Motor performance in girls with Turner syndrome

In order to validate the movement problems in daily life for girls with Tur ner syndrome (TS), as reported by teachers, parents, and the girls themselv es, we examined whether these girls have impaired motor ability and a speci fic pattern of motor impairment. As TS phenotypes are characterized by a pa rticular profile of normal Verbal IQ (VIQ) and lowered Performance IQ (PIQ) , we investigated whether there is a significant correlation between intell igence scores and motor performance scores. Fifteen girls with TS (age rang e 5.8 to 12.5 years), of whom nine had 45 XO karyotype and six girls mosaic karyotype, were individually tested on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC; Henderson and Sugden 1992, Smits-Engelsman 1998), and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Revised (WISC-RN; Vander Steene et al. 1986). M ean percentile score on the MABC was 2.93 (range 1 to 8). Based on the tota l score of the MABC, none of the girls with TS fell into the 'normal' range ; five patients were classified as 'at risk' and 10 as 'impaired'. Girls wi th TS made more errors and needed more time across all items tested; no spe cific profile of impairment was observed and no significant correlation bet ween intelligence scores and motor performance scores was found. The result s clearly demonstrate that girls with TS indeed experience a significant ge neral motor impairment. The motor problems apparently cannot be attributed to cognitive problems.