School performance and praxis assessment in children with Rolandic Epilepsy.

Background: Rolandic Epilepsy is the most common form of childhood epilepsy. It is classified as idiopathic, age-related epileptic syndrome with benign evolution. The absence of neuropsychological impairment is part of the criteria of benignity of this epilepsy syndrome. Recently, however, several deficits related to attention and language have been suggested.

Aim: to assess school performance and to investigate praxis problems in patients with rolandic epilepsy in comparison to a control group of normal children, paired by age, gender and educational level.

Method: nineteen patients aged between 7 and 12 years underwent clinical neurological evaluation, psychological assessment, through the Weschsler Scales of Intelligence, and language evaluation, to assess the academic performance and to investigate the presence or absence of praxis difficulties.

Result: the obtained data indicate that although intellectual efficiency (measured through the Intelligence Quatient - IQ) was within average, children with rolandic epilepsy presented a significantly poorer performance when compared to the control group in tests involving writing, arithmetic and reading. Another important aspect was the absence of orofacial apraxia in children with epilepsy.

Conclusion: the results of the study suggest that the assessment of children with epilepsy is necessary to investigate specific deficits that require appropriate professional assistance. Regarding the presence of oral language and/or writing disorders in these children, academic, social and emotional deficits can be avoided. The prognosis of epileptic syndrome does not exclusively depend on the control of the crises, since social or cultural problems can interfere in life quality as much as the crisis.