Williams Syndrome

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When I was in 6th grade and in special ed, I was close friends with a boy who was extremely friendly and selfless and he had a face you would not forget. Later, when I learned of Williams syndrome, I recognized my old friend from 6th grade had the same type of facial features, so it appears that I had the good fortune of being the best friend of someone with Williams syndrome. (People with Williams syndrome are said to have "elfin"-like faces and are believed to have possibly inspired the mythological concept of elves, though family members, physicians who specialize in the condition, and associations for Williams syndrome dislike the use of terms like "elf" to refer to people with Williams syndrome. I do wonder, however, what the people who have Williams syndrome think of such a term applying to them.)

I read about this guy's condition, and I would not call it "the opposite of autism". If anything, it actually shares some characteristics with autism.

I don't understand why the "opposite of autism" thing is insulting, it's just an observation. From the research I've done, the expression is probably meant on a literal genetic level: one of the suspected causes of autism is the duplication of a segment of chromosome 7, and one of the causes of William's syndrome is a deletion of the same segment:

I seriously, seriously question whether Williams is the opposite of autism.

People with Williams may be more friendly than the average neurotypical, but then again, so are some aspires I have known !

While they may be friendly, do people with WS have good social skills, good intuition, or are able to pick up on social cues especially well? I am not sure, but somehow I doubt it.

I worked at an elementery school for one year, and often stopped by in the autism room to help when I had some free time. There was a boy who had williams AND autism, sort of a comorbid deal.

He definitely had the "elfin" appearance. He was very friendly and eager to speak to me so I often spoke to him. However he had a good deal of trouble walking, and often needed the help of two aides to guide him through the hallway. They wore sort of velcro sleeves on their arms, so they would not be harmed by his scratching .

He apparently had bit and attacked other kids so he needed to be watched... Since he had a comorbid autism condition, he may not be typical of people with Williams syndrome.

Don't get me wrong, I think all people are put on this earth for a reason. Yet I often cant help but wonder why God ( if he exists) chose to make life so so hard for certain individuals, like the WS fellow. And I thought I had it hard.