Abstracts

Rationale: Memory tests are useful to the extent that the results can be used to predict actual functioning in everyday life but studies of individuals with epilepsy have found little or no relationship between reports of everyday memory and performance on memory tests. This study examined the relationship between verbal memory test performance and parent report of everyday verbal memory in a pediatric epilepsy sample using a newly developed questionnaire. In addition, parent report of everyday memory and performance on tests of memory were compared as predictors of academic performance. Methods: Eighty-seven patients and their parents were recruited to participate in this study. To be included the patient had to be at least 8 years old, English speaking and have a Verbal IQ of at least 80. 72% of the patients had focal seizures and, of the focal seizures, 54% were temporal lobe and 22% were frontal lobe. 50% had good seizure control. Parents completed the Everyday Verbal Memory Questionnaire(EVMQ), an instrument developed with children with a broad range of neurolgical disorders. The questionnaire consists of two factors, one assessing Prospective Memory and the other assessing Learning/Retrieval. Memory was also assessed with Story Memory, Story Memory-Delayed, Verbal Learning and Verbal Learning-Delayed from the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning-2 (WRAML). Academic Skills were assessed with the Reading and Math Composites from the Kaufman Assessment Battery of Eductional Achievement-2 (K-TEA). Teacher reports of Academic Performance were assessed with the Student Behavior Survey and parent reports of academic performance were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist. Results: Pearson correlations revealed small but significant correlations between the Learning/Retrieval Factor and performance on the Story Memory and Story Memory-Delayed subtests, r =.23 and .22 (p<.05), respectively, but did not reveal a significant relationship with the Verbal Learning subtests. The Prospective Memory Factor was not significantly associated with performance on any of the WRAML subtests. Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate the relative contributions of reports of EVMQ scores and memory test performance to academic skills and reports of academic performance after controlling for the effect of Full Scale IQ. IQ was a significant predictor of all academic measures. EVMQ scores explained a signfiicant proportion of additional variance, ranging from 7 to 24% (p<.01), for all of the academic measures. Performance on Story Recall-Delay explained an additional 5% (p<.05) of the variance of parent report of academic performance but none of the other memory test scores made a significant contribution to the prediction of any indicator of academic function. Conclusions: Parent reports of everyday memory are only weakly and inconsistently associated with memory test performance. Nonetheless, parent reports of everyday memory, rather than the objective memory test scores, proved to be useful predictors of actual academic skills and performance.