For more info..

Throughout my blog I've found a lot of information about Williams Syndrome. I found the website http://www.williams-syndrome.org/ the most resourceful. It gives information for new parents, describing what Williams syndrome really is and helpful ways to help their Williams child. It also gives information for teachers and strategies and helpful ideas for the classroom for teaching a child with Williams syndrome. It gives information for doctors as well such as genetic information as to what causes Williams syndrome and statistics. This site is also filled with fun activities and events that are going on throughout the United States. This website was very helpful in my research for Williams syndrome.

Words to live by

I found this quote and I absolutely love it.

Know the person, not the disability, in fact look past the disability and you will see a person, a person who has the same thoughts and feelings as anyone else. - Unknown

My life with Williams

In this video Nicki Hornbacker is a 19 year old girl with Williams Syndrome. This is a perfect example of the characteristics and personality of people with Williams. She always has a smiling face and makes the best of everything just like my friend Brittany who has Williams! To view this video just click the link below.


http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/07/06/magazine/1194817106646/my-life-with-williams.html

Just like you

This is a clip of a Gatorade commercial I found for the specail Olympics. I like this clip because it shows how similar these specail athletes are to any other athlete, check it out!

Walk for Williams campaign

May 9-15th marks the first national Williams Syndrome Awareness Week and the WS community will be celebrating with fundraisers and events across the country. The nearest walk to me will be in St. Louis, Mo at 9AM at the Maryville University in St. Louis! For more walks and locations during this week go to..

http://thenewwsa.org/content/walk-williams-campaign

All money raised will support critical research initiatives and programs for individuals with Williams syndrome

Gateway to the future

The Williams Syndrome Association is putting on their 2010 National convention in St. Louis, July 7th-11th. Here they will have programs, activities and speakers for all ages! Not all details are posted but to stay updated and learn about previous conventions the WSA has held over the years visit the site below!

http://www.williams-syndrome.org/news/convention.html#programs

Patience, love and listening

This is a video I found that a group of college students put together to promote their special education program. The majority of it is movie clips from movies that have to do with people with special needs. It's kind of long but really neat!

Quote it!

Just some inspiring quotes I found that could pertain to special children!

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. – John Wooden


A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. – Walter Gagehot

Music

What all special education kids have in common is a love for music. The website http://educationworld.com/ has a link in which provides activities for teachers to provide for all ages of special education students such as, music, movies, notetaking and lots more. To view further lessons and activities for teachers and special education students click the link below!

http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/SpecialEducation.html

Education

When it comes to Williams Syndrome children or any type of children with mental disabilities they need certain accommodations in order for teacher's to get their lesson's taught. I found a website that gives some tips on things that teachers who are teaching special education students might use in order to keep their students attention. It gives a list of common indicators in special education students as well as a list of things they do to help each one of these indicators. To view some of these tips click on the link below!



http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/new-teacher/48460.html

Faces of Williams Syndrome

One of the things that sets Williams Syndrome people apart from others is there physical features. Here is a video with some pictures of kids with Williams Syndrome.

Williams Syndrome as an Adult

In the article, "Cognitive functioning in adults with Williams Syndrome," Mr. Howlin focuses his book on the effects of Williams Syndrome in adults. It gives the differences mentally and physical from a child who has Williams Syndrome compared to an adult. This book mainly is research proving these differences along with information as to why the change later on in life.

Quality of Life

In the article, " Quality of Life for people with disabilities," Robert Cummins wrote this in hoping to help people find a better understanding of how the disabled look upon life. It gives examples of positive and negative feedback from research and models performed on physically and mentally challenged people. This article is helpful in my search for the views of how mentally challenged children view their life positively and negatively.

How They Cope

In the article, "Coping with Stress in Families with Children Who Have Mental Retardation: An Evaluation of the Double ABCX Model," Robert Orr focusing his points for people who are interested in learning how parents and other people cope with have a child with a mental retardation. In this article it gives personal experiences from parents who have not only a Williams Syndrome child but also parents who have children with different syndromes and mental retardation's. These parents also give points that they believe help them in their life with handling their children.

Williams Syndrome as a Child

In the article, "Williams Syndrome: Features in Late Childhood and Adolscents," Richard Pagon focuses on younger kids with Williams Syndrome. In this article it gives the features that you would only see in a child with Williams Syndrome, it gives the complications that younger kids with Williams Syndrome face in school and other information about their social lives and how different and how much harder it is for a Williams Syndrome child to be social with other children their age.

More in Depth

Another resourceful website is Williams-syndrome.org. This website is similar to the one listed in my previous post (autism-world.com) but it goes into quite about more detail about the effects Williams Syndrome has throughout the entire life. It also goes into more detail about the complications and the physical appearance differences in a Williams child. This website lists lots of relevant information about the life of person with Williams Syndrome.

http://williams-syndrome.org/

Autism

The online website Autism-world.com gives many articles involving Williams Syndrome. It gives very important and relevant information about Williams Syndrome as well as many other autism. This website includes articles of real life stories, it gives information on life expectancy of someone with Williams Syndrome, complications, genetic causes, history and treatments. This website is very useful if you're looking for information on Williams Syndrome or other autistic disabilities.

http://autism-world.com/

The Difference

In the article, "Configured and Local Processing of Faces in Children with Williams Syndrome," it gives all the different reason why children with Williams Syndrome look a little different in their facial features opposed to children without Williams Syndrome. In this article doctors run tests to see what it is really that discriminates children with Williams Syndrome. In the end I would not only like to show the similarities and differences emotionally with Williams kids but also physically.

