ABSTRACT
We studied the intellectual profiles of 13 Italian children diagnosed with spina bifida myelomeningocele and shunted hydrocephalus (MMC HC) against a control group of children. The results showed that MMC HC group had lower performance in all subtests, four indices, and the FSIQ of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, forth-edition. The MMC HC group showed flat cognitive profiles between subtests within each index and between four core indices. However, the cognitive abilities that were mostly impaired seemed to be related to visual selective and focused attention, to visual acuity, to visuo-perceptive organization and visuomotor integration and to visual short-term memory.
Highlights
-We studied the intellectual profile of a group of 13 children diagnosed with MMC HC.
- The MMC HC clinical group was compared with a matched-paired control group.
- The MMC HC clinical group compared to the control group had lower performance in all subtests.
- The MMC HC clinical group compared to the control group had lower performance in all indices.
- The MMC HC group showed flat cognitive profiles.