Individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome are impaired at explicit, but not implicit, discrimination of local forms embedded in global structures.

Individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) are impaired at exploring visual information in space; however, not much is known about visual form discrimination in the syndrome. Thirty-five individuals with 22q11.2DS and 41 controls completed a form discrimination task with global forms made up of local elements. Affected individuals demonstrated clear impairment in detecting local, but not global, differences. Nevertheless, 22q11.2DS participants easily discriminated the same local elements when they were displayed in isolation, and further use of a prime demonstrated preserved facilitation of local processing in 22q11.2DS. These results did not differ by age or IQ. This study illustrates the impact of visuospatial impairments on form discrimination, and suggests how these difficulties may affect visual scanning in 22q11.2DS.

Candidate socioemotional remediation program for individuals with intellectual disability.

The authors developed a computerized program, Vis-à-Vis (VAV), to improve socioemotional functioning and working memory in children with developmental disabilities. The authors subsequently tested whether participants showed signs of improving the targeted skills. VAV is composed of three modules: Focus on the Eyes, Emotion Recognition and Understanding, and Working Memory. Ten children with idiopathic developmental delay completed four 20-min weekly sessions of VAV for 12 weeks with an adult. Participants were evaluated before (Time 0) and after (Time 1) training and 6 months after remediation (Time 2). Subjects improved on all three modules during training and on emotion recognition and nonverbal reasoning post-VAV. These gains were still present at Time 2. VAV is a promising new tool for working on socioemotional impairments in hard-to-treat pediatric populations.