SOME CONTROVERSIES ABOUT TYPE AND NATURE OF APHASIC SYMPTOMATOLOGY INLANDAU-KLEFFNERS SYNDROME - A CASE-STUDY

The syndrome of acquired aphasia and convulsive disorders in childhood has received ample discussion since the initial description by Landau and Kleffner in 1957. Despite numerous investigations considering the linguistic and epileptic phenomena of the syndrome, the symptomatolog y still remains of a puzzling nature. Two aspects of the syndrome, the acquired nature of the aphasia and the type of linguistic symptomatol ogy, have not been discussed thoroughly. In our case not only a histor y of developmental language pathology was present but language symptom atology also revealed a predominantly motor aphasia during a language deterioration phase. A careful review of the literature as presented h ere yields data in agreement with our findings. First we found further evidence in the literature that Landau-Kleffner's syndrome is not exc lusively a primarily receptive language disturbance. Secondly, evidenc e in favour of a developmental type of Landau-Kleffner's syndrome was found in 25 additional cases. In this group of children with developme ntal language disturbances at least two distinct types seem to emerge. A group in which the already existing developmental language disturba nces did not fluctuate during the course of the illness and a group in which a considerable deterioration of the developmentally disturbed l anguage functions took place. The different patterns of language evolu tion not only seem to suggest the possibility of an acquired language pathology within a context of developmental language disturbances but also a congenital onset of the syndrome of Landau-Kleffner as the prob able cause of developmental language pathology.