Teachers of Children With Facial Palsy

Thank you for wanting to learn more about supporting children with facial palsy. By increasing awareness and improving understanding of facial palsy, and the impact it can have in school, we hope that young people with facial palsy can achieve their very best.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the impact of facial palsy and the way a child with the condition is supported in childhood can make a huge difference to their life outcomes.

Working with the parents when the child is young is key to building confidence. Older children usually do not want to feel like they are being treated differently to their peers, but they should be given the opportunity to discuss any difficulties they are experiencing.

School Awareness Packs

As part of Facial Palsy Awareness Week 2026, we are sending out 100 awareness packs to schools to help teachers and parents better support children with facial palsy in the classroom. The packs are designed to encourage understanding, reduce stigma, and help create environments where children feel seen, heard and supported.

Parents and carers who have a child with facial palsy at school, starting school in September, or teachers who would like to support a pupil, can request a School Awareness Pack here: School Awareness Pack Request Form.

These are the issues that may lie beneath the surface but remember that every child is individual.

Isolation

Facial palsy is rare and the child affected is usually the only one at school that cannot express themselves facially in the expected way. This can make the individual feel very lonely and that no one else understands how they feel. They may be embarrassed and choose to hide their feelings.

Withdrawal

Without the right support and when peers start noticing their differences (around the age of 7), they may become more withdrawn and try to hide their facial difference. Can you imagine a group of happy children laughing and giggling at something and one child worrying that if they laugh or smile someone will notice they are different? They may then try not to laugh or smile and their peers can see this as unfriendliness. A child who is self-conscious about their facial palsy may deny themselves basic human freedoms such as laughter. They can become hypervigilant to how their face looks rather than enjoying moments of happiness, especially if bullying goes unchecked.

Many people can identify with if they have a spot or blemish on their face that it can feel very noticeable and make them self-conscious. Now imagine if you thought by laughing or smiling that the spot would get even bigger and more noticeable. Suddenly you are not just worrying about the spot, you are worrying about showing emotion. The link between facial difference and emotion is what most people misunderstand and why facial palsy is often seen as a purely cosmetic condition, rather than one of functional disability which can lead to social anxiety.

What can schools do to help?

Schools have shown that they can make a huge difference to a child’s confidence. It is natural for other children to notice facial difference and it is a fact of life that there will always be peers who make unkind, insensitive or bullying comments. Schools can lessen this with education and anti-bullying practices though. It is really important to support in a way that does not focus ‘unwanted’ attention on the child with facial palsy.

Schools can work with the parents, and the child (if old enough), to:

• Decide on a standard response should anyone ask questions about a child’s face. This should be led by the child/family. The Explain, Reassure, Distract tool is a good one for the school environment: ERD tool.
• Encourage the child to educate their peers. For example, you could have an assembly called “What makes me unique?” and encourage children to talk about their situation in a positive way. The child with dyslexia might want to talk about the different way their brain works and mention something they love doing, the child with facial palsy might talk about their health condition but also mention that they could win a staring contest with one or both eyes. Children from different cultural backgrounds may want to talk about their culture. Remember that pressure should never be put on the child with facial palsy to talk about their condition.
• Buy a copy of ‘When Teddy Lost His Smile’ for the school library. Facial Palsy UK has some limited funding available to donate copies.
• Read lots of books which explore the topic of visible differences. See our book recommendations for some of our favourites.
• Find out if the child attends Facial Palsy UK Family Days and encourage them to talk about their day and all the new friends they made.
• Support Facial Palsy Awareness Week (1-7 March) if the child is keen. We have schools where whole classes want to support their classmate with facial palsy in raising awareness.
• Make sure you understand all the medical needs of the child, e.g. regular eye drops. You might find a written tracker useful for school/home communication.
• Ensure school photographers are informed. Facial Palsy UK has handy Photograph cards. This should also extend to anyone photographing the child taking part in school activities. Children want to be included but these situations should be handled sensitively.
• Help educate. Children generally are excited to learn about a condition. Explaining how the facial nerve works and what happens when it doesn’t work in the normal way often satisfies curious minds, and this can curb bullying. If someone starts to bully then another child may not be able to resist jumping in and explaining the condition. This is why education (lead by the child as much as possible) is a really positive step in providing support.
• Ensure the school has a stronger PSHE focus on ‘acceptance’ when there is a child at the school with a visible difference. The charity Changing Faces have designed materials to use to recognise and challenge stereotypes of visible difference: A World of Difference.
• Ensure the school has a proper handover between teachers when the child moves up a year. Facial palsy can often be overlooked and not discussed in handover when it should be made clear to the new teacher about how best to support the child’s emotional and physical wellbeing. There may be considerations such as wearing glasses in the sun or wind, precautions to take if children are playing with sand, eating/drinking difficulties and more. Preparation is key to the child’s wellbeing.

What happens when schools get it right?

“The school’s support and encouragement have helped our daughter grow into a confident, outgoing young lady who absolutely loves school and embraces life, without being held back by her facial difference.” – Parent of child with facial palsy.

“I think it’s important for teachers to understand that a child with facial palsy may appear more shy than they actually are. I remember desperately wanting a part in a school play when I was 8 years old. I put my hand up but was overlooked, a friend who desperately didn’t want a part was given a big part. Everyone was supposed to have a role and I was given an understudy part to just say one line, I wasn’t needed. I always wonder whether I was discriminated against because of my face or the teacher just thought I was too quiet. Two years later at the same school, I had a very different teacher who encouraged me, I was regularly in plays and singing in front of an audience. It felt good to be seen.” – Adult born with facial palsy.

Finally

When a child attending your school has a facial or other physical difference, it is important to educate staff about how best to support them. See information provided by:

• the charity Changing Faces: Changing Faces: support for professionals
• Face Equality International have created a ‘Teacher Support Guide‘ to support school staff to feel more equipped to discuss the topic and successfully promote appearance diversity within school.

Please always treat bullying seriously. Remember the impact of being bullied for how you smile has huge implications because a child may start to restrict showing emotion, and projecting unfriendliness will lead to more problems.

If you have any questions, please contact support@facialpalsy.org.uk