Longitudinal assessment of intellectual abilities of children with Williams syndrome: multilevel modeling of performance on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-Second Edition.

Multilevel modeling was used to address the longitudinal stability of standard scores (SSs) measuring intellectual ability for children with Williams syndrome (WS). Participants were 40 children with genetically confirmed WS who completed the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-Second Edition (KBIT-2; A. S. Kaufman & N. L. Kaufman, 2004 ) 4-7 times over a mean of 5.06 years. Mean age at first assessment was 7.44 years (range  =  4.00-13.97 years). On average, KBIT-2 Composite IQ, Verbal SS, and Nonverbal SS were stable from 4 to 17 years, although there were significant individual differences in intercept (Composite IQ, Verbal SS, Nonverbal SS) and slope (Composite IQ, Nonverbal SS). Maternal education was significantly related to Verbal SS intercept. No significant sex differences were found. Implications for studies of genotype/phenotype correlations in WS are discussed.