RHYTHMIC ABILITIES OF ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS WITH WILLIAMS SYNDROME

ALTHOUGH RHYTHMIC ABILITIES HAVE OFTEN BEEN DESCRIBED as strengths within the cognitive profile of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), the literature in this respect is limited and has offered inconsistent results. In this study, 20 adolescents and adults with WS and a control group of 40 typically developing individuals matched for chronological age were presented with a rhythmic patterns discrimination task and a rhythmic patterns reproduction task. Individuals with WS performed significantly lower than their control peers in both tasks. In addition, rhythmic impairments in WS were explained by the cognitive deficits that are characteristic of the syndrome. These results suggest that rhythmic performance in individuals with WS is affected by their cognitive deficits and that rhythmic skills in WS are not independent of general cognition.