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a) Over-friendliness:Adults with WS love company, are eager to please and will often seek out people and engage them in conversation. They may approach strangers in an over friendly and over-familiar manner, and will often tag along with them. This can be a major worry for parents and care givers, who fear that they are too trusting and could be taken advantage of if not sufficiently supervised. Individuals with WS may occasionally seek affection and physical contact in ways that would be acceptable in a child (e.g. hugging, kissing and touching) but which are inappropriate in an adult. Such behaviors usually illustrate poor understanding of the boundaries of different types of relationships, and may be a real barrier to acceptance in the ordinary community. b) Poor Understanding of Social Situations:Their good verbal skills enable adults with WS to initiate superficial social contacts. However, they tend to lack understanding of the underlying, 'unwritten' rules governing all types of social intercourse. They are often too open, direct or personal in their interactions with others, and do not recognize the social constraints that would be apparent to other people in the same situation. In other cases their social naiveté and lack of inhibition can lead them to tell tales or to say things that might hurt or embarrass other people. Such behavior is rarely intentional or malicious, but occurs because the individual may not understand the social implications of his or her utterances. Similarly, adults with WS will not hesitate to try and gain other peoples' attention with comments and questions, or to reprimand others. Consequently they may give the impression of being rude, bossy or attention seeking, which again may antagonize others if they are not fore-warned. WS individuals are extremely sensitive to the perceived disapproval of others. Inability to fully understand the subtleties of social interactions, and a tendency to take language very literally, may result in their becoming easily offended or upset; even mild teasing or 'leg-pulling' can cause great distress. |
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Please send mail to williamssyndrome@insightbb.com with questions or comments about this web site.For additional information about Williams syndrome, please send an e-mail to hlenhoff@uci.edu.For contact with other Williams syndrome families --In the USA: please send e-mail to info@williams-syndrome.orgOutside the USA:
please visit our
International Williams Syndrome Support Groups page for
contact information.
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