Effects of neighborhood level health and environment quality on academic and executive abilities in youth with Noonan syndrome spectrum disorder

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study is to understand whether youth with Noonan Syndrome Spectrum Disorder (NSSD) are at increased risk of neurocognitive difficulties when living in resource depleted communities. METHOD: -score interaction on academic achievement (i.e., word reading, math, spelling, and sentence comprehension) and executive skills (i.e., performance-based working memory and processing speed and parent-rated measure of daily executive skills). RESULTS: -scores were associated with better working memory in the NSSD group and better academic achievement in the unaffected group. CONCLUSIONS: While the effects of NSSD are large on all assessed domains, there is an additional burden of resource depletion on working memory abilities of youth with NSSD. Academic achievement in the NSSD group was lower than the unaffected group across resource-depleted/enriched environments, demonstrating the profound effects of NSSD on academic functioning.