Effects of social context on social interaction and self-injurious behavior in Cornelia de Lange syndrome.

Cornelia de Lange syndrome is reported to be associated with self-injurious behavior (SIB) and social avoidance. We used analog methodology to examine the effect of manipulating adult social contact on social communicative behaviors and SIB in 16 children with this syndrome. For 9 participants engagement behavior was related to levels of adult attention, and SIB showed significant variability across conditions for 3 participants.