ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of Chris. Chris had a history of early developmental delay in feeding, speech and motor development, but this did not give cause for greater concern. Deonna states that 'the association of language disorder with epilepsy is frequent in children, but there is usually no causal relationship'. He uses the term 'acquired epileptiform aphasia in children' to include the whole range of possible presentations, including Landau±Kleffner syndrome (LKS). Encephalitis has been suggested as a cause for LKS but no entirely convincing findings have been reported to date to support such a hypothesis. A linguistic model would describe the different speech and language disturbances which might arise when epilepsy affects speech and language development. Aicardi states that 'In children, the factors of age, growth and development are of primary importance in determining not only whether or not epilepsy develops but also the clinical and electrical manifestations of seizures and the type of seizure disorders encountered'.
