Children with epilepsy: specific learning difficulties

Abstract

The problems of children and adolescents with epilepsy pose an important challenge for educational systems around the world. Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological disease, which occurs in up to 1% of children and adolescents. The largest incidence of onset is from early childhood to adolescence, therefore, mostly the emotional, cognitive and social problems experienced by patients coincide with the school period. It is commonly believed, as indicated by research, that some of the children and adolescents with epilepsy experience learning difficulties and school problems. This article presents the educational problems of a group of patients in Poland with epilepsy and the co-occurring specific difficulties in the acquisition of scholastic skills like dyslexia, spelling disorder or dyscalculia. The work is a review with an analysis of a case study.