Sensory Modulation Impairments in Children with Williams Syndrome

The ability to organize information detected by our senses (sensory modulation) allows us to act or respond effectively to situations encountered, facilitating learning, social behavior, and day-to-day functioning. We hypothesized that children with Williams syndrome (WS) would demonstrate symptoms of poor sensory modulation and that these sensory modulation abnormalities contribute to the phenotype. Participants were 78 children with WS aged 4.00-10.95 years. Based on parent ratings on the Short Sensory Profile [SSP; Dunn, 1999], most children were classified as having definite sensory modulation issues. Cluster analysis identified the presence of two clusters varying in level of sensory modulation impairment. Children in the high impairment group demonstrated poorer adaptive functioning, executive functioning, more problem behaviors, and more difficult temperaments than children in the low impairment group. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.