Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T03:52:48.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Cognitive function and attainments

from Part II - Prader—Willi syndrome prevalence, phenotypic functioning and characteristics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2009

Joyce Whittington
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Tony Holland
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

People with PWS frequently present with an apparently advanced level of vocabulary and conversational skills and thereby appear cognitively very able. Whilst this aspect of the development of people with PWS can be very positive, it can also have the significant disadvantage of raising expectations to a level that then results in high degrees of stress and failure. The anecdotes we give in this chapter help to illustrate this point as the particular problems or skills the anecdotes illustrate are not easily captured in a meaningful way through just reporting test scores. The rigidity of thinking of people with PWS and their inability to generalise can be very disabling, and can be associated with behaviour that can put the person at risk. For example, one mother of a daughter with PWS interviewed as part of the Cambridge study described how she had attempted to teach her daughter not to speak to strangers. The daughter could repeat the instructions and warnings she had been given and appeared to have understood, but the next day the mother found her daughter in their front garden accosting passers by with the question ‘Are you a stranger?’ Another much more common observation of this type was the teaching of kerb drill.

Type
Chapter
Information
Prader-Willi Syndrome
Development and Manifestations
, pp. 111 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×