Sign language in childhood epileptic aphasia (Landau-Kleffner syndrome).
Acquired epileptic aphasia (AEA, or Landau-Kleffner syndrome) is a unique condition in which children can lose oral language (OL) comprehension and expression for a prolonged period. These children can benefit from visual forms of language, mainly sign language (SL), but the quality of SL has never been analyzed. The case is reported here of a boy with AEA who lost speech comprehension and expression from 3 years 6 months to 7 years and was educated in SL from the age of 6 years. His SL was evaluated at the age of 13 years and 6 months and compared with a control child with congenital sensorineural deafness. It was found that: (1) our patient achieved the same proficiency in SL as the control child with deafness; (2) SL learning did not compete with, but perhaps even hastened, the recovery of OL. Intact ability to learn a new linguistic code such as SL suggests that higher-order language areas were preserved and received input from a separate visual route, as shown by neuropsychological and functional imaging research in deaf and hearing signers.
Perez
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ER
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Département de Pédiatrie, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Davidoff
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V
D000293:Adolescent; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000151:congenital / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D018887:Landau-Kleffner Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012813:Sign Language; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D014705:Verbal Behavior