[graciegirl]

Someone very close to us has Williams Syndrome. I just wondered if anyone in the Villages has a family member with it?

[nONIE]

Gracie,

Please excuse my ignorance , but what is Williams syndrom? I have never heard of it?

[graciegirl]

Williams Syndrome is caused by a microdeletion of the Elastin gene and children born with it usually have a heart defect called Supra Valvar Aortic Stenosis. It usually happens about once in 20,000 births so it is relatively rare and frequently undiagnosed. The kids look a lot alike and have sweet faces. They usually have unusually good verbal ability and remarkable social skills in the face of mild cognitive deficit. They have a lot of trouble with Math and anything involving spatial skills and generally are placed in special education classes. They have a remarkable ability to make people love them and have documented skills in reading peoples body language and faces. They usually have hypercalcemia in infancy that causes awful colic and no matter how they are soothed cry 18 hours a day. (YES REALLY) But that disappears around 18 months. Hernias occur and clogged tear ducts and strabismus is common in early childhood. They are usually hypersensitive to loud sounds and will cover their ears and not like fireworks and can sometimes recognize power tools by sound! . It is an autosomal dominant trait and usually only occurs once in a family.

They are sweet and little and skinny and darling and so easy to love. They are a blessing.