Previous studies have suggested that girls with Turner syndrome (TS) exhibit symptoms of social anxiety during interactions with others. However, few studies have quantified these behaviors during naturalistic face-to-face social encounters. In this study, we coded observational markers of social anxiety in prepubertal girls with TS and…

Autism spectrum disorders and Williams syndrome exhibit quite opposite features in the social domain, but also share some common underlying behavioral and cognitive deficits. It is not clear, however, which genes account for the attested differences (and similarities) in the socio-cognitive domain. In this article, we adopted a comparative…

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder associated with social cognitive challenges, and pretend play has been demonstrated as a tool to achieve developmental goals. Following previous report on feasibility and acceptability of a remote, play-based parent-training program (Zyga, Russ, & Dimitropoulos, 2018), we now…

Adaptive behaviour refers to the everyday skills that individuals are expected to have to function independently, based on their age and societal norms. Currently, we know little about the role of genetic and environmental factors in parent-rated adaptive behaviours in early infancy. The aim of this study was to investigate the aetiological…

The clinical heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorders majorly challenges their genetic study. Autism spectrum disorders symptoms occur in milder forms in the general population, as autistic-like traits, and share genetic factors with autism spectrum disorders. Here, we investigate the genetics of individual autistic-like traits to improve our…

Literature has documented inflated rates of features associated with autism spectrum (AS) in clinic referred, gender diverse young people. This study examined scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2) over time in a group of clinic referred, gender diverse adolescents accessing gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues…

This study examined the similarities/differences between the social phenotypes of Williams syndrome (WS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As cultural norms may affect symptom evaluation, this study administered the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 to Japanese individuals with WS (n = 78, 4.4-44.0 years) and ASD (n = 75, 4.7-55.4 years). The scores…

The study aimed to identify the mediating role of emotional intelligence and social competences in the relationship between gender and broad autism phenotype (BAP) as well as between age and BAP. It comprised 85 parents of children with ASD. They completed the questionnaires of Autism-Spectrum Quotient, social competences, and emotional…

In this study we show that the perception of lateral variants by Puerto Rican listeners changes according to who the listener believes is speaking. Puerto Rican listeners heard sentences with target words featuring either rhotic [voiced alveolar tap or flap] or lateral [l] (amo[voiced alveolar tap or flap] -- amo[l]) codas, a sociophonetic…

Many individuals with autism experience challenges using language in social contexts (i.e., pragmatic language). Characterizing and understanding pragmatic variability is important to inform intervention strategies and the etiology of communication challenges in autism; however, current manual coding-based methods are often time and labor…

Empathy and executive functions (EFs) are multimodal constructs that enable individuals to cope with their environment. Both abilities develop throughout childhood and are known to contribute to social behavior and academic performance in young adolescents. Notably, mentalizing and EF activate shared frontotemporal brain areas, which in previous…

Sleep is important for child development. Sleep problems in early childhood are associated with negative outcomes across numerous domains, including executive control, internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, and social competence (Astill et al., 2012; Hysing et al., 2016; Spruyt et al., 2019). Little research has focused on moderators…

No studies to date have prospectively examined early autism spectrum disorder (ASD) markers in infants with fragile X syndrome (FXS), who are at elevated risk for ASD. This paper describes the developmental profiles of eight infants with FXS from 9 to 24 months of age. Four meet diagnostic criteria for ASD at 24 months of age, and four do not.…

Emerging research suggests that caregiving environments and genetic variants independently contribute to social functioning in children with typical development or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, biologically plausible interactive models and complimentary assessment of mechanisms are needed to: (1) explain considerable social…

Background: Numerous studies have assessed the socio-cognitive profile in Williams syndrome (WS) and, independently, in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS). Yet, a cross-syndrome comparison of these abilities between individuals with these two syndromes with known social deficits has not been conducted. Methods: Eighty-two children participated…