June 3, 2005

From left, class participants Isabel Aguirre, Cherinee Smith and Madeleine Ferry

Getting their kicks: Program boosts confidence of kids with epilepsy

At Derrick Clark's karate studio in Newton, 10 kids wearing traditional karate uniforms practice in front of a large mirror. They take their work seriously, executing the kicks and thrusts that make up karate's essential forms, but — like any other group of 7- to 14-year-olds — dissolve into giggles when one of them flubs a move or does something silly. And that is just the point. For an hour every week, these children — patients in the MassGeneral Hospital for Children's Pediatric Epilepsy Program — feel like any other youngsters and not kids with an often debilitating diagnosis.

In the past two years, Clark has run four 10-week programs for MGH patients under the guidance of Elizabeth Thiele, MD, PhD, director of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children's Pediatric Epilepsy Program, and MGH neuropsychologist Amy Morgan, PhD. Clark has taught karate to Thiele's own children for years, and she had seen firsthand the benefits the sport could provide. "Research has shown that karate can have a positive psychological effect on children," Thiele explains. "The structure, the discipline and the opportunity to be in an environment with kids like themselves all serve to boost self-esteem and self-image."

For some of the kids who have participated in the program, the effects have been nothing short of life-changing. Patients who were so severely depressed by their illness that they refused to participate in initial classes start coming in with smiles, excited in a way that carries over to their everyday lives. Kids with such difficulty coordinating and controlling their body movements that they had to sit out portions of early classes, have gone on to earn their yellow belts. Most of the participants have severe epilepsy, and it is not uncommon for one of them to have a seizure in class. With Thiele and a roomful of understanding peers on hand, the experience can be positive rather than frightening. "Many of these kids have never been around other children with epilepsy," Thiele says. "To see what a seizure looks like and to know that it's happening in a place that's safe is enormously comforting."

Thiele and Morgan have been collecting outcomes data to quantify the impact of the karate program on anxiety and quality-of-life issues in young epilepsy patients. With the graduation of the most recent class — bringing the total number of participants to about 30 — Thiele and Morgan now have enough data for a paper they plan to publish later this year.

With the growing success and popularity of the program, it is Thiele's hope to expand the enrollment to a wider pool of candidates. In the meantime, although the most recent class received their belts in a ceremony May 14, all 10 participants have decided to continue on together to work on advanced skills. "Derrick Clark and this program have given these kids an incredible gift — the chance to feel not like kids with epilepsy, but just kids," Thiele says.