THE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 在这项初步调查中，我们计划重点研究参与早期社会情感功能的三个基本组成部分--依恋关系、气质和互动行为风格--如何与威廉姆斯综合征(WS)儿童的不同社会行为模式有关，特别是与不同背景下的共情反应有关。我们假设WS患者独特的同理心的根源在于他们的非典型方法--对陌生人的行为，加上不受约束的个性。30至42个月的WS儿童将与唐氏综合症匹配的年龄和发育水平进行比较，并与年龄匹配的典型发育儿童进行比较，评估包括基于与熟悉和陌生的社会伙伴(成年人和同龄人)的半结构化活动的实验室观察，以及与儿童的主要照顾者的问卷和访谈。本研究的结果将为WS儿童社会情感功能的发展轨迹模型提供初步数据，并可能对设计干预策略以提高发育障碍儿童的社会技能有一定的指导意义。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In this pilot investigation, we plan to focus on how three essential components involved in early socio-affective functioning -- attachment relations, temperament, and style of interactive behavior -- relate to distinct patterns of social behavior in children with Williams syndrom (WS), specifically, to empathic responsiveness in different contexts. We hypothesize that the roots of the unique empathy documented in people with WS lie in their atypical approach-behavior toward strangers, coupled with a disinhibited personality. Children with WS, aged between 30 and 42 months will be compared to age and developmental level-matched with Down Syndrome and to typically developing children matched on age, in assessments involving laboratory observations based on semi-structured activities with familiar and unfamiliar social partners (adults and peers), and questionnaires and interveiws with children's primary caregivers. Results of this investigation will provide preliminary data for a model of the developmental trajectory of social-affective functioning in WS, and may have implications for designing intervention strategies to enhance social skills in children with developmental disorders.