During face-to-face interactions typically developing individuals use gaze aversion (GA), away from their questioner, when thinking. GA is also used when individuals with autism (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS) are thinking during question-answer interactions. We investigated GA strategies during face-to-face social style interactions with…

Schizophrenia and high functioning autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental conditions that mainly impair social competence, while general intelligence (IQ) is spared. Both disorders have a strong ancillary role in theoretical research on social cognition. Recently the debate has started to be inflected by embodied and…

We compare social skills in three groups of males with sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs) using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Participants included males with XXY (N = 102, M = 10.08 years), XYY (N = 40, M = 9.93 years), and XXYY (N = 32, M = 11.57 years). XXY had lower (better) SRS scores compared to XYY and XXYY. Scores were not…

Objective: This study examines relations between the severity of specific symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) and severity of the three defining symptom domains of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children with ASD (N = 147) and child psychiatry outpatient referrals (Controls; N = 339). Method: Participants were subdivided into four…

Assessing social skills is one of the most complex and challenging areas to study because behavioral repertoires vary depending on an individual's culture and context. However, researchers have conclusively demonstrated that individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) have impaired social skills as well as those with co-morbid autism spectrum…

Descriptive and comparative follow-up studies of young adult males with Asperger syndrome (AS) diagnosed in childhood, using both interview, self- and parent assessment instruments for the study of aspects of emotional well-being, social functioning, and cognitive-practical skills have not been performed in the past. One-hundred males with AS…

One of the most prevailing characteristics of children with autism is their deficit in social communication skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a peer-mediated social skills training (SST) program combined with video feedback, positive reinforcement and token system in increasing social communication skills in…