|
| Until July 1996, no scholarly papers appeared supporting the anecdotal observations by many parents and teachers that Williams people have unusual musical abilities. At that time two papers were presented specifically on that subject at the Seventh International Professional Conference on Williams Syndrome near Philadelphia on July 25, 1996. Abstracts of the presentations and presenters were:
Music and Williams Syndrome: A Status Report and Goals. Dr. Howard M. Lenhoff, School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92727Musical abilities of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS), like the trait of hyperacusis, may be one more feature of WS first surfaced through anecdotal evidence provided by many parents, only later to be documented by research. Further reports of those purported musical abilities have been coming from instructors at the Williams Syndrome Music and Arts Camp, now going into its third year at Belvoir Terrace in Lenox, MA. This mounting anecdotal evidence is becoming quite compelling. (1) For example, whereas Williams children are thought to have short attention spans, their attention span for listening to and participating in musical activities appears to be surprisingly long. (2) Although most can not read musical notation, many have absolute and relative pitch. (3) A number have uncanny rhythm, being able to learn complex drum beats, such as 7/4, in a short session. (4) Many are able to retain complex music (some in a variety of languages), including both the words of many verses of long ballads and the melodies for periods of years. (5) Those who learn and sing in foreign languages have near perfect accents. (6) Experienced Williams musicians have a facility with harmony. (7) A number can improvise and compose lyrics with great facility. (8) Virtually all lack stage fright, which often plagues professionally trained musicians. Such were some of the observations which led neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks to call Williams people "highly musical." These and other talents of the campers will be illustrated in a short video. What is needed now are scientific studies that will examine the growing body of anecdotal observations. For example, a professionally-prepared survey of parents of Williams people needs to be taken. In addition, Williams people over a large age range need to be given a series of tests to determine if their musical abilities differ from those of others. I caution, however, that for some of these studies researchers may need to devise new tests that will compensate for the cognitive deficits of the Williams people; for example, testing that requires knowledge of musical notation is not useful. The first documented studies along these directions are reported by Don et al. in these proceedings. Another area of research might deal with the possible connection of hyperacusis to absolute/relative pitch, accent, and/or rhythm. There are some interesting signs coming from Hickok et al at the Salk Institute [Science, 270, 219 (1995)]showing an increased size in WS people of the planum temporale, the part of the brain demonstrated by Schlaug et al. [Science, 267, 699 (1995)] to be enlarged in professional musicians having absolute pitch. Future research in this area promises to be exciting not only because of the light it may shed linking the gene, the brain, and music, but also because it may lead to ways for Williams families to provide more satisfying and productive lives for their children.
Auditory Pattern Perception in Children with Williams Syndrome (WS): Preliminary Findings. Audrey Don, Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Windsor Ontario N9B 3P4, CanadaChildren with WS have a unique neuropsychological profile characterized by extremely poor visuo-spatial skills but relatively preserved verbal skills. Anecdotal reports suggest that music skills are also relatively preserved in these children, which implies that children with WS may be relatively good at processing auditory patterns in general. In this study, the performance of children with WS on standardized tests of language, music and visual-spatial skills was examined. Method: Participants were 10 children with WS between 8 ad 13 years of age (mean= 10 years, 10 months, SD = 1 year, 10 months) recruited through WS Association meetings and newsletters. Children were tested individually in two sessions. Measures included the following: WISC-III, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R), Auditory Closure Test (AC), Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Sentence Memory Test, and the Tonal and Rhythm subtests of Gordon's Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) (1986). On the PMMA subtests, children were asked to discriminate between short pairs of melodic or rhythmic fragments. Results: Standard scores on the Verbal Comprehension (VC) and Perceptual Organization (PO) factors of the WISC-III were compared. Although the children performed near floor levels, a paired t-test revealed a significant difference between the higher VC (mean=61.1, SD=9.5) and lower PO (mean=51.4, SD=3.7) factors in accordance with previous findings [t(9)=4.63, p < 0.001] . A separate analysis revealed a significant difference between PPVT-R performance (mean= 68.3, SD = 17.1) and WISC-III Full Scale IQ (mean= 50, SD =7.3) consistent with the relative superiority of verbal skills in these children [t(9)=4.427, p < 0.002]. Further analysis indicated a hierarchy of performance on linguistic tests that appeared to be based, in part, on the complexity of processing required. For example, on the least complex test (AC) that requires the capacity to recognize patterns of words broken into phonemes, performance was near age norms (mean=-0.6 SD from the norm, SD=0.95), whereas scores on the most complex measure (VC) were 2.6 SD below the mean. To compare music skills with verbal skills, raw scores of the PMMA were converted to centile rankings based on PPVT-R age equivalents. Mean Tonal and Rhythm centile rankings on the PMMA were at expected levels for PPVT-R age. Mean Tonal and Rhythm scores were at the 68th percentile (SD=24.6) and 48th percentiles (SD=26.7), respectively. The apparent difference between Tonal and Rhythm scores was not signif1cant. Discussion: These preliminary analyses provide initial data to support the hypothesis that music skills in children with WS are commensurate with their relatively preserved verbal skills and suggest that basic auditory pattern analysis is most intact in these children whereas more complex verbal skills are less preserved. In addition, these analyses lend support to the previously described cognitive profile of relatively preserved simple straightforward verbal skills in comparison to extremely poor visuo-spatial skills in children with WS. Further results and implications of this study will be discussed during the conference.
|
|
 View
Our Guestbook
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.
|
