title: Benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes: word and pseudoword discrimination.
abstract: In the active phase of benign childhood epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes (BCECTS) there may be a fall in scholastic performance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study lexical decision in children with BCECTS.
  
  
  METHODS
  42 children with BCECTS were compared with a control group with respect to their hits and response time in a visual discrimination of words and pseudowords task (DWPT).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The children with BCECTS had a lower percentage of hits for words and pseudowords and showed longer response times for pseudowords. They also frequently showed inferior reading and writing performance in the school performance test. The percentage of hits for pseudowords was lower when there was bilateral, asynchronous epileptiform activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The DWPT provided contributions for reading assessments in children with BCECTS. The results indicated the need for attention in detecting reading difficulties in children with BCECTS.
authors.affiliation: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil. lineu.fonseca@uol.com.br
authors.forename: Lineu Corrêa
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: Glória Maria A S
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Tedrus
authors.forename: Eder Donizetti Peres
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Valeria Lopes
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Ximenes
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D019305:Epilepsy, Rolandic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011932:Reading