Williams syndrome is hereditary disorder inherited by the child by birth. There will be several complications like heart problem, delayed development and disability in learning for those children. But such children will be highly social personality with excellent verbal skills. They can make friends easily and will like to have more adult friends than with children of their age.
Williams syndrome is a very rare disorder affecting one in every 10,000 people. Many children will suffer from intense cardiovascular diseases like valve leakage and septal defects in their heart. It becomes a challenge to carry on with their routine activities due to marked deviation in intellectual skills.
Causes :
Obviously the disorder is hereditary and passed on to the offspring by the genes. Some genes are deleted or missing in the fetus which leads to this disorder and other physical abnormality. A parent with WS has almost 50% chance to pass on the disease to his child.
A set of 25 genes are missing on the child and one among them is the gene that is responsible for producing elastin material which keeps the tissues stretched. Because of this, the child will have narrowed blood vessels and tissues making intense delay in development.
Symptoms :
Initially the child will take time to talk few words due to delayed speech. There will be marked developmental delay and very often such children will have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD.
The physical characteristics of the child will differ from normal children. He or she will be short in structure with sunken chest. His fingers may look bent inward and his face will be unusual. His eyes may be bluish or green with small dots like pattern on his iris. His nose will be flat with upturned nose.