Are jigsaw puzzle skills `spared' in persons with Prader-Willi syndrome?

Background: This three‐part study examines previous clinical impressions that people with Prader‐Willi syndrome have unusual jigsaw puzzle and word search skills. Results: Children with Prader‐Willi syndrome showed relative strengths on standardized visual‐spatial tasks (Object Assembly, Triangles,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child psychology and psychiatry 2002-03, Vol.43 (3), p.343-352
Main Author: Dykens, Elisabeth M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Behavioral phenotypes
Child
Child psychology
Child, Preschool
Children
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 15 - genetics
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Female
Genotype
Humans
Intellectual disabilities
Male
mental retardation
Phenotype
Prader-Willi Syndrome
Prader-Willi Syndrome - complications
Prader-Willi Syndrome - psychology
Space Perception
Task Performance and Analysis
USA
Visual Perception
Visual-Spatial ability
visuo-spatial functioning
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Summary:Background: This three‐part study examines previous clinical impressions that people with Prader‐Willi syndrome have unusual jigsaw puzzle and word search skills. Results: Children with Prader‐Willi syndrome showed relative strengths on standardized visual‐spatial tasks (Object Assembly, Triangles, VMI) in that their scores were significantly higher than age‐ and IQ‐matched peers with mixed mental retardation, but below those of age‐matched normal children with average IQs. In striking contrast, children with Prader‐Willi syndrome scored on par with normal peers on word searches, and they far outperformed them on the jigsaw puzzles, placing more than twice as many pieces as the typically‐developing group. Within Prader‐Willi syndrome, puzzle proficiency was not predicted by age, IQ, gender, degree of obesity, or obsessive‐compulsive symptoms, but by genetic subtypes of this disorder. Conclusions: Findings are discussed in relation to splinter skills in autism, and to cases with autism and chromosome 15 anomalies that include the Prader‐Willi region.
ISSN:0021-9630
1469-7610
DOI:10.1111/1469-7610.00025