ABSTRACT
Seizure disorders occur with much greater frequency in children and adolescents who have experienced some type of injury to the brain. Therefore, it is not surprising that surveys of educational and habilitative programs that serve people with severe or profound mental retardation, cerebral palsy, or multiple handicaps report relatively high rates of antiepileptic drug therapy. This chapter addresses special set of treatment-related concerns for two populations of school-aged children, the mentally retarded and the young handicapped child. Although most types of seizure disorders occur in young children, a few are found only during early childhood and others such as absence seizures and certain types of myoclonic epilepsy generally first begin at this time. In general, programs for trainable mentally retarded pupils serve children and adolescents who score between 30/35 and 50/55 on standardized IQ tests. Over one half of the early childhood special education children treated for a seizure disorder received two or more antiepileptic drugs in combination.
