Intellectual functioning in relation to autism and ADHD symptomatology in children and adolescents with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.
In youth with 22q11DS, weak quick-copy skills predict worse autism traits and weak block patterns predict worse ADHD traits.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at kids and teens who have 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.
They gave each child short IQ sub-tests called Coding and Block Design.
Then they rated how bad the child’s autism and ADHD traits were.
Last, they checked if low Coding scores went hand-in-hand with worse autism traits, and if low Block Design scores went with worse ADHD traits.
What they found
Lower Coding scores did link to more severe autism symptoms.
Lower Block Design scores linked to more severe ADHD symptoms.
In short, two quick paper-and-pencil tasks predicted two different behavior profiles.
How this fits with other research
Johnson et al. (2021) studied a big general autism sample and found that verbal IQ, not Coding, tied to autism severity.
The two papers seem to clash, but they don’t: the 2021 group looked at verbal skills, while the 2015 group looked at speeded pencil tasks in a rare genetic syndrome.
Sanz-Cervera et al. (2015) also linked a cognitive trait—sensory processing—to both autism and ADHD symptoms, showing the pattern holds across different kinds of tests.
Together, the studies say: pick the cognitive test that matches the symptom set you care about.
Why it matters
If you test a child with 22q11DS, add Coding and Block Design to your battery.
Low scores give you an early heads-up: Coding flags possible social-communication struggles, Block Design flags attention problems.
You can then target social skills or self-management interventions before the behaviors get worse.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS; velo-cardio-facial syndrome) is associated with an increased risk of various disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). With this study, we aimed to investigate the relation between intellectual functioning and severity of ASD and ADHD symptomatology in 22q11DS. METHOD: A sample of 102 individuals (62 females) with 22q11DS aged 9 to 18.5 years were assessed using age appropriate Wechsler scales of intelligence as well as psychological and psychiatric assessment to evaluate the presence of ASD and ADHD symptomatology. RESULTS: Intelligence profiles were characterised by lower scores on the factor perceptual organisation and higher scores on the factor processing speed, with on subtest level higher scores on digit span and lower scores on arithmetic and vocabulary as compared with the mean factor or subtest score respectively. No differences in intelligence profiles were found between subgroups with and without ASD and/or ADHD. Low scores on coding were associated with higher severity of ASD symptomatology, while lower scores on block design were associated with more severe ADHD symptomatology. CONCLUSIONS: On several sub-domains of intelligence, poorer performance was associated with higher severity of ASD and ADHD symptomatology. The impact of developmental disorders in 22q11DS can be traced in specific domains of intellectual functioning as well as in severity of symptomatology.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2015 · doi:10.1111/jir.12187