Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Williams syndrome (WS), and Angelman syndrome (AS) are among the most frequently contrasted conditions in cross-syndrome neurodevelopmental research. This originates from the observation that social development appears to be affected along opposite trajectories in these conditions, resulting in hyposociability in ASD and hypersociability in WS and AS. In this presentation we present recent research that challenges this long-held notion. In particular, there appear to be areas of overlap in social-cognitive processes and outcomes across conditions, alongside syndrome-specific patterns of social modulation of attention and imitative learning. We will illustrate the implications of this research with regards to the importance of parsing the construct of sociability to understand typical and atypical social development, and adopting transdiagnostic intervention approaches to target shared areas of needs across diagnostic boundaries.

Keywords: Autism, Williams syndrome, Social Learning, Imitation, Neurodevelopmental Conditions, Social Development