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Working Memory and School Readiness in Preschool-Aged Children With Sickle Cell Disease

NCT02227472 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 84

Last updated 2018-09-12

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for neurobehavioral problems because of the impact the disease can have on the central nervous system. Specific impairments in working memory are particularly prevalent in school-aged children with SCD. Working memory is more strongly associated with school readiness and academic success than intellectual ability in the general population. The adverse effects of low socioeconomic status (SES) and poverty on cognition and neurodevelopment emerge early, before children have entered formal education. In addition, they affect language and executive function skills (e.g., working memory) more than other skills. SES is a proxy variable for other risk factors. Higher SES is associated with less parental stress, more supportive parenting practices, and better cognitive stimulation based on the availability of books, computers, and outings.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

* To examine working memory and school readiness in young children with sickle cell disease in comparison to demographically matched control children without sickle cell disease.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:

* To examine the relationships of family/environmental factors (caregiver stress, parental responsiveness, and cognitive stimulation in the home) and disease severity to working memory and school readiness skills in preschool-aged children with SCD.

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

Evaluation of cognitive and pre-academic skills

Participants will complete testing to evaluate fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, verbal and non-verbal working memory, and knowledge of pre-academic skills (such as colors, letters, numbers, counting, sizes, comparisons, and shapes).

OTHER

Parent questionnaires

Parents will complete questionnaires to assess behavioral manifestation of executive functions, functional independence and adaptive functioning, child and parent characteristics, situational/demographic life stress, demographics, education level, and household income.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Jerlym Porter, PhD · St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Eligibility

Min Age
48 Months
Max Age
68 Months
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-09-08
Primary Completion
2018-08-20
Completion
2018-08-20

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases
Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02227472 on ClinicalTrials.gov