The behavioral phenotype of Williams syndrome (WS) is characterized by difficulties with establishment and maintenance of
friendships despite high levels of interest in social interaction. Here, parents and teachers rated 84 children with WS ages
4–16 years using two commonly-used measures assessing aspects of social functioning: the Social Skills Rating System and the
Social Responsiveness Scale. Mean prosocial functioning fell in the low average to average range, whereas social reciprocity
was perceived to be an area of significant difficulty for many children. Concordance between parent and teacher ratings was
high. Patterns of social functioning are discussed. Findings highlight the importance of parsing the construct of social skills
to gain a nuanced understanding of the social phenotype in WS.
Keywords Williams syndrome – Social functioning – SRS – SSRS