Williams syndrome is a chromosome disorder than makes people seem of higher-intelligence than they are, and gives them a ‘cocktail party’ personality. They also have strong eye contact. They also have an ‘Elfin’ appearance.
ok, anyone here talk to one of those people? What is it like? Are they at electable politician levels of charisma? Explain.
I think there’s more to Williams syndrome than just those traits - Williams syndrome can cause the individual to be so open, engaging and trusting towards others that it constitutes a danger to themselves. NPR had a very interesting story on a few months ago about a 9 year old girl with Williams syndrome: A Life Without Fear. The text story is interesting, but listen to the audio version if possible.
Thanks for the link, pravnik. As I read it, I was comparing the girl, Isabelle, with the case study of a town in New Jersey, Glen Ridge, where the gang rape of a mentally retarded girl took place (it was called Our Guys). The girl (called “Leslie” in the book) was very trusting and often let people take advantage of her because she so badly wanted a friend. She seemed different from Isabelle, though–Leslie seemed to know when she had been taken advantage of and felt bad about it. And she also knew that she was different. She just didn’t know how not to be different. Age could account for some of the differences–Leslie was in her late teens, I believe. Do children with Williams syndrome grow up to realize that they’re not really connecting on a deeper level with people? Do they start to feel lonely or alienated because of it?
I recall watching a PBS segment on people with Williams, this page has cites (under related national broadcasts.)
My nephew has WS. At age 30, he still lives with his mom or dad. He will never be self-supporting or self-sufficient. He cannot drive, although my sister told me she got him a scooter last week.
I’ll have to see how that goes. I don’t think he has the capacity to navigate traffic. I would put his mental age at about 12 or so.
He is friendly and happy, but not gullible. He knows when people have “wronged” him, and says so.
I have met others, and I can tell you they don’t seem “more intelligent” than they are, and aren’t really charismatic. They’re simply a bit more open and unfiltered than you and I. Keep in mind also, that like anyone else, they’re individuals, so painting with a broad brush doesn’t really cut it.
We have a volunteer at our cat adoption center with Williams. She is very engaging and social, but it is clear from the onset of speaking with her that she is not “normal”. She is very good with the animals and is willing to talk to anyone. Her intelligence is that of a 8-10 year old, but without the filter. Her mother once told me that she doesn’t think her daughter knows how to lie convincingly. She has tried in the past, but she can’t quite convince herself to do it and then fails in an obvious manner.
She is in her early 20’s or so. She has an aide who volunteers with her. Like ducati’s nephew, she will probably never live on her own or be self-sufficient. She is a wonderful volunteer and we all love to have her. She is the most dependable volunteer, she has not missed a week in her 3 years being with us.
I know a 21-year-old who has it, and briefly knew another younger girl a long time ago who I think had it. Basically they are friendly, outgoing and uninhibited. I wouldn’t necessarily say they seem more intelligent than they are – just that when you talk with them it doesn’t occur to you to evaluate their intelligence, because they are so much fun to talk with. They carry on a two-way conversation effortlessly and are responsive and interested.
Wait a minute…I don’t understand. This syndrome makes people seem smarter than average, but they’re actually less intelligent than normal? I admit this is the first time I’ve ever even heard of it.
I’ve heard of it before but before the OP, I’d never heard anyone describe it as being less smart but seeming more. More like–this person is really social and doesn’t get tired of the bland chitchat that many of us loathe.
I’ve heard that they also tend to lack social cues. If someone’s saying, “Well, it’s getting late” and looking at their watch, they’ll just say, “Yup, it is late,” without realizing the subtext (i.e, that the other person is trying to politely leave).
ETA: Here’s a NYTimes articleabout it.
The social cues thing that I mentioned was brought up in the article:
Alan Alda’s “Scientific American Frontiers” show did an episode called “Growing Up Different” and the first segment involved children with Williams Syndrome.
Watch the program online here:
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1205/video/watchonline.htm
The Williams segment is pretty good and you can see how the kids interact with Alda.
Because they’re highly verbal, it can give one the perception that they aren’t slow…or at least not that slow.
But you can tell from their appearance that they are not “normal.”
I do recall from that PBS documentary a woman with Williams saying that people often underestimate her ability to comprehend things by talking down to her. So I imagine it’s kind of difficult navigating the world when you’re slow, look like it, but are socially aware enough to know when people are being condescending.
IIRC, people with Williams Sydrome also tend to be musically talented.
