The clinical and EEG features of 53 out-patients with benign partial epilepsy of childhood with rolandic spikes were studied. The age mean (years) of seizures onset was 5.5 +/- 3.2. Simple partial seizures with speech arrest were more frequent than other seizure types. In seven cases (13.2%) cognitive disabilities were present. In the left-side foci a expected correlation between the interictal EEG focus and clinical lateralization of seizure was observed; in the right-side foci, the right-side interictal focus was correlated with ipsilateral seizures.