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• Children with self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes show developmental delays in the neuromagnetic activity of the language brain regions. • Self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes with and without language deficits, as for healthy controls, show different levels of development. • Children with inferior speech comprehension had more seizures and localization of epileptiform discharges on the left side. Children with self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (SeLECTS) typically indicate cognitive impairment with widespread speech impairment. We explored how epilepsy affects language-related brain areas and areas in their vicinity. Twenty-two children with SeLECTS and declined verbal comprehension (DVC), 21 with SeLECTS and normal verbal comprehension (NVC), and 23 healthy controls (HCs) underwent high-sampling magnetoencephalography recordings. According to a previous study, 24 language-related regions of interest were selected bilaterally, and the relative spectral power was estimated using a minimum norm estimate. The highest mean power spectral density was observed in the delta band for the DVC group, in the theta band for the NVC group, and in the alpha band for HCs within language-specific brain regions. The distinctions between the DVC and NVC groups in the delta and theta frequency bands were primarily concentrated in the right linguistic brain area. Children with SeLECTS may have developmental problems in language-related brain areas, with different developmental levels observed in the DVC, NVC, and HC groups. The DVC group could have inferior speech comprehension due to a more significant number of seizures and more left-sided spike locations. Children having SeLECTS showed impaired brain maturation, leading to associated language impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]