In this investigation, the socio-communicative skills of 29 children with Williams syndrome aged 2 (1/2) to 5 (1/2) years were examined using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Module 1. Most of the participants showed socio-communicative difficulties. Approximately half of the participants were classified by the ADOS algorithm as "autism spectrum." Three participants were classified "autism." Difficulties with pointing, gestures, giving, showing, and eye contact were present for more than half of the participants, with many also showing difficulties with initiation and response to joint attention and with integration of gaze with other behaviors. Expressive and receptive language abilities of the children with Williams syndrome classified "autism spectrum" were weaker than for children classified nonspectrum, but expressive and receptive language level did not account for the socio-communicative difficulties. Implications for our understanding of the socio-communicative abilities of young children with Williams syndrome and diagnostic practices regarding dual diagnosis are discussed.

Objective-The socio-communicative abnormalities of young children with Williams syndrome (WS) with limited language were compared to those of children with clinical diagnoses of Autism, Pervasive-Developmental Disorder -Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), or nonspectrum developmental disability.Method-Participants were 30 children with WS and individually matched groups of participants with autism (n = 28), PDD-NOS (n = 17), and mixed etiology nonspectrum developmental disabilities (ME group; n = 16). The autism, PDD-NOS and ME groups were matched individually to the children with WS for age, gender, and developmental level. All participants were administered the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Module 1 and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning.Results-As a group, children with WS with limited language showed fewer socio-communicative abnormalities than children with autism, about the same level as children with PDD-NOS, and more abnormalities in reciprocity social interaction than participants in the ME group. Examination of the subgroup of participants with WS matched and compared to children with PDD-NOS indicated that half showed fewer abnormalities than their individual matches with PDD-NOS, while half of the children with WS showed more abnormalities than their matches with PDD-NOS.Conclusion-Socio-communicative difficulties are present for many children with WS and overlap with the autism spectrum. The results of this investigation suggest that these abnormalities are not accounted for by developmental delay alone, and care should be taken to avoid diagnostic overshadowing in young children with WS. KeywordsWilliams syndrome; Autism; PDD-NOS; developmental disability; ADOS NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptWilliams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder resulting from a hemizygous microdeletion of ~25 genes on chromosome 7q11.23 (1). Individuals with WS have distinctive medical and cognitive profile (2). Compared to children with other types of developmental disorders, children with WS are less reserved toward strangers, more approaching, more gregarious, overly friendly, and affectionate (see review in 3). These prosocial behaviors make it unlikely that one would suspect overlap with the autism spectrum. However, there is also evidence that children with WS experience difficulties with social interaction and social communication. Parents often report that their children with WS are often not attuned to others socially and experience difficulties establishing and maintaining friendships (4,5) Significant conversational deficits (6), poor social skills (7), poor understanding of socially-relevant information (8,9), and restricted interests (10) have been observed. Delayed language and gestural development are described (see review in 11).Hence, many of the socio-communicative and behavioral difficulties observed are also characteristic of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and may not be accounted for by developmental delay alone. Gillb...

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In 2005 Tanzanians elected Jakaya Kikwete to the presidency with 80 percent of the popular vote. Like his predecessors, Kikwete emerged from the ranks of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party (CCM). CCM also secured 96 percent of mainland parliamentary constituencies. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Singida region between 2004 and 2006, I examine the production and performance of a political rhetoric in Tanzania that centers on notions of fatherhood and filial obedience. I explore how, in the realm of contemporary Tanzanian multiparty politics, paternal metaphors offer a discursive medium for weaving a seemingly unified narrative from the strands of competing and contradictory structures of authority – structures that turn on local conceptions of age, lineage, and kinship. This narrative serves to gloss over political and socioeconomic disparities, to confirm rural Tanzanians’ sense of themselves as citizens of a gerontocracy, and to produce a sense of historical continuity in a time of radical political and economic transformation – even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Abstract:This article draws on newspaper commentary, Nyaturu hunger lore, and ethnographic research to describe how central Tanzanian villagers accessed food aid from the state during the East African food crisis of 2006. Through leveraging their political support and their participation in national development agendas, rural inhabitants claimed their rights. Yet it was through these exchanges that the state converted food aid into political power. The article argues that the highly ritualized gift of food aid naturalizes a contemporary political and economic order in which, counterintuitively, it is rural farmers who go hungry.