Exploring the Relationship Between Empathy and Social Skills for Individuals with Different Forms of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Empathy and social skills stick together for most kids, but Williams syndrome splits them apart—so tailor your social programs by diagnosis.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Byrne et al. (2025) asked caregivers to rate empathy and social skills in 8- to young learners with four diagnoses: autism, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and neurotypical kids.
They used two short checklists and ran simple correlations to see if empathy and social skills move together in each group.
What they found
Autism group scored lowest on empathy. The link between empathy and social skills was strong for Down and neurotypical kids, weak for autism, and zero for Williams syndrome.
In plain words: Williams syndrome breaks the usual rule—high social motivation can show up even when empathy scores stay low.
How this fits with other research
Kose et al. (2025) also saw the empathy-social skill link in autistic teens, giving a 2025 conceptual replication that boosts confidence in the finding.
Sivaraman (2017) flips the script: once you know empathy is low in autism, you can teach it directly with multiple-exemplar training and kids generalize to new people and places.
Peters et al. (2013) looks like a contradiction—higher empathy in autism went hand-in-hand with more reactive aggression. The difference is outcome: Katherine looked at social skills, C looked at aggression, so the same empathy bump can help peers yet spark meltdowns if emotion regulation is weak.
Why it matters
Stop using one-size-fits-all social goals. For autism and Down syndrome, pair empathy building with social skills training. For Williams syndrome, skip empathy drills and target conversational balance instead. Monday morning, check your caseload labels and rewrite two goals to match each etiology’s empathy profile.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
For individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), the understanding and expression of empathy and its various components can be challenging. However, different etiologies can elucidate various strengths and weaknesses related to empathy. The present study examined the specific relationship of empathy and social skills for individuals with autism (AD), Williams syndrome (WS), Down syndrome (DS), and a non-disabled (ND) control group. The research questions for the current study were (a) Do caregiver ratings of empathy and social skills differ across individuals with AD, WS, DS, and ND?; and (b) Are there differences in the relationship between empathy skills and social skills within and across groups? The total sample (N = 120) included caregivers of 30 individuals diagnosed with AD (mean age = 10.73 years), 30 individuals diagnosed with WS (mean age = 12.07 years), 30 individuals with DS (mean age = 11.53 years), and 30 ND individuals (mean age = 10.90 years). Caregivers were asked to complete the children's version of the Empathy Quotient and the Social Responsiveness Scale (2nd Edition). According to caregiver reports, AD individuals present with lower empathy skills compared to WS, DS, and ND individuals. Differences between groups were also demonstrated regarding the relationship between empathy and social skills. More specifically, for WS individuals, lower empathy skills were not significantly correlated with social motivation. The results highlight that differences in empathy and social skills should be accounted for in empathy-related interventions and underscores the importance of developing etiology-specific interventions.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1037/a0037679