Early Cognitive Abilities Associated with Later Academic Functioning in Neurotypicals and Young Children with Williams Syndrome: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Jessica L Reeve and Melanie A Porter

Williams Syndrome (WS) is associated with poor academic performance, and reduced educational attainment, with research consistently finding literacy and numeracy impairments across the lifespan in WS. To date, however, most studies have focused on older children and adults, with little research on early development of academic functioning in WS. The present research investigates emerging reading and mathematical abilities in young children with WS and examines potential early cognitive abilities associated with later academic functioning. The present research aimed to identify the early academic profile of young children with WS and to examine the relationship between academic functioning and demographic variables. Early cognitive abilities associated with later academic functioning were also investigated. The performance of the WS group was compared to a typically developing control group matched on chronological age, socio-economic status, and parental education. Participants included 20 young children with WS and 40 typically developing children, aged between 2 to 7 years (at initial testing), who completed a comprehensive developmental and academic assessment, utilising standardised measures (the Mullens Scale of Early Learning and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition) that contained normative data appropriate for our young WS sample in terms of both mental age and chronological age [1,2]. Young WS children exhibited relative impairments in mathematical abilities compared to single word reading, but both areas were generally below chronological age expectations. Lower levels of developmental/intellectual functioning, executive functioning, and attentional difficulties were found to be associated with reduced academic outcomes in young WS children. For typically developing children, only attention and behavioural measures predicted later academic outcome, not earlier levels of developmental/intellectual functioning. Considerable variability was evidenced in early academic abilities, including whether mathematics was a relative area of weakness compared to reading, confirming the importance of individual assessments, and developing individualised educational provisions and learning support for this neurodevelopmental population.

PDF