With the new school year well underway, many kids are excited to go back. At the same time, some NF kids may face some social and behavioral issues. Let's revisit our interview with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Psychology Department's Kelly Janke, M.S., to learn more about learning issues and NF children.
1. Discuss some of the learning issues that you have seen with NF children in school.
Children
with NF-1 are more likely to have learning difficulties than their
siblings or same-age classmates who do not have NF-1. The rates of
learning disabilities range from 30%-65%. Difficulties have been seen in
all academic areas including word decoding (sounding out words),
reading comprehension, math calculation, math problem solving, and
spelling. We really see a lot of variability in the learning profiles of
children with NF1.
2. I understand you’re doing a study on NF kids and their siblings, could you discuss that a bit further?
For
our study, we recruit children with NF-1 and their siblings between the
ages of three and six, and plan to follow them annually up until the
age of 10 if possible. The goal of the study is to examine the cognitive
and behavioral characteristics of NF-1 in young children to determine
if we can see early signs of learning and attention problems. We are
also hoping to learn more about the development of cognitive skills over
time, and determine if this development differs from their siblings or
other typically developing children.
3. What are some of the preliminary results you are finding?
We
have found that learning and attention problems can in fact be
identified in the preschool age range. There is no clear pattern to
these difficulties. For example, some children have difficulty with
verbal tasks (e.g., naming pictures, following directions), but do well
on spatial tasks such as building with blocks. For other children, the
opposite pattern is seen. Regardless of the pattern, most children with
NF-1 have some difficulty in at least one area, although it may be mild.
It is important that these difficulties can be identified at this young
age because that allows interventions to be put in place earlier and
prevents more pronounced learning and attention problems.
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