verbal audiotory agnosia

[joanna hanna]

our 28 mo little girl was just diagnosed with verbal auditory agnosia.  i know very little about this disorder other than it makes it difficult for her to her spoken words even though her hearing is fine i also know that it is asociated with stroke patients although that is not the case with my daughter.  her nuerologist is stumped because there is nothing on her mri or ct atleast in oct but they did not use a contrast could that make a difference?  she does also have a siezure disorder but they are thought to be breath holding spells however her nuerologist admitted that they could have something to do with her language problems and if she shows sighns of regression we are to have a 24hr eeg done to rule out launden klauffen syndrome.  IS it possible he is reconsidering her siezure activitie  breatholding should not cause a learning diability shoud it?  also do you know of any other terms for the same dx i am desperae to find out more inf i realize it is a very serouse probblem and would be very apreciative of any additional info i can get thanks.

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear Joanna:



Sorry to hear about your daughter.  First, occasionally we see seizure activity that can occur with breath holding.  Many times, this will resolve as the child ages.  The best news is that your daughter has a normal MRI scan.  I am assuming that the EEG was normal other than during one of these episodes of breath holding?  We usually use the term oral-buccal apraxia.  When speech difficulties occur after a stroke, it is usually called aphasia.  There are other conditions with speech depending on where the stroke is located in the brain.  But, this is not what is occuring with your daughter.  The Landau-Kfuffner syndrome is usually when there is good language development and then for some unknown reason the language ceases.  If this is the case, a sleep EEG will show abnormalities.



If your daughter is meeting all her developmental milestones, other than spoken language,then likely this condition is isolated.  I would strongly suggest speech therapy.  I would also strongly suggest that you read to your daughter every chance you have.  The earlier things are started the better outcome we feel that will occur.



If the MRI is normal, there is really no need to use contrast.  The T1 and T2 weighted images should be enough.



Sincerely,



CCF Neuro MD