seizures and gross motor delay/ motor planning problems?

Laura - posted on 01/24/2011

Hi Tracey - 2 years later and we are experiencing the same with our 17 month year old. After a year of tests ebcause our son refuses to sit or crawl, he started having siezures. Our Neurologist here at Calgary's Alberta CHildrens hospital conducted an EEG which confirmed the siezures during sleep. then he did a EMG which confirmed that his muscles are receiving the nueron messages as they should. This ruled out CP, SMA and any other muscular disorders. We are now on Clobazam and will be starting PT at home in the next week or so. We are hoping that this will help him develope as we cant wait to see him walk!

Tracey - posted on 01/31/2009

Stacie - Where does your neurologist practice (i.e. what city). I would love to finally talk to one that looks at the whole child and not just each part.

Stacie - posted on 01/31/2009

My daughter has had epilepsy for six years. She has been involved with OT for the last two to help with her Motor planning issues. She has learning challenges and has a low resistence to any colds or flu. I ask myself all the time what came first the chicken or the egg. I see that after a run of cluster seizures she becomes a blank slate and we need to start all over again. She forgets what she has learned and we need to start over again. She is a good girl and tries so hard. Now she nows what happens and is more fustrated that things come so much harder for her. Our Neurologist is wonderful and has done so much to help us through her therapies....not just medication but OT and IEP goals aswell. He looks at her like a fuse box and when overloaded a fuse will pop. Any neurological dianosis will then trigger another..ie, anxiety, migrane, motor planning it is all inter-related. Professionally, as a teacher I see it all relate one way or another. Hope this helps, I am right there with you.

Tracey - posted on 01/30/2009

When I read Kelly's post I realized that I forgot to mention that his old neurologist mentioned to me that the Phenobarbital was having an effect on his actual muscle development as well. When he was on it, he couldn't walk long distances and was constantly asking to be carried. After the Pheno, they switched him to Carbatrol which helped his muscle growth but didn't help with the motor skills since he was still having seizures (just not as frequently). Switching to Keppra was like turning on a light for him. Now, we just need to figure out who to overcome his learning delays before he starts kindergarten int he Fall (now, his neuro thinks he might also be on the Autism spectrum or have a learning disability since the seizures are being controlled, his motor skills have improved, but he still won't maintain eye contact or remember his letters or numbers).

Cami - posted on 01/29/2009

I agree with Tracey Rosen, My two kids that have epilepsy have gross, and fine motor delay because of seizures. My oldest is 12 ,and is finally seizure free, and is just starting to do stuff he has never done before. My 6 year old struggles as he did, and can't pedal a bike yet. Good luck. I hope you find the answers you're looking for.

Kelly - posted on 01/29/2009

My son doesn't have CP however he has had seizures from the day he was born. He has HUGE gross and fine motor delays but I actually believe most of it to be duee to Phenobarbital. It put him to sleep constantly. Now that I had him switched to Keppra, he is doing WAY better. He's had therapy with both medications, so I really think its the medication.

Elisabeth - posted on 01/29/2009

Thanks for you input.  I really think they are linked.  Now that she has good controll with the Keppra she is really making great progress.  She is only about 2 months behinde her peers now.  The PT's are both amazed at the progress she has made.  I DO think they were connected but have since told my family to back off about the CP questions.  I don't think it matters now that she is making progress.  

Obvously her seizures were interfearing with her gross motor development.  When we see the Neuro on Feb 11 I plan to discuss this with him.  If he blows me off again we are going to look into going up to A.I. Dupont in Delaware. 

Tracey - posted on 01/26/2009

I have to disagree with what you've been told because I was told by our neurologist and my son's therapists that his seizures were the exact cause of his gross motor delays. We live in Los Angeles and while there are only a handful of pediatric neurologists, some of the best are based here (we got him into the program at UCLA last year and have been told that our pediatric neurologist is one of the top in the country). We decided to change doctors because we felt that our old ped neurologist was too "old school" and kept telling me that he didn't need to know how to jump to get into college. We didn't want him to have problems when he got into elementary school and wanted a more aggressive approach.

Our son is turning 5 next week and couldn't jump until he was almost 4 (a two-year delay) and he just learned how to pedal a bike about 3 months ago. We've seen huge improvements since his seizures have been under control with Keppra and the occupational therapy twice a week and adaptive PE have been huge helps. The school district wouldn't award him physical therapy because they said he can navigate a classroom with out falling constantly but his neurologist and pediatrician had expressed that it could help with his muscle development and overall gross motor skills. I'm not saying that our kids have the same situation bu just that some types of seizures and the medications can have a direct impact on gross motor skills. Hope this helps.