work on cognitive load. That recalling something yourself works better than reading it again was researched by Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke. That spacing repetition beats doing it all at once comes from a large review by Nicholas Cepeda and colleagues. And the emphasis on structure and predictability for autistic children comes from the TEACCH approach developed by Gary Mesibov and colleagues.

What those sources do not say is that any particular programme works. They explain why you would take this approach. They do not prove a result, so we do not promise one either.

Two things that often get skipped

The question that is worded slightly differently. Many children know the material and still get stuck in a test, because the question is phrased differently from the practice material. That is exactly why this platform exists. It helps to practise the same idea a few times in different wordings, and to say out loud that it is the same question each time. That way you practise not only the answer, but recognising the question.

Applying it. Being able to repeat something is not the same as being able to use it. One short, concrete everyday situation where your child has to use what it learned says more than another ten sums of the same kind. Transferring knowledge to a new situation stays difficult, so do not expect miracles, but do not skip it either.

What adapting does not solve

Honestly: no form compensates for a bad day. After a seizure, or with heavy fatigue, doing less is simply the right answer, however calmly the lesson is built. Reading comprehension also needs more than a calmer presentation; that calls for reading strategies, such as predicting what a text will be about and summarising afterwards what it said.

And adapting at home does not replace support at school. Start with your school's SENCO, the member of staff responsible for special educational needs. For epilepsy specifically, Young Epilepsy and Epilepsy Action both have information and advice for families about school. How formal support is arranged differs across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so ask the school what applies where you live.

How we do this

These eight adaptations are built into Tom's Lessons. You photograph the worksheet or book page from school, and we turn it into a lesson in small steps, in a low-stimulus setting, at your child's own pace. The same material as in class, just presented differently. It is a learning aid, not medical treatment, and it does not replace support from school or your doctor. To see what that looks like, have a look at an example lesson or read why learning with epilepsy sometimes does not work.