Effect of Epilepsy on Child DevelopmentHannah WebsterCaledonia-Mumford High SchoolGenesee Community CollegeInvolvement in helping children with epilepsy-related disabilities has certainly grown as more information is received. Epilepsy can interfere with sleep, learning, attention, memory, concentration, emotional development, language development, and speech. Information about electrical stimuli and discharges that cause seizures is known to disturb connections between nerve cells that are essential for normal brain function. Some types of seizures can also harm development if they interrupt necessary daily learning activities. These functions are impaired from what they would be in a “normal person,” which can cause emotional development problems, especially if someone who does not suffer from epilepsy is uneducated and makes fun of someone who does have epilepsy. Due to the increase in awareness of epilepsy, people are definitely giving epilepsy a positive vibe and helping in more ways to revive the child's development that was previously put aside. Epilepsy is a condition found among many children and adults. Approximately 300,000 children under 14 in the United States suffer from epilepsy (Epilepsy Foundation). Just because someone has a seizure doesn't mean they have epilepsy. One in 20 people will have an attack in their lifetime. Seizures are caused by a strong stimulus exposed to the brain. When people are diagnosed with epilepsy, they have abnormal electrical impulses in the brain (Condon, 2010). Due to these stimuli and healing methods, development can be significantly affected. So, how exactly does epilepsy affect a child's development? Well, since… halfway through the document… they are completing the first milestones (Epilepsy Foundation). Approximately 50% of children with epilepsy will have some form of learning difficulty and the incidence of mental retardation among these people with epilepsy is between 20 and 29% compared to 1-2% of the general population ( Massachusetts General Hospital, 2006). Since epilepsy already causes many complications, it is very easy for other disabilities to appear. How does epilepsy affect child development? The answer is simple. It interferes with daily life that would be nonexistent if epilepsy were not present. However, these complications are very normal in all epileptics. It can harm the individual, but fortunately the awareness of epilepsy is becoming more and more known and the ways of cooperating and managing the disabilities present are becoming stronger with every effort made..