A Different Perspective

In the article, "Parameters of Normality of Cultural Constructions of 'Mental Retardation' Perspective of Bengali Families," it gives the different pespectives of not only how Bengali families but just families in general handle having a child or sibling with mental retardation. This article shows what things these families do to try to keep their lives as normal as possible and their different outlooks on their childrens dissabilites as well as the challenges they face everyday.

They can do it too!

In the article "The Syntactical Ability of a Young Girl with Williams Syndrome," from the Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation by Dianna Arapovikj it focuses mainly on a 9 year old girl who has williams syndrome. Throughout this article it gives examples of her being capable of doing certian things that a person without Williams Syndrome. It gives different strategies that help kids with Williams Syndrome have a better understanding of certain things. This article mainly focuses on this one girl and young kids with Williams Syndrome but it also gives examples involving adults and other ages as well!

Annotation

I decided instead of focusing my topic on disabilities I thought I would focus it in more about Williams Syndrome. I came across an article that gives a lot of interesting information about this syndrome. It gives different syndromes and compares WS to them. Such as the ages and they IQ a WS would have compared to different syndromes. It also shows the ways WS children perceive things differently. It gives lots of charts explaining and showing the different views of a WS child. It also gives methods on how to help and enhance their understanding. I thought this article was very interesting and informative!

Acceptance

I'd imagine if you were a parent, finding out your child is going to be disabled would be hard to handle. I've never seen or heard anything about this from personal experience so I looked up some webites and I found one that gives you 5 steps for parents to keep in mind and to help them move from denial to determination to help their child.

1. Your child is still your child. The things you love about him or her remain the same. There were still be moments of joy and calm and silliness and general uneventful family life. You may learn to treasure those more. Every kind of special need brings with it its own particular stresses and tragedies and struggles and frustrations, but rarely is it every minute of every day, every bit of your child's being. Your child is still your child. And this is just part of life.

2. Labels are not the enemy. None of us likes to think of our precious child as just another bowl of alphabet soup. Labels can seem scary or limiting, defining our loved one by their dis- and not their ability. But a label can also help you to get services for your child, therapy, insurance coverage, the right school placement, tolerance for behaviors, understanding and support. A label is just another tool for getting your child the help he or she needs.

3.You are not alone. The internet has made it possible to network with parents and organizations across the country and around the world. Online you can find support groups, forums where experts will answer your questions, sites filled with information about your child's diagnosis, announcements of gatherings and conferences, and other resources that can help you become part of a community of people who know just what you're going through.

4.Every child is different. Kids develop at their own pace, they respond uniquely to therapies or medications or treatments, they follow their own path. Don't assume that because you've heard sad stories about children like yours, your family's story will be sad, too. And don't assume that because one thing doesn't work, nothing will. Your child is a unique individual, and although a diagnosis may provide a useful template, it's not the whole picture.

5.There's always hope. Life for people with disabilities has improved enormously over the last century, and there's no reason to believe that progress won't continue. Medical breakthroughs are made every day. New therapies are constantly being developed. Different educational techniques bring undreamed of results. Tests are becoming more sensitive and medications more targeted. And sometimes love and a strong will can perform miracles. Time to get to work.


For more visit this webiste!
http://specialchildren.about.com/od/gettingadiagnosis/a/wrong.htm

Although Brittany's dissability doesn't prevent her from running or walking there are some disabilities that do. Being able to walk and run is a priviledge that we have and some kids don't get that. Some people can look down upon a wheel cheel but then again there are some that don't and try to make the best of their life in a chair!

Today I just wanted to talk a little bit about the girl a "buddy-sit" and her syndrome. Brittany has Williams Syndrome, I'm not sure about every little detail that effects her but I know that no matter how may things that could bring you down, she won't let them. And, no matter how many things that maybe wrong you would never be able to tell with her. Brittany is 23 years old, and it takes her a little more time to accomplish things but she still has the determination to get them done! Britt is 3 years older than me but we graduated highschool the same year and she is taking college classes at a community college near our home town. Honestly, I see Brittany as a normal girl. She has more boyfriends than I can keep track of, she loves animals, she enjoys to horseback ride and bowl! She's just like each and every one of us but with a disabilty that might as well not be there! Brittany inspires me.

If you'd like to learn more about Williams Syndrome you can go to this link below!

http://www.williams-syndrome.org/

This is an article showing no disability can hold you back from doing what enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/sports/hockey/31hockey.html

A lot of people look down on disabilites. I went home this past weekend and helped with the disabled children at my church and realized how happy these kids were. I have never really noticed it before but it was awesome to sit back for a minute and watch. It almost was if they didn't have a care in the world. After realizing it just made me wonder why so many people look down on this, or pitty them when they should be pittying us. We're the ones who take our life for granted; They cherish every minute of there's.

I decided to do my blog on disabilites because it's something I've always been passionate about. Since I was about 15 years old I've been "buddy-sitting" a disabled girl that lives down the street from me. She is the sweetest girl I've ever met and one of my dearest friends. I also volunteer at my church with the disabled. This is something I love to do and throughout this blog I'm going to share the capabilites of the disabled. My major is nursing and one day I'd really like to focus my career on helping with disabled children.

Placing one foot in front of the other, I've climbed to higher lengths. Reaching beyond my own limitations, to show my inner strength. No obstacle too hard, for this warrior to overcome. I'm just a man on a mission, to prove my disability hasn't won. - Robert M. Hensel