Academic Profile of Children with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: Delineating Specific Skills for Intervention

This study examines the specific academic skills of children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS). Within the context of an observational case–control study, participants included 85 children with 22q11.2DS and 78 healthy controls. All participants underwent intelligence quotient and academic testing with the appropriate Wechsler assessment scales. When compared to controls, children with 22q11.2DS performed significantly worse on all academic tasks. Furthermore, although many children with 22q11.2DS performed in the bottom quartile, few met the criteria for the low achievement definition of a learning disability when the criterion of average intellectual functioning was included. Children with 22q11.2DS showed better reading and spelling skills than math skills, with specific deficits noted in literal and inferential reading comprehension as well as in one- and two-digit multiplication. These findings reinforce previous findings showing reading decoding skills being significantly higher than math skills and extend earlier findings by including additional educational intervention targets for this school-age population.