ABSTRACT
The cognitive development of children with either early or late onset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) was investigated with tasks measuring intellectual ability, memory, and academic progress. In addition, children's perceptions of their competence and parents' perspectives on family functioning and their children's behavior were compared. It was found that children with IDDM scored within the normal range on standardized measures of intelligence and academic performance but evidenced some school difficulties, as reflected in subscale performance as well as in their need of remedial education services. Further, evidence was found to suggest deficiencies in children's use of strategies to organize and recall information, particularly for those with early onset of disease. Children's perceived self-competencies and parents' reports of family functioning were strikingly similar across groups. However, parents of those children whose illness began prior to age 5 reported their children to have poor attention spans and difficulty completing tasks.
Subject(s)
Achievement , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/psychology , Intelligence , Mental Recall , Self Concept , Adolescent , Child , Family , Female , Humans , Learning Disabilities/diagnosis , Learning Disabilities/psychology , Male , Neurocognitive Disorders/diagnosis , Neurocognitive Disorders/psychology , Serial Learning , Social Environment , Wechsler ScalesABSTRACT
This study examined the intellectual ability, academic performance, behavior, and social perceptions of children with a seizure disorder and their nonafflicted siblings. These data suggest the children are at risk for developmental lag and related problems. Impact of the illness on the family differentiated the sibling pair on many tasks and on parents' feelings towards their children. Although parents reported providing a normal environment for their children, the children reported their perceptions of the home environment to be further from the (population norm) than their parents. These results provide evidence for the whole family being affected by the chronic illness thus supporting social work's inherent holistic view. It also underscores the need for a secondary preventive approach with all families containing a child with a handicapping condition.
