Social-perceptual and social-cognitive skills in young children with Williams syndrome: Evidence for discontinuity

Dissociations between social-perceptual (i.e., dynamic perceptions of affective cues) and social-cognitive processing (i.e., interpretation or reasoning with regard to the affective information) have been found in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome; however, less is known about the developmental precursors of these skills in children with this neurogenetic syndrome. In this review, we examine the literature on social-cognitive skills in children with Williams syndrome. We then present a case report that examines the early social and communication behaviors in young children with Williams syndrome (under 5) that provides additional evidence for an early emerging strength in social-perceptual processing and a weakness in social-cognitive skills. The dissociation of early social-perceptual and social-cognitive behaviors leads to theoretical questions concerning the role of joint attention in language development, as well as the impact of shared attention on social reciprocity.