My 8 yr. old started having seizures at 2 1/2. The first was a grand mal lasting more than 40 minutes. He's had many that are 5 minutes and longer with incidents of shorter seizures in multiples. He's tried Phenobabitol, tegretol, dilantin, to name a few. He went seizure free for a year and so he got off the meds, which was nice because they would cause tremors so bad he couldn't feed himself. But recently he started having focal seizures, and is on trileptal. The thing is he is a sweet intelligent person and only a little behind grade wise but his mood swings are so frustrating he gets violent and sad while he's hitting me he gets ranting and raving for no apparent reason he has a foggy memory of these actions. We're working with a lot of people including a neurologist from Denver childrens hospital and mental health professionals as well as the school district.

We are fortunate to have a lot of support, the current conclusion is manic behavior perhaps a bipolar diagnosis, trileptal is a mood stabilizer as well as seizure control it hasn't been a 100% solution for us seizure control is so touch and go but it may be something to check into. Goodluck and making sure my son has someone he can call to talk to helps me and him the conversation doesn't have to be much just a hey how's it going from a grandma or uncle really helps moral. It serves as redirection keeps family connected and can help keep another set of eyes on the little details such as possible triggers for seizure or behavior .  Redirection seems to be my best tool, the earlier into the behavior you can see him headed, the easier. If he likes books or whatever he likes try to keep it handy in some fashion, stay calm and when he's triggered and starts to act out refocus him, it doesn't always work there are times my son is beyond stopping, hence the medication, but the times I can curb the behavior are sanity saving.

With speech and emotion you have to make it a daily reinforcement, I try reinforcing proper speech and discussing behavior as a side activity so it doesn't feel like work tv time seems to be a win win because they love you and even though they may not seem to be listening their subconscious is. Talk about how his day was what he liked and didn't like, reinforce proper sentence structure and enunciation, it's tedious but worth it. For behavior we've used a lot of easy tools like temperature gauges, it helps them recognize in visual fashion where they are and after he determines where he is emotionally he can decide on a coping skill to make him back to "just right" e.i. drinking some water is calming, crunching ice or chips etc. is invigorating to perk up stretching joints relieves tension. Keep him engaged and hold him accountable show him options to problem solve.  

 Kids are usually more responsive if they feel they have some control, so show him he is capable and let him help find solutions, ask him to help you recognize what and why when he has a bad day and research coping skills with him.

oh god, your story is so similar to mines, my son who is 10 years old test at the level of a 3 year old, his seizures are back and so that makes his behavior erratic . it so bad that his neurologist prescribed risperidone to help. He gets very violent with only his family, he don't exhibit this behavior at school just home. He have seizures in his sleep now so we was wondering if that has anything to do with his behavior. His behavior at times leave me in tears so I know exactly how you feel. He also have autism and dystonia so we are dealing with alot at times, but underneath all that he's the sweetest child you would ever known, when he gets violent and hurts me I know he don't mean it, because when I'm in tears he cries his heart out and hold my neck to let me know he don't mean it he can't control it, his doctor think because of the severity of his seizures it damaged part of his brain that controls emotions