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We collect questions often asked by people around Kleefstra syndrome, so you can search if your question is already asked. Each new question that is asked within our community is answered by a forum of experts with different expertises. We add links to helpful information, rewrite them to be understandable and share them. In this way we want to inform families, make them feel empowered and give them just that little bit of extra support.
Because if there is something typical for families with a care-intensive person like Kleefstra syndrome, is that you will have a lot of questions. And we all want that you can remain upright, by showing that no question is too complicated or not worth asking. And that is what we, as community around Kleefstra syndrome, are committed to doing with heart and soul.
Kleefstra syndrome is a disorder that involves many parts of the body. Characteristic features of Kleefstra syndrome include developmental delay and intellectual disability, severely limited or absent speech, and weak muscle tone (hypotonia). Affected individuals also have an unusually small head size (microcephaly) and a wide, short skull (brachycephaly). Distinctive facial features include eyebrows that grow together in the middle (synophrys), widely spaced eyes (hypertelorism), a sunken appearance of the middle of the face (midface hypoplasia), nostrils that open to the front rather than downward (anteverted nares), a protruding jaw (prognathism), rolled out (everted) lips, and a large tongue (macroglossia). Affected individuals may have a high birth weight and childhood obesity.
People with Kleefstra syndrome may also have structural brain abnormalities, congenital heart defects, genitourinary abnormalities, seizures, and a tendency to develop severe respiratory infections. During childhood they may exhibit features of autism or related developmental disorders affecting communication and social interaction. In adolescence, they may develop a general loss of interest and enthusiasm (apathy) or unresponsiveness (catatonia).
