Landau- Kleffner syndrome

Landau- kleffner syndrome is a rear form of acquired aphasia associated with epileptic manifestation. Researchers have listed certain causes of Landau-Kleffner syndrome and these include encephalitis, genetic predispositions, toxoplasmosis, meningitis, and inflammatory demyelination disorders.

The syndrome occurs in children who have achieved developmental milestones at appropriate ages. The first manifestation of language disturbances (aphasia) is an ‘apparent word deafness”. The parents report a gradual inability to respond to their calls because raising their voices is ineffective. Medical evaluation frequently includes a normal audiogram. The aphasia can progress to (almost) total unresponsiveness to oral communication, while gradually expressive. Language becomes disturbed too. The children express themselves in a telegraphic style or in very simple sentences. The vocabulary decreases progressively and echolalia, literal and semantic paraphasia may occur. The repetition of simple words may be possible, however, repetition of the sentence is very severely affected. In most cases, syndrome starts at the age, when children have not yet learned reading or writing. Incidentally, older children who before the onset of aphasia could read and write satisfactorily lost these capacities.

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