Cognitive & Social Skills in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Developmental disorders are often studied as either independent research groups or as clinical case presentations; these approaches are rarely combined. This book directly compares cognitive and social functioning in three developmental disorders: Williams syndrome (WS) Down syndrome (DS) and autism (AS) from both a research and a clinical perspective. This unique approach provides new insights into cognitive functioning within WS DS and AS including: attention; memory; learning and processing styles; verbal abilities; spatial skills and reasoning. New insights are also provided into how WS DS and AS view the world from a social perspective including: their ability to read emotions; their motivational drive toward social interaction; and their ‘Theory of Mind’ or their ability to understand other people’s behaviours based on underlying desires emotions and thoughts. Findings also highlight within-syndrome variability in cognitive and social functions in WS which was previously thought to have a homogenous cognitive profile. The book is a valuable resource for researchers as well as health and education professionals.