Social approach in pre-school children with Williams syndrome: the role of the face.
Face contact is not the fuel for the over-friendly approach seen in Williams syndrome.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched preschoolers with Williams syndrome meet a stranger.
Half the time the stranger wore a cloth over her face.
Kids could choose to move closer or stay back.
The team wanted to know if the children’s famous friendliness needs a face to trigger it.
What they found
Children with Williams syndrome walked right up to the stranger, even when her face was hidden.
Typical kids held back more, especially when the face was covered.
The result shows the syndrome’s social approach is not just a love of faces.
How this fits with other research
Libero et al. (2016) asked parents and heard the same story: their kids rush toward strangers at the store, not just in labs.
Ng et al. (2014) adds that the motor is a deep wish for warm, affectionate contact, not simply face staring.
Tyrer et al. (2009) seems to disagree: they found typical social-anxiety levels in older people with Williams syndrome.
The gap is age, not fact. Preschoolers barrel forward; teens and adults learn some caution even though their anxiety scores stay average.
Why it matters
If you write a social-skills plan, do not bank on face masks or “don’t talk to strangers” pictures to slow them down.
Teach stop-rules, safe-distance games, and scripted check-ins with trusted adults instead.
Start early: the pull toward people shows up before kindergarten and lasts into internet use, as Libero et al. (2016) later showed for online risk.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Indiscriminate social approach behaviour is a salient aspect of the Williams syndrome (WS) behavioural phenotype. The present study examines approach behaviour in pre-schoolers with WS and evaluates the role of the face in WS social approach behaviour. METHOD: Ten pre-schoolers with WS (aged 3-6 years) and two groups of typically developing children, matched to the WS group on chronological or mental age, participated in an observed play session. The play session incorporated social and non-social components including two components that assessed approach behaviour towards strangers; one in which the stranger's face could be seen and one in which the stranger's face was covered. RESULTS: In response to the non-social aspects of the play session, the WS group behaved similarly to both control groups. In contrast, the pre-schoolers with WS were significantly more willing than either control group to engage with a stranger, even when the stranger's face could not be seen. CONCLUSION: The findings challenge the hypothesis that an unusual attraction to the face directly motivates social approach behaviour in individuals with WS.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2010 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2009.01241.x