Cognitive Ability and Everyday Functioning in Women with Turner Syndrome

Abstract

This paper presents results from an assessment of cognitive ability and everyday functioning in a group of adult women with Turner syndrome (TUS). Twenty-three TUS women were compared with 23 matched controls with constitutional short stature (CSS). A subgroup of 10 TUS women were compared with their nondisabled female siblings. On the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test-Revised (Wechsler, 1981), no significant group differences were found in Verbal IQ. There were significant group differences for Performance IQ and Full Scale IQ, largely due to specific deficits in the area of spatial and mathematical ability. These difficulties were also evident on the Benton Visual Retention Test-Revised (Benton, 1974). TUS individuals had significantly lower educational attainment than CSS controls but did not differ from their siblings. TUS individuals had significantly lower occupational attainment than the women in both comparison groups.