Abstract
An 8 year-old boy with acquired epileptic aphasia was reported. He had shown mild developmental dysphasia in infancy, but before the onset of the syndrome his speech seemed to be normal. He suffered the first epileptic attack at 6 years 7 months and aphasic symptoms gradually developed after about 7 years 5 months. He showed mutism and was suspected to become deaf at the onset, but did not show verbal auditory agnosia. Electroencephalographically, bilateral midtemporal-dominant slow spike-wave discharges became subcontinuous with more diffuse form during slow wave sleep. Soon after the administration of clonazepam, such epileptiform activities dramatically disappeared. After the normalization of EEG, aphasic symptoms improved slowly and gradually, but articulation disorders such as non-fluency and lack of clarity persisted. The aphasia was mainly expressive and was supposed to be influenced by some developmental factors. The ictal record of hemifacial convulsion during sleep revealed that he had the Sylvian seizure. His type of epilepsy was discussed, and was considered to be related to the benign partial epilepsy in childhood.
