Introduction. Epilepsy may affect child's social competence and cognition. Important part of social competence is Theory of Mind – ability to understand others’ mental states. The purpose of the study is to explore factors related with social competence and epilepsy affecting neurocognitive development and social competence.

Methods. 35 children with epilepsy (M=10.46 yrs; SD=1.85): 25 with partial and 10 with generalized epilepsy, and 30 controls (M=10.26 yrs.; SD=1.88) participated. 17/35 children had newly diagnosed epilepsy and were tested before the beginning of antiepileptic treatment. Theory of Mind Tasks and Social Skills Rating Scale were used as social competence measures. Neurocognitive development was assessed using NEPSY battery.

Results. We revealed that children with epilepsy have better understanding of false beliefs than intentional lying (p<.01) and sarcasm (p<.05). Compared to controls, they had more behavioural problems (p<.01) and performed significantly worse in attention, executive, verbal and fine motor skills (p<.05). Children with better understanding of false beliefs also had better executive (r=.6; p<.01), verbal (r=.45-.49; p<.01) and visuospatial skills (r=.34-.48; p<.01). Children with generalized epilepsy had lower scores on sarcasm (p<.05) and memory (p<.05) compared to children with partial epilepsy. Age of epilepsy onset correlated positively with performance in Theory of Mind Task (r=.42; p<.01). Children who got AED had significantly lower fine motor and memory skills (p<.05).

Conclusion. Children with epilepsy have lower social competence and neurocognitive skills than healthy children. Furthermore, social competence is correlated with attention and executive abilities. Type of epilepsy and age of onset also affects social competence.