Epilepsy indicates a tendency to seizures. Seizures are a result of a brain disorder in which clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain sometimes signal abnormally, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In epilepsy, the normal pattern of brain activity becomes disturbed, causing strange sensations, emotions and behavior, or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms, and loss of consciousness.

Epilepsy is a disorder with possible causes as varied as the children affected by its seizures. Anything that disturbs the normal pattern of neuron activity — from illness to brain damage to abnormal brain development — can lead to seizures. Having a seizure does not necessarily mean that a child has epilepsy. Only when a child has had two or more unprovoked seizures is he or she considered to have epilepsy.