Specific learning disorders in children with epilepsy

It is estimated that between half and approximately 70% of children with epilepsy experience learning difficulties, making this a prominent issue during the school-age years. Possible causes include mild intellectual disability, comorbid neurodevelopmental disorders, and sleep disorders; among these, cases with comorbid specific learning disorder (SLD) are by no means rare. In particular, regarding developmental dyslexia, which is the most common condition, it has been reported to be frequent in conditions associated with the left temporal lobe, such as self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (SeLECTS), temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and periventricular heterotopia (PNH). Reports of developmental dysgraphia have also been noted in TLE and SeLECTS. Overall, it has been reported that children with epilepsy tend to have lower math skills. It is known that the severity is higher in idiopathic generalized epilepsy than in focal epilepsy, and it is speculated that this involves networks such as the parietal lobe and impairments in working memory. Since epilepsy can cause SLD symptoms due to various anatomical abnormalities and the development of electrical networks, it is important to consider SLD as one of the causes of learning difficulties when providing clinical care for epilepsy.