Absence seizures are often missed or mistaken for daydreaming. This guide helps parents recognise the signs, understand the school impact, and keep records that support a diagnosis.
Absence seizures are one of the most commonly missed types of epilepsy — particularly in children. They're brief, they don't involve falling or convulsing, and they look remarkably like a child simply "zoning out" or daydreaming. It's not unusual for months or even years to pass before a diagnosis is made — often while a child's difficulties at school are attributed to attention problems, slow learning, or behavioural issues.
If you're a parent who suspects something isn't quite right, this guide will help you understand what to look for, how to document what you're seeing, and how to get the medical assessment your child needs.
An absence seizure (previously called a petit mal seizure) is a brief episode of altered consciousness in which the child appears to "blank out" — staring vacantly, unresponsive, with no memory of the gap. They typically last 5–30 seconds and end abruptly, after which the child immediately continues whatever they were doing with no post-ictal period.
During an absence seizure, the child may:
The challenge is that this presentation is almost identical to ordinary daydreaming or inattention. Teachers may note that the child "loses focus" frequently; parents might think their child is just easily distracted. Without knowing to look for specific features — the abruptness, the complete unresponsiveness during the episode, the immediate resumption afterwards — it's easy to miss.
One useful test: if you call a child's name during an ordinary daydream, they'll respond within a second or two. During an absence seizure, they won't respond at all until the seizure ends. If your child regularly fails to respond to their name during these blank episodes, it's a significant indicator worth noting.
Childhood absence epilepsy can involve many seizures per day — sometimes dozens in severe cases. Because each one is so brief, they add up to a significant amount of lost time and interrupted learning over the course of a school day. A child having frequent absence seizures is effectively missing chunks of instruction and conversation — without anyone necessarily realising what's happening.
The educational consequences of undiagnosed absence epilepsy can be significant. Missing fragments of lessons, losing the thread of conversations, having to re-read sentences repeatedly — these accumulate into difficulties that look like learning problems, attention deficits, or behavioural issues.
Once diagnosed, children with absence epilepsy are entitled to support at school through SEN support or an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan), including strategies to help them manage the educational impact of their condition.
If you suspect your child is having absence seizures, start documenting what you see before your GP appointment. This record will be invaluable in getting a referral to a paediatric neurologist.
Use Seizure Tracker to log each episode with time, date, estimated duration, and a description in the notes. Even logging 5–6 in a day demonstrates frequency clearly. Over a week, a pattern of multiple daily episodes becomes compelling clinical information that's hard to dismiss as daydreaming.
A short phone video of an absence seizure is one of the most useful things you can bring to a paediatric neurology assessment. Even a few seconds of the child staring blankly and failing to respond to their name can be diagnostic.
Record what the child was doing and any relevant factors — tired, unwell, recently active. Absence seizures are sometimes provoked by hyperventilation, which is why a paediatric EEG test will include a hyperventilation phase.
Diagnosis is confirmed by EEG, which typically shows a characteristic 3Hz spike-and-wave pattern during an absence seizure. The most commonly used medications for childhood absence epilepsy are ethosuximide (Zarontin) or sodium valproate, both of which are effective in a high proportion of cases.
The prognosis for childhood absence epilepsy is generally positive — many children grow out of it by adolescence. However, early diagnosis and treatment matters for educational outcomes and quality of life during the childhood years.
"I'd been telling his teacher for a year that something was wrong. When I brought the GP a log showing 40 episodes in three days, we had a paediatric neurology referral within the week."
— parent of a child with childhood absence epilepsy
Once you have a diagnosis (or strong suspicion), speak to the school's SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). Explain what absence seizures look like, what the child experiences, and what support would help — including being seated near the front, having instructions repeated, and not being marked down for missing information during an episode.
Share a printed summary or your seizure log with the school — it helps staff understand the frequency and reality of what the child is experiencing, rather than attributing it to behaviour or inattention.
Useful resources for families:
Epilepsy Action — Childhood Absence Epilepsy
Young Epilepsy — specialist support for children and young people
One-tap logging, automatic timestamps, PDF reports for your GP, and shared access for family and carers — all in one place.
Get Seizure Tracker →