Introduction
William’s syndrome is a rare genetic developmental disorder that affects multiple parts of the body. It is estimated that 1 out of every 7500 to 20, 000 people suffer from the condition. According to research, the condition is caused by the deletion of genetic material from chromosome number 7 during the formation of an ovum or sperm. Up to 27 genes are deleted from the chromosomes long arm. Specifically, it is caused by “a submicroscopic hemizygous deletion at chromosome 7q11.23.” 1 Thus, William’s syndrome is a genetic disorder. The condition causes learning problems, attention deficit disorder, increased anxiety and multiple phobias. It is also manifested in prominent lips and a wide mouth, broad forehead, short nose, full cheeks and dental problems. 2
What challenges do students with William’s syndrome face?
Almost all children suffering from William’s syndrome experience learning difficulties. For instance, due to anxiety and attention deficit disorders associated with the condition, students tend to get distracted easily. Subsequently, such students tend to lose concentration after a short period. As a result, they cannot pay sufficient attention to any extended teaching and learning process. Moreover, most of these students become excessively worried of perceived noises, and they might walk out of class to avoid such interferences in extreme cases.
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Students with William’s syndrome also exhibit more difficulties in processing non-verbal information compared to verbal information. 3 Often, this has been associated with visual memory deficits. Visual-spatial needs significantly affect most school activities especially those that involve practical work and physical education. Similarly, other learning activities that require the use of spatial analysis include making distinctions between different letters and letter cases as well as distinguishing between left and right. These aspects may seem challenging to students with William’s syndrome. In most cases, learners with William’s syndrome exhibit better and more developed verbal abilities as compared to cognitive abilities.
Further, students with the condition also experience difficulties with both abstract concepts and abstract reasoning. In this case, the students are not able to interpret and understand abstract ideas. Any form of forceful teaching may also quickly drive them out of class. While they seem to have reduced cognitive and non-verbal skills, such students tend to show more concentration when teaching approaches that involve more practical work are employed. This is because they can observe and try to emulate the observations. The explanation for this observation is that the short concentration span that is associated with the condition prevents the students from adequately grasping the taught concepts. 4 Due to this, the learners tend to oscillate between reality and abstractness.
There is a tendency amongst students with William’s syndrome to show much affinity for favorite subjects. In most cases, such students show more liking for music and some end up with extremely developed talents in music even without much training. In some cases, it has been observed that students with William’s syndrome can only concentrate in class in instances where musical pieces are incorporated into the teaching process. In the same regard, such learners may be more inclined to learn music and not any other subject. For example, their math skills may be significantly impaired. Most students with William’s syndrome hardly go beyond the 3rd grade of their education. In some unique cases, the severity of the condition tends to increase as the victims grow. This may get to the level where their development is completely impaired, and hence learning can no longer take place.
Despite the tendency to exhibit overtly sociable traits, some students with William’s syndrome experience difficulties in establishing friendships with their peers and being part of social groups. These problems have been attributed in large part to the students’ tendencies to exhibit over anxiety. 5 Subsequently, such students may show developed discussion skills in some conversational topics while showing extremely low awareness of general conversational skills. Some of them experience challenges in modulating their emotions and may seem to over-react even on mere provocation. Teaching such students in a classroom situation or groups is a challenge since they cannot tolerate other students for long periods. A notable problem is that once provoked, students with William’s syndrome do not calm down easily even when the teacher intervenes or even after the purported wrongdoer apologizes.
Another common challenge that is associated with students suffering from William’s syndrome is their maths and handwriting skills. Since the identification of left and right is a challenge for some of these students, this is manifested in their handwriting since they cannot stick to writing in a single direction. Difficulties in math skills have been associated with the delayed cognitive development. Similarly, students with William’s syndrome exhibit problems in reading comprehension and even lag behind. They also experience difficulties in understanding pragmatic language and show high anxieties towards a variety of subjects and topics such as fire drills, whistles, sounds of power tools and popping of balloons. 6
Teaching students with William’s syndrome
The most common characteristic amongst all students suffering from William’s syndrome is that they are sociable. As a result, teachers and instructors are advised not to put the students in special classrooms. Instead, such students should be taught together with normal students in regular classrooms. However, a teaching aide is required to ensure that the students learn at almost an equal pace with their colleagues. However, caution should be taken to ensure that they do not become dependent on the aid but instead build independence while getting assistance from the aid. In this regard, it is highly recommended that a group of students utilizes the aid as opposed to interacting with it one-on-one. This is because such learners may develop personal attachments and hence dependence on the aid. 7
Students with William’s syndrome often exhibit problems in coordinating verbal and nonverbal components of sustained conversation and interaction. Teaching such students, thus, requires that the teacher or any other resource person practices the verbal and nonverbal skills in small activity based social skills groups. During such activities, the students are slowly taught how to cultivate coordination between their verbal and nonverbal clues. A typical example when carrying out such activities is that most of them will maintain eye contact but fail to coordinate their gestures. Through social activities, the students slowly learn such coordination.
Teaching students with William’s syndrome also require that close attention is given to the intellectual differences as depicted by different students. 8 For instance, when such students are grouped together, some may show intellectual delays manifested in delayed language processing as well as failure to follow difficult conversations keenly. In extreme cases, some students fail to establish the central theme in a conversation and thus give comments that are either tangential or wholly off-topic. In such situations, the teacher should ensure that there are regular social times where assigned adults take part in social experiences together with the students with William’s syndrome. This would be useful in helping them bridge their participation. This can be effectively done where a common ground for intellectual differences amongst the students has a lesser impact. Finally, students with William’s syndrome are more inclined to talk, learn and discuss their favorite topics which might not be necessarily the one being taught. In this case, the teacher is expected to create time for such favorite topics outside learning hours where the students are allowed to explore these topics freely.
Bibliography
Brauhardt, Marcel. "Williams Syndrome in Psycholinguistics." (2010).
Browder, Diane M., and Fred Spooner. Teaching students with moderate and severe disabilities . Guilford Press, 2011.
Don, Audrey J., E. Glenn Schellenberg, Arthur S. Reber, Kristen M. DiGirolamo, and Paul P. Wang. "Implicit learning in children and adults with Williams syndrome." Developmental Neuropsychology 23, no. 1-2 (2003): 201-225.
Mervis, Carolyn B., Byron F. Robinson, Jacquelyn Bertrand, Colleen A. Morris, Bonita P. Klein-Tasman, and Sharon C. Armstrong. "The Williams syndrome cognitive profile." Brain and Cognition 44, no. 3 (2000): 604-628.
Rourke, Byron Patrick, ed. Syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities: Neurodevelopmental manifestations . Guilford Press, 1995.
Westwood, Peter. What teachers need to know about students with disabilities . Aust Council for Ed Research, 2009.
