PURPOSE: to characterize the communication profile and the performance in the subtests of Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) of two siblings with Fetal Alcohol syndrome (FAS): S1, female 16 years and S2, male, 8 years and both of special school students. METHODS: clinical evaluation of language abilities was carried out and complemented by the ITPA test. RESULTS: data of clinical evaluation with S1 showed verbal understanding impairment. S1 was not capable to follow simple instructions (verbal and gestual) and the use of verbal and gestual resources communication was not also observed. Due to the compromising level, it was not possible to obtain relative data to the ITPA test. Quite different results was observed in the clinical evaluation of S2, considering that he was able to make questions, maintaining the theme and to follow simple verbal instructions. However, low performance was observed for age in situations that requested narrative of facts and events that shown syntactic and semantic impairments. Scale score obtained by S2 in the ITPA subtests revealed low performance in auditory and visual abilities. CONCLUSIONS: although the siblings have the same diagnosis and live under the same environmental conditions, the communication profile was significantly different. It can be speculated that more serious impairments in communicative abilities of S1 can be related to higher levels of exposure to alcohol during critical stages of the fetal development.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Communication; Language; Learning
