Jarrold C, Baddeley A D, Hewes A K
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, U.K.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1998 May;39(4):511-23.
One commonly cited feature of Williams syndrome is a characteristic dissociation between relatively spared language skills and severely impaired nonverbal abilities. However, the actual evidence for a dissociation between verbal and nonverbal abilities in Williams syndrome is equivocal. In two separate studies we examined these abilities in 16 individuals showing the Williams syndrome phenotype. When considered as a whole, the group did have significantly superior verbal abilities, but this difference was caused by a large discrepancy in abilities in only a small number of individuals. In both studies there was a clear, linear relation between individuals' verbal ability, and the magnitude of their verbal-nonverbal discrepancy. We suggest that these results are best explained in terms of verbal ability developing at a faster rate than nonverbal ability in this disorder. We discuss how this model of differential rates of development has the potential to reconcile the apparently inconsistent findings in this area.
威廉姆斯综合征一个常被提及的特征是，相对完好的语言技能与严重受损的非语言能力之间存在特征性分离。然而，威廉姆斯综合征中语言和非语言能力分离的实际证据并不明确。在两项独立研究中，我们对16名表现出威廉姆斯综合征表型的个体的这些能力进行了检测。总体来看，该组个体确实具有显著更优的语言能力，但这种差异仅由少数个体在能力上的巨大差异所导致。在两项研究中，个体的语言能力与其语言 - 非语言差异程度之间都存在明显的线性关系。我们认为，这些结果最好解释为在这种疾病中语言能力的发展速度快于非语言能力。我们讨论了这种不同发展速度的模型如何有可能调和该领域明显不一致的研究结果。
