Neurocognitive and psycho-emotional profile of children with disabilities

Abstract

Objective

Neurocognitive deficits in attention, short-term memory, and sequential information processing are present in children with a variety of disabilities, whereas language and visuospatial abilities vary.

Method

We compared the performance of 59 children (mean age, 15 years) with learning disabilities (n = 18), Down syndrome (n = 21), and intellectual disabilities (n = 20). A series of neuropsychological tests were used to evaluate the neurocognitive processes of memory, attention, visuospatial perception, and executive function. To better understand what emotions they experience, we assessed emotions like anxiety, depression, and positive and negative mood.

Results

The performance of children with Down syndrome was statistically significantly different from that of other groups, indicating lower performance (p = 0.001). In comparison to other groups, children with Down syndrome performed significantly worse across all cognitive domains. Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences between groups and low emotional functioning scores across the board for all children. People with DS frequently have distinctive neurocognitive and neurobehavioral profiles that appear during particular developmental phases and have many distinct strengths and weaknesses that should be respected as they mature over the course of their lives. The current findings have substantial consequences for interventions that are focused on achieving the best results.

Keywords:

• Children with disabilities
• Down syndrome
• neurocognitive
• psycho-emotional
• intellectual disability

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Informed consent statement

“Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.” Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper.

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.