According to The New York Daily News, children that have the rare gene disorder Williams syndrome are not subject to the racial biases present in their peers.. Average people tend to gravitate toward favoring their own ethnic group once they reach the age of three, according to behavioral experts. Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the University of Heidelberg states that Williams syndrome kids do not develop this common tendency. When tested, Williams syndrome children are prone to associate neither excessive friendliness to their own racial group nor naughtiness to other racial groups, which is different than the results shown with non-Williams syndrome subjects.
Children with Williams syndrome are hypersocial
The lack of a gene might sound serious, and some scientists feel that this element of Williams syndrome is serious indeed. On the one hand, they do not suffer from racial bias or social anxiety due to their hypersocial nature. Asking for payday loans wouldn’t be scary, if Williams syndrome kids were old enough to apply. These children are highly verbal and overly social. However, the trade off is that Williams syndrome children cannot detect common social danger signals, indicates Meyer-Lindenberg. The result is that Williams syndrome kids cannot discern via subtle cues whether someone is about to strike them, for instance. Being out of touch with body language and similar social cues isn’t all, though; mental retardation, heart defects and minor facial deformation are also found in Williams syndrome children, per Wikipedia.
Williams syndrome difficulties aren’t unassailable, says Meyer-Lindenberg
Since much of social interaction between humans is based on learned experience, Meyer-Lindenberg says that Williams syndrome children can learn to protect themselves. And who among us would consider being able to socialize easily a handicap? Aside from other Williams syndrome side-effects like mental retardation, heart defects and non-standard facial features, things aren’t that bad. The Williams syndrome child does possess the enviable characteristic of easy socialization, which is something from which we all could learn. Social interaction helps us all grow. With quick payday loans and a little help from friends, we can move mountains – or at least make those mountains into mole hills.
Article Sources
The New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/04/14/2010-04-14_williams_syndrome_makes_kids_lack_social_anxiety_and_social_biases_study.html
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