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Neurofibromatosis
Psychological and behavioural characteristics
The majority of children with NF1 have an intelligence that usually falls within the normal range. However, a substantial proportion (estimates vary between forty and sixty per cent) do have learning difficulties which can be specific, such as dyslexia, or generalised, such as intellectual disability.
A specific learning difficulty can be indicated when a child's academic achievement in particular skills falls significantly below their general intellectual ability. For children with NF1, their performance and perceptual abilities may fail to reflect their general intelligence. This can cause difficulties in areas such as reading, writing, listening and mathematics.
Once in school, it may be apparent that compared with their peers, children with NF1 can have difficulty with concentration, co-ordination affecting both fine and gross motor skills, memory, visuo-motor and visuo-spatial skills, organisation and processing. Social and language problems have also been documented.
Within the framework of the education system, additional help drawn from the resources of the Special Education Needs range of support can be effective in helping children with the diagnosis of NF1 to achieve their potential.
Children with NF1 can make a substantial degree of progress in response to appropriately targeted help.
Additional therapeutic services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy should be considered. Occasionally the services of a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist may prove to be necessary and useful.
Some children with NF1 can show characteristic patterns of behaviour such as impulsiveness, over-activity and socially imperceptive traits. Under-confidence can be an enduring legacy and adolescence, a particularly testing time as it is, is the stage that the neurofibromas may start to appear.
NF1 is a variable and unpredictable condition which imposes a psychological burden that is difficult for both parents, affected individuals and those professionals engaged in their care. Appropriate referral at an early age can be helpful.
In NF2 the psychological difficulties are in the main related to the consequence of the condition itself coupled with the effects of chronic illness. Sensory impairment, communication difficulties attendant on hearing loss, together with mobility problems can lead to social isolation and depression.
What are the symptoms?
| Inheritance patterns and prenatal diagnosis 
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