Often the first time teachers hear about mitochondrial disease (mito) is when a child in their school is diagnosed. It can be difficult to understand mito, as it can be an invisible illness. The Mito Foundation resources can help teachers understand what mito is and how to care for an affected student.
Designed and written by Martine Vanderspuy and illustrated by Dean Crawley and Martine Vanderspuy, A Little Book about Mito is designed to help school aged children understand what mito is and how it can affect your body.
This letter template will help parents and carers inform their child’s teacher about what mitochondrial disease, what symptoms the child has, and what the school and teacher can do to help.
This document is created to help parents manage their children with mito at school.
This document is created to help parents manage their children with mito at school.
3rd Party School Resources
The following articles are not endorsed by the Mito Foundation but may be useful when communicating with school staff.
This guide, developed by Genetic Alliance (U.S), assists parents in developing letters for their child’s teachers, coaches/P.E teachers and school nurses. As this is a resources from the U.S, some aspects might not be applicable or may need to be adjusted to suit your child’s situation.
A short article explaining how children work when suffering with mitochondrial disease. It explains that children with mito often seem like they are ‘zoning out’ when in fact they are experiencing very typical symptoms of mitochondrial