Parent and teacher perspectives about problem behavior in children with Williams syndrome.
Kids with Williams syndrome show the same cluster of attention, anxiety, repetitive, and social problems at home and at school.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team sent a short survey to parents and teachers of 8- to young learners with Williams syndrome.
They asked each adult to check off any behavior problems they saw often.
Fifty-six children had two reporters, letting the researchers compare parent and teacher answers.
What they found
Attention problems, anxiety, repetitive actions, and social slips topped the list for both groups.
Parents and teachers agreed far more than they disagreed, so the picture looks the same at home and at school.
No child had just one trouble spot; most showed a mix of two or more areas.
How this fits with other research
Van Hanegem et al. (2014) interviewed parents first and found the same repetitive and sensory issues, so the new survey extends that work by adding teacher voices.
Spanoudis et al. (2011) saw high anxiety and inattention across the lifespan, and Kocher et al. (2015) now show these traits are already clear in the school years.
Ahlborn et al. (2008) used lab sounds to prove kids with Williams syndrome startle more; the survey shows parents and teachers notice the same hypersensitivity in daily life.
Godbee et al. (2013) found these kids rarely think others have bad intentions, which may explain why social problems persist even when the child is friendly.
Why it matters
You can brief teachers before the first day: expect wandering attention, worry questions, and hand-flapping when excited. Because parent and teacher reports line up, a quick parent interview gives you a valid classroom preview. Use that agreement to prioritize treatment targets everyone will track the same way.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Problem behavior of 52 children with Williams syndrome ages 6 to 17 years old was examined based on both parent and teacher report. Generally good inter-rater agreement was found. Common areas of problem behavior based both on parent and teacher report included attention problems, anxiety difficulties, repetitive behaviors (e.g., obsessions, compulsions, picking nose or skin), and social problems, reflecting a robust behavioral phenotype in Williams syndrome present across contexts. Some rater differences were observed; most notably, parents reported more attention and mood difficulties than did teachers, while teachers reported more oppositionality and aggression than did parents. Relations to intellectual functioning, age, and gender were examined. The implications of the findings for understanding the behavioral phenotype associated with Williams syndrome are discussed.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-120.1.72