With the development of technological progress, human life becomes more and more comfortable. However, as you know, you have to pay for everything. Environmental pollution, life under constant stress, eating artificially created products adversely affects the human genome. The twentieth century has brought mankind many new diseases, for which there is no cure. Increasingly, children are born with various developmental disabilities. In 1961, New Zealand scientist George Williams discovered a new genetic disease, later named after him - Williams syndrome. Despite the similarity of the name with a disease such as Williams-Campbell syndrome (congenital maldevelopment of the bronchi), they are in no way connected with each other and have no relation to each other.
Williams syndrome or disease occurs in one in 10 thousand newborns. Unfortunately, this is not so rare. To date, it has been established that the main cause of this disease is damage to the seventh chromosome in the chromosome set of the fetus at the stage of fetal development. The main distinguishing feature of a child with this developmental disability is the so-called “elf face” or “brownie face”. External signs of the disease are combined, as a rule, with mild or moderate mental retardation, an excess of calcium in the blood, which has a negative effect on the work of the heart. A child with a similar diagnosis is significantly behind in development from his peers, starts talking a little later, has problems with visual-figurative thinking. In addition, people diagnosed with Williams syndrome live much less than other people. This is due to the rapidly developing calcification of the heart muscle due to the increased content of calcium in the blood. Most often, the patient's early death is caused by the presence of serious problems in the work of the cardiovascular system.
All children who are diagnosed with Williams syndrome have similar facial features: a small snub nose, a narrow forehead, puffy lips, large cheeks, a too narrow lower part of the face, and a mouth that does not close properly. Such children, as a rule, are very affectionate, are characterized by excessive talkativeness and kindness. Many of them have perfect hearing and outstanding musical abilities. Experts associate this phenomenon with the increased size of the left temporal lobe of the brain, which is also very often observed among talented musicians.
Psychologists often advise parents who have children with a similar genetic disorder to send their children to music school from an early age. This contributes to the process of socialization, the manifestation and development of talent, gives the child the opportunity to feel necessary. It should be said that children with Williams syndrome are alien to such human weaknesses as fear, shame, and complexes. They can quite easily perform on stage in front of a large audience of viewers.
A terrible diagnosis can only be made after the birth of a child. It is not possible to identify such deviations in the development of the fetus before it is born. A child with a diagnosis of Williams syndrome needs special care from his parents, he should feel their love and affection from birth, but in no case alienation. These children can attend regular school and show good school results. As a rule, only until high school.
People with Williams syndrome may have children, but the risk of having an unhealthy child is doubled. Parents with genetic diseases are very likely to pass them on to their unborn children. An accurate forecast can only be given by a specialist after genetic analysis.