To late to edit…
Just wanted to note that I just watched that Scientific American Frontiers episode again and had totally forgotten that most of the people shown are full grown adults, not children.
Very interesting watching the doctors giving them various tests that highlight some of their challenges.
I know someone who might be Williams. He is around 30 now. He loves music and I often see him at concerts with his mother. Although he can carry on a conversation (in English, Spanish, or French–his parents being Argentinian and he grew up in Montreal), it is childish conversation. He does not read, but his mother reads to him. Harry Potter among other things. But one thing that surprised. Twice I saw him with his mother at one of those midnight release parties for a Potter book and he was astonished that I, a professor of mathematics, would go to one of those affairs, thus displaying a degree of social awareness that surprised me. He cannot live alone and they have arranged that relatives in Argentina will care for him when they cannot.
But I do not know that this Williams. It is just the facility with language and interest in music that makes me think that.
Not that they seem more intelligent than normal, but they seem more intelligent than they are, which is generally not as intelligent as normal. It’s as monstro said: the fact that they are so verbal masks their lower IQs to a degree.
Yes, from what I have read people with WS always have significant mental retardation, but tend to have good verbal and social skills which can mask this in part.
I went to grade school with a girl who had it (I only know because our mothers were friendly, and my mom told me what her diagnosis was). She was very nice and friendly with everyone, and had a little nose and a big smile, that’s all I remember.
We had a girl with Williams Syndrome working at my law firm restocking coffee and cokes and printer paper and such. Echoing what others have said, it was immediately clear that she had significant mental retardation, but she was also a joy to be around. She was always chipper and upbeat (which really makes you stand out in a law firm) and always had some bit of pleasant small talk.
I am now questioning whether she was mentally worse off than I thought. I could see that. Regardless, she was competent at the admittedly menial job she had, and she was pleasant to be around and, at least to me, seemed like a happy person. And she was musically talented, by the way. She sang at one of our firm events, and was pretty good.
When we were approached by her mother about her volunteering for us, we weren’t sure what to expect. I had a long conversation with her mother about the expectations we had for a volunteer and was wary of taking on a volunteer who had special needs. I wanted to give her a chance, but I also wanted to make sure she was able to handle the cats safely. She is technically mentally retarded, but it seems at times that she isn’t because of her personality. She is talkative, engaging, very nice and helpful. She is excellent with the cats and once she got the layout of the place, she was good. She has an aide with her as well, but that is for her own protection.
IMHO, it is a very nuanced state. Her intelligence is not high, but she makes up for it in personality. If you were to talk to her without having seen her facial features, you make think she is perfectly normal, aside from a few small quirks. It is her facial features that give her away as being “different”.
This can happen in other cases (i.e. not related to William’s syndrome) where verbal ability is relatively unimpaired compared to other cognitive abilities.
It seems we tend to judge people’s intelligence by the way they use language. In one case I know about (a man with mental illness impacting his current functioning in addition to pre-existing intellectual impairment) it could be a problem because people would expect more of him than he could reasonably do, but not realize that they were setting the bar too high.
I work closely with someone who has a mental disability, I have never heard of Williams Syndrome but now it makes me wonder if he has it. He works part time assisting me in a manual labor job that is pretty brainless (I work the exact same job so I know exactly how this job can be done on auto-pilot with no thought at all). He has a social worker type of person who checks in with me to ask how he is doing every few months. But he is incredibly good at his job (follows the exact same routine every day), and extreeeemely social. He talks to EVERYONE, random passing strangers and everyone who works at this campus.
I don’t know the nature of his disability, but low IQ combined with extreme outgoingness defines him perfectly…but because his conversations are very simplistic smalltalk and he enjoys talking about the same things over and over again, I detect that the people he talks to that don’t know he is special needs feel a bit uncomfortable when he talks to them. I don’t know of him having any friends, I have only heard of family members in his private life.
He’s so good at smalltalk though that even I over-estimate him sometimes until his responses remind me again that he’s not quite normal. I love the guy though.
I never heard of WS before this thread. But reading this, I notice something: The descriptions have certain similarities to Asperger Syndrome (in particular, lack of social skills / understanding social cues) yet clear contrasts too (talkative, outgoing, extroverted). Overall, it sounds like almost the opposite of AS yet with some areas of similarity.
Can anyone else (with more knowledge) comment: How do WS and AS compare/contrast?
Is it possible for someone to have both at once?