Absence seizures typically occur suddenly and with no warning. You can often tell if a person is experiencing an absence seizure because they become unaware of their surroundings, touch, and sound. The child will appear temporarily absent from their body. A child’s teacher is often the first to notice absence seizure symptoms. stopping speech in the middle of a sentenceĪdults may mistake absence seizures in children as misbehaving or being inattentive.Absence seizures tend to cause shorter and milder symptoms than tonic-clonic seizures, also called grand mal seizures.Īccording to the Epilepsy Foundation, an advocacy group, absence seizures generally last less than 10 to 20 seconds. Absence seizures most commonly affect children between the ages of 4 and 12.
