Teixeira, J. 1 , Santos, M. E. 1 & Oom, P. . 2
1 Institute of Health Sciences - Catholic University of Portugal
2 Hospital Beatriz Ângelo
Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes (BCECTS) is one of the most common childhood disorders. Despite the benignity usually attributed to this epileptic syndrome, several studies have demonstrated that these children have cognitive disabilities, namely of attention, memory, and language. Among these disturbances, language disorders have been the less studied. We aim to present the first results from a larger study that intends to assess children language skills in several areas. We assessed 13 children with BCECTS, 7 girls and 6 boys, between the ages of 6 and 13, followed in two hospitals in Lisbon. The assessment tests covered semantics, morphology, syntax, and phonology. The results showed that from the 13 children evaluated, 12 had linguistic deficits and 4 of them had deficits in all language areas. Overall, these children showed greater difficulties in semantics (identification of words from the same lexical group) and syntax (sentence organization, expansion and construction). Children with BCECTS seem to demonstrate inferior language skills compared to their peers in several language areas. Thus, early language assessment and possible therapeutic intervention should be emphasized, in order to minimize the impact on their academic performance and quality of life.