Mental development

Individuals with Williams Beuren syndrome have moderate to severe intellectual disability. A limited group can learn to read. 

Writing proceeds with difficulty because of fine-motor problems. Maths and dealing with money are often not feasible. 

Characteristic of the syndrome is that verbal development is fairly good, although it starts later than in other children. Most can talk quite well, so they are often overestimated in terms of their mental abilities. They are fluent, incessant talkers. Central to this is the fact that their language expression is much better developed than their language comprehension. 

In most individuals with intellectual disabilities, this is just the opposite. WBS patients like to use complicated expressions they have heard from others (echolalia). They ask stereotypical questions and often repeat the same thing. Individuals with Williams Beuren syndrome have a particularly good memory, especially in the visual and auditory fields.

They can recognise people, places, sounds and music very easily. One can make use of this trait to teach them all kinds of things. They like music a lot. When it comes to concentration, however, they score particularly badly. They are easily distracted. This makes learning difficult.