Down Syndrome people better social skills than AS people?

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Do Down Syndrome people in general develop better social skills than AS people do? Or perhaps it is more natural to them?

It seems like Down Syndrome people can be ahead of autistic people in that area of strength. Unless the autistic individual has achieved improved social skills through intellectualization.

I don't know really. I think people with Down's Syndrome lack some social skills in a different way to Autistics, being so Autism is mostly based around social difficulties. Down's people have more intellectual developmental delays, which can affect their social skills in other ways, especially if they are childlike as adults. I know a girl about my age with Down's Syndrome, and in the past she has had people take advantage of her. She started off at mainstream school when she was a young child, but got picked on so had to go to a special school, where she got on better.

It's more "natural," usually, for a person with Down Syndrome to be sociable than a person with ASD

However, people with ASD's could, with practice, improve upon what's "natural."

I am not sure, yet there is one thing that comes to mind.

Two times a week I volunteer for a program that teaches people life skills. They have a variety of special needs, including Downs Syndrome. From what I have seen, they appear to love people. I cannot think of any time I have seen a person with Downs Syndrome say negative things about another person. They never even appear to think bad about others.

True, I have experienced that from more than one documentary on Down's Syndrome.

The sad truth is, however, that not being able to think badly about others (in terms of skills and abilities) is an obvious manifestation of lack of social skills!

But for that same reason they appear very likable, indeed!

They do have some social impairments. But that is just the result of a general intellectual disability, and they are often less impaired in socializing than they are at school. So, yeah, it's often a comparative strength.

But let's not forget that 25% of Down's people also have autism. So they have social skills deficits just like we do.

The other 75%, I would say, depending on the person, on average probably do better socially than autistics do. But remember how diverse both DS and autism is. There will be a lot of overlap. Some DS people have really serious social skills problems, and some autistics are only slightly impaired, socially.

Because of that diversity, I don't think it is useful to make predictions about social skills based on whether a person is DS or autistic. You might be able to guess better than chance, but it wouldn't be nearly accurate enough to justify actually making any assumptions about a person. It would be better to meet them and observe them or just ask directly.

I don't know if DS people get annoyed when others assume they are socially wonderful and charming and innocent and all of that. It's kind of a patronizing stereotype and I think I'd be annoyed by it if that were me.

am not currently living with DSers but this post is coming from having been special school & special college educated;and having lived with hundreds of down syndrome individuals over the years...no-'full/classic' DSers do not have better social skills, they have intelectual disability,those of us with ID lack the social awareness and dont feel anxiety around social stuff because we arent aware of the societal differences and peer expectations that HFAs feel.
this gives us an ability to be technicaly friends with anyone-we dont discriminate between anyone.

people with down syndrome specificaly, have a very loving and caring nature so they are often more sociable but it doesnt mean they are socialy better off.

People cut someone with Down Syndrome a huge amount of slack. For one, their outward appearance is a bit different, so there is no guessing on the what's wrong with them. Most of the general public knows that DS is an intellectual disability, and they don't expect them to be perfectly NT.

The local fast food place has people with Down Syndrome work for them. Their personalities and abilities are all over the place. Some have a sunny personality, and some are more quiet and reserve. One woman works the register, which is beyond my skill set! Some just do general clean up. The general public never gives them a rough time.

I think what you are seeing is with a DS/NT interaction, is the NTs really going the extra mile to relate and to put the other person at ease.

Last edited by Tawaki on 16 Jul 2014, 11:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A study shown that around 86% of 4 years old children with Down syndrome can pass first order ToM tasks.

I think people have different expectations of people with Downs Syndrome since it it usually more immediately apparent and people usually have a better understanding of DS and not so much of AS. At first, people with Asperger's can come off as normal and therefore people automatically hold us to that expectation.
Anyhoo, this thread reminded me of this Albuquerque restaurant owner who has Down's Syndrome.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6He0FWoFj0[/youtube]

What an amazing guy.

Understatement of the year. I wish I could wake up in the morning and want to do a happy dance.

I'm sure this man has issues and not every day is so terrific, but wow...talk about making the best of a less than stellar situation.

I showed my husband this vid and he got really quiet. He told me good day, he couldn't interact with humans like Tim does with his patrons.

Anyway..way to go Tim! You are a total inspiration.

Inspiration... meh. I think he's just going about his business, being an entrepreneur, which is admirable enough to count as an accomplishment whether you have DS or not. It's not something I could do, though. He's definitely got some talent.

But that's not the kind of life I want, either. I don't want to be a businessperson and I don't want to work in the service industry. I want to work with facts and ideas and numbers. So I wouldn't be happy with his life, and he probably wouldn't be happy with mine. Unless he really likes cats, I suppose, because I have two of those and they are very lovely cats indeed.

Tim the restaurant owner in the video does show great social skills. A cheerful extrovert personality like his is not needed for social skills excellence but you have to admire his small talk abilities. The theme of his restaurant is friendly customer interaction via hugs. The small talk is taken for granted and not mentioned but is there in every single scene. He can do small talk with strangers non-stop for an entire workday. Can anybody on WP do that? I couldn't.

Again this seeming "fact" about the difference in social skills makes me wonder whether AS is just as big a disability as DS.

I didn't mean that people should be all like Tim.

It would be really easy have no expectations with someone like Tim. He has a disability. His life is probably limited in different areas, and we didn't see that on the clip.

Th inspiration part is he gets up in the morning to follow his passion . For for this NT, that is really humbling. The restaurant business is not easy. Meet and greet people is not easy. Hell, carrying full trays of food and not dumping them all over, and giving them to the right customers is hard too. I've work in the food service industry.

People who get up every day and whack away at the world are my heroes. Whether its someone like Tim or my Aspie accountant. There are days that Tim and my accountant are functioning better than me, and sometimes it doesn't take much. Lol...