| Poster | Poster Session 10 Program Schedule
02/17/2024
09:00 am - 10:15 am
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 10: Neurodevelopmental | Congenital Conditions
Final Abstract #51
Reading Skills Over Time Among Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Amanda Kenepp, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, United States
Robert Fee, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, United States
Veronica Hinton, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, United States
Category: Genetics/Genetic Disorders
Keyword 1: muscular dystrophy
Keyword 2: reading disorders
Objective:
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a neuromuscular disorder that presents with progressive muscular weakness and a distinctive cognitive profile. Children with DMD as a group are known to have IQ scores shifted down about one standard deviation, and lower than expected verbal IQ scores, academic skills, and verbal span (immediate storage of verbal information) as well as increased risk of behavior and attention problems. Longitudinal analysis has found a largely stable IQ profile although recent work has indicated that attention and behavior problems may contribute to declines in IQ over time. The goals of the current work are: 1) to examine reading skill acquisition over time among children with DMD and controls and 2) to determine whether verbal span and parent reported behaviors may contribute to the trajectory.
Participants and Methods:
A retrospective analysis of data was run. Participants included 26 boys with DMD and 27 sibling controls (age at baseline: DMD 8 + 1.4, controls 9 + 2.6). Measures included reading subtests from the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement III (WJ), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test -IV (PPVT), Digit Span from the WISC –IV (DSp), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Conners Rating Scale (Conners). Children were tested over four years: once at baseline and then twice again approximately two years between evaluations. There was participant attrition over time such that at time 3 data was collected from 21 children with DMD and 12 controls. Between group comparisons at baseline were run using independent t-tests. Longitudinal reading data were assessed using mixed methods ANOVA and reliable change method. Linear regressions examined contributions to reading.
Results:
Results indicated that, at baseline, the DMD group’s scores were slightly, yet significantly, lower on PPVT (DMD=101.097, 20.854; control=113.692, 20.155; t=-3.826, p=0.024) and DSp (DMD=8.037, 3.019; control=11.462, 2.845; t=-4.246, p<0.001) but only approached significance for Reading (DMD=98.458, 17.363; control=106.240, 15.360; t=-1.663, p=0.051). Mixed methods ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of reading over time [F(2,24)=3.598, p=0.035] and a significant reading by group interaction [F(2,24)=3.357, p=0.043]. Within subjects effects indicated no difference in reading over time [F(2,24)=3.550, p=.071)] yet significant group differences [F(1,25)=5.137, p=.032]. Reliable change method revealed no significant differences in proportion of reading skills changes from time 1 to time 2 or time 3 between children with DMD (62.5%, 72% remained consistent) and controls (64%, 70% remained consistent) (χ² = 1.649, df=2, p=0.438). Time 1 single word comprehension and digit span significantly predicted time 2 and time 3 reading skills in children with DMD (p<.05) but CBCL and Conners measures did not.
Conclusions:
Findings indicated that relative to controls, children with DMD have slightly, yet significantly, lower scores on reading tests, and that these scores remain stable across time. Moreover, although baseline verbal function contributed to reading scores in both groups, baseline verbal span contributed significantly only to reading among boys with DMD. No evidence of behavior or attention problems impacting reading acquisition was found.
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