Genetic Syndromes Causing Mental Retardation: deficit and surplus in school performance and social adaptability compared to cognitive capacity

In this paper we reported some results of research carried out in Italy with participants with Mental Retardation (better defined as Intellectual Developmental Disability) due to genetic syndromes (Down, Fragile-X, Cornelia de Lange and Prader-Willi), evidencing specific conditions characterized by deficit or ‘surplus’ in reading, writing and maths performances, and in social adjustment respect to the intellectual competencies. In some cases the comparison was made also with respect to abilities of memory and language. Results suggested that the cases of ‘surplus’ are in our context more frequent than those found in International literature, and this may be due to the positive effects of the integration in normal classrooms of most pupils with intellectual disabilities. A debate on these issues, comparing diverse cultural and social realities, is welcome.