Landau-Kleffner syndrome: a case of a dissociation between spoken and written language.

A case of a girl affected by Landau-Kleffner syndrome (acquired aphasia with convulsive disorder) is reported. The girl showed epileptic seizures and EEG abnormalities. At the age of 7 years 10 months they were followed by onset of aphasic symptoms accompanied with behavioural disturbances. By the age of 9 years she developed a severe verbal auditory agnosia and loss of spoken language expression, but was able to use reading and writing to communicate. This unusual dissociation suggests that spoken or written language can be affected selectively. The girl was followed up to the age of 14 years 6 months and her language recovered well by this age. (Fig. 2, Ref. 42.)