Can someone have both Williams Syndrome and Autism?

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Katie_WPG
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Joined: 7 Sep 2008
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 492
Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada

23 Jul 2009, 7:47 pm

There is a middle-aged woman in my neighbourhood with William's Syndrome.

I see her on the bus every day. She'll approach people all of the time, and talk to them like an old friend. She talks the ear off of any bus driver as well.

The main difference between her, and a socially outgoing autistic person is that her topics of conversation are still very much small-talk related, while a person with autism is more likely to talk about their special interests.

People with William's Syndrome tend to be just as disadvantaged socially as autistic people, if not worse. They are highly sociable, but they are even worse with appropriate initiation techniques than the average person with HFA/AS is.

While a person with HFA or AS will typically not approach a complete stranger, people with William's Syndrome do this all the time. People just get weirded out, and assume that this woman is mentally ill (I know I assumed that at first). Because of this, many of their social relationships tend to be superficial (either because they can't really get passed the small-talk phase, or because people simply feel sorry for them once they realize that they are disabled, not mentally ill).