Neurodevelopmental and Educational Profiles of Children with Prader-Willi Syndrome

Anne C Wheeler, Donna C. Yerby, J. Greg Olley, Emily Beidler, Lauren Hadley, Elby Katumkeeryil

The Clinical Center for Development and Learning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) exhibit wide variation in their behavior and educational profiles. This has made the assessment process and determination of effective teaching strategies challenging for many educators. Preliminary data from an ongoing study exploring neurodevelopmental and educational profiles of children ages 3-17 with PWS will be presented. Information on these areas of development was collected through direct assessment and parent report of 33 children with PWS.

The specific areas of development assessed were based on Dr. Mel Levine’s model of eight developmental constructs. These constructs include attention, sequential ordering, spatial ordering, memory, language, neuromotor functioning, social cognition, and higher order cognition. In addition, basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills were assessed in school age children and pre-academic skills were assessed in preschool aged children. Dr. Levine’s model provides guidance for using neurodevelopmental constructs to predict academic strengths and challenges in order to develop the most effective learning plans for these children.

Based on the data collected so far, the children with PWS in our sample appear to have a strength in visual memory and a significant relative weakness in motor planning. Academic skills appear to be generally commensurate with overall cognitive abilities with writing skills more delayed than other academic areas.

This data, along with more specific results related to the areas assessed will be presented within the context of Dr. Levine’s model and in comparison to previous research on neurocognitive and educational strengths and weaknesses in individuals with PWS. For children in the study whose PWS type is known, a discussion of similarities and differences between deletion and UPD will also be presented. Finally, a discussion of learning strategies that have been developed for children with similar neurodevelopmental profiles will be presented.