Types of Epilepsy: Childhood Absence Epilepsy

The story of Eric, a nine year old boy with several short episodes of blank stare in a day displays an example of Childhood Absence Epilepsy. His mother apparently had similar episodes in childhood. She knows too well what it means to have such episodes.  Eric has childhood absence epilepsy, an epilepsy type presenting with short episodes (lasting less than ten seconds) of loss of awareness.  If a person is speaking when a seizure begins, they will stop talking, often in the middle of a sentence. It may seem like a pause to an observer. Often a child may have many absence seizures in a row and the child may just look confused and not know what has happened.