Therapy services to address aphasia in MASA syndrome patients include one-on-one sessions with a clinician, group therapy, or even computer-based therapy, which is becoming more popular given its accessibility.Intellectual disabilities also contribute to the social difficulties faced by people with L1 syndrome, and can range from mild to severe depending on the persons location on the L1 syndrome spectrum. People with mild intellectual disability usually have an IQ around 50-70 (100 is the average) and are slower in all developmental areas, but they have no unusual physical characteristics and are able to blend in socially. Moderate intellectual disability characteristics include being able to maintain self-care with some support from other, travel to familiar places in the community, communicate in simple ways, and having an IQ around 35–50. Severe intellectual disability is often seen in people with X-linked hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius (HSAS) (on the L1 syndrome spectrum) and has several key characteristics including: the ability to understand speech but otherwise having very limited communication skills; the ability to learn daily routines and simple self-care, but need direct supervision in social settings and need family support to live in a supervised home setting. Depending on the severity of the intellectual disability, people with L1 syndrome will have varying levels of difficulty in adapting to their social environments and may need considerable support from others to complete day-to-day tasks.
Treatment for people with L1 syndrome is supportive and aims to improve quality of life and minimize functional impairment. Signs and symptoms
L1 syndrome presents as a spectrum ranging from mild to severe features. There is a genotype -phenotype correlation across the L1 spectrum, meaning that the specific genetic variant causing an L1-spectrum disorder in a patient determines the severity of the L1 syndrome in that patient. Patients with truncating (loss-of-function) variants in L1CAM, which prevent the full synthesis of L1 (protein) experience more severe features than patients with missense variants in L1CAM, which may result in an abnormal protein but do not prevent its synthesis. Illustrating this difference in L1 syndrome severity, up to 50% of infants born with L1 syndrome caused by a truncating mutation will die before the age of 3 years despite provision of best available medical treatment. In comparison, roughly 10% of infants born with L1 syndrome caused by a missense mutation will die before the age of 3 years.Despite its presentation on a continuous spectrum, L1 syndrome is loosely divided into four discrete phenotypes. Societal Implications Based on Symptoms
People diagnosed with L1 syndrome often experience issues with respect to societal roles and interactions due to the severe physical and mental disabilities associated with the disorder.