Legitimate Biological Disease
A child or adolescent's chronic tension-type headaches are real responses (not excuses) to personal, family or school-related stress or challenges. Whether it's a pop math quiz, an anticipated grammar test, or the school play, each child responds differently. While a kid suffering from migraines has most likely inherited a predisposition to them, these headaches can also result from food or environmental triggers.

Identify Stress
It is important to help a child identify the sources of school stress, for example, problems learning math, science or another language, or an upcoming test. A caring teacher's recognition, understanding and encouragement can help a young person with headaches.

Missing School
If a child with headaches seems to be missing too much school, then you should discuss this with the kid and his parents. When a youngster knows the school environment is understanding and supportive, then headaches should not be used as a reason for missing school, or for more than a minimal amount of time. When a child gets a headache in school, encourage him or her to lie down in the nurse's room during a headache, or until the symptoms diminish to a more manageable level, but return to class or school afterward.

Communication
When a child (or his parent) alerts you to his chronic headaches, offer a sensitive (but not over-indulgent) reaction that does not embarrass him in front of classmates. If, however, a child is repeatedly suffering from headaches, but the teacher or school health care professional has not been informed of a specific condition, a school professional should discuss the headaches with the parents.

Allow Immediate Treatment
Children with migraines eventually learn the warning signs. These sometimes include dizziness, nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. The actual headache may be accompanied by vomiting. If, in the middle of a class, a child explains that she has to take her medication, then encourage her to go to the nurse's office to do this because taking medication as soon as the first signs of a headache appear is important. Waiting until class is over could put a young person in a more vulnerable situation, and force her to miss more of school than necessary.

During the Headache
Young children experiencing or recovering from a migraine might not want to play with other kids and may find the activity of school recess periods difficult. Offer an alternative, such as lying down in the nurse's room or, if the child feels like it, reading a book. Or, if a migraine diminishes a young person's appetite, then instead of lunchtime cafeteria, ask if he or she would prefer to rest and relax instead of eating. While it is important to acknowledge and appropriately respond to the fact that the headache period presents challenges to some kids, it is also important for the child not to be, or feel, separated or isolated from other students.

Frequency
By the time they are teenagers, girls with migraines will probably experience more headaches due to hormonal changes.

Attitude
Treat children with chronic headaches the same way you would treat any other child.