CCN, our dd11 has a seizure disorder (although she's been seizure-free for several years). We didn't realize that she'd had seizures until they progressed past absence seizures and she was having seizures that were more obvious (including auras before the seizure, convulsing, and falling asleep to the point of not being able to be woken up after). Even when she had those more complicated seizures, it took us awhile to realize they were actually seizures - the actual duration of a seizure, although it may seem like forever if you're with your child and aware that they are having a seizure, does not last long - it's over in the blink of an eye. Absence seizures and partial complex seizures are seizures in which a person doesn't lose consciousness, and their eyes don't close - they simply seem to stare or blank out for a short period of time. They also don't necessarily happen frequently enough to be really noticable - my dd had periods where she had "frequent" seizures (for her), but we never noticed more than one per day and usually never more than a few per month. Chances are we were missing more, but they weren't ever frequent enough to catch on a typical 45-minute EEG. She has a confirmed seizure disorder based on our description of symptoms to her neurologist - and that's it. Her seizures were random enough we felt there was a good possibility that if she had one of the 24 hour or longer EEGs that also might not catch them.

When she had an absence seizure - it was very *very* quick, over so quickly that it might seem she was responsive simply because she was responsive after it was over. The smaller partial complex seizures were more obvious because they caused her to fall asleep and she was very agitated when they were happening - but we didn't see that until after she'd had the larger seizures which resulted in convulsions - because that's what we understood seizures to be. We saw the other seizures once her neurologist had explained the different types and what to look for to us.

I'm actually very surprised a teacher would suggest your child has absence seizures, simply because most people aren't familiar with them or wouldn't think of that right away.. soooo.. that tends to make me think it is something worth checking into.

Best wishes,

polarbear