title: The impact of age at seizure onset on the likelihood of atypical language representation in children with intractable epilepsy.
abstract: Studies have suggested that early postnatal lesions are associated with a greater likelihood of atypical speech representation than lesions acquired later in life. Comparison groups have been defined differently across studies, with age typically being treated as a dichotomous (i.e., early versus late lesion onset) rather than continuous variable. Thus, little is known about the age at which children become less likely to exhibit atypical representation following a brain insult. This study examined the likelihood of typical versus atypical speech representation in children with intractable epilepsy (n = 75). Age of seizure onset was treated as a continuous variable to examine whether there was a naturally occurring cut-off point after which the rate of atypical speech representation decreased. A much higher proportion of children with seizure onset prior to the fifth year showed atypical speech representation as compared to children whose seizures began after 5 years of age.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Psychology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. jennifer.saltzman@sickkids.on.ca
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saltzman
authors.forename: Mary Lou
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Katreena
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Scott
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D012640:Seizures / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index