Linda loves her food. The days when she was fussy, picky or otherwise difficult to feed – those symptoms of Williams Syndrome are long passed. Now she is on the See-Food diet – see food and eat it! I can’t quite understand why but Linda has always eaten quickly. I promise you, there’s no competition. […]
Is the iPad a Good Buy For a Special Needs Adult?
We bought Linda an iPad for Christmas. She is an adult with special needs, Williams Syndrome to be exact. She can read and write but has poor coordination. Her visuo-spatial awareness is very poor, again typical of Williams Syndrome symptoms. She had used a laptop but couldn’t quite get to grips with the mouse and […]
Thanks From a Williams Syndrome Adult
It had been a long hard day. We’d been out at a social event during the afternoon. We certainly made small talk with people we really didn’t know very well or even at all and Linda had been part of the party. That famous, typical Williams Syndrome symptom of cocktail party chatter was put to […]
What a Busy Birthday Month!
As you might have noticed, it’s been a while since my last post. The delay was initially down to technical problems – my laptop experienced a power failure so when the battery finally ran down it was dead and not resuscitated ! All data safe thank goodness. By the time I was re-juiced, August had […]
How Can We Celebrate?
Since Monday things have calmed down. I don’t think for one moment that Linda has really learned the lesson. I expect that managing her food intake will probably get more difficult and I’ve no idea what will happen to her ability to tell lies with an innocent smile, but a line must be drawn. Now […]
Honestly Sister!
What a day! For Linda is was last day of term at her numeracy and literacy classes. She’s been attending these for a year now and certainly has improved. You can read her writing now, most of the time! More importantly, she actually took a maths exam some weeks ago and was eagerly awaiting the […]
Nothing Less Than Perfect
Williams Syndrome, that cocktail party personality, sweet and friendly. People rarely tell you about the compulsive and persistent aspects of that story! Linda is over 40 but in many ways delights in the same things as a 4yr old. For some time she’s been lusting after a bicycle… not possible due to her lack of […]
Listening to Music With Linda
Many of the symptoms of Williams Syndrome are well known to parents and carers: distractability, short attention span, ADHD-like symptoms. We also know of their musicality, tendancy to sing, shout or squeal with delight, to jiggle and dance and twitch with life… Well, in the words of the Porgy and Bess song, it ain’t neccesarily […]
How to Earn a Quick Buck!
In the post yesterday I was dreading the fact that Linda didn’t have enough money to buy her newspaper today… We had several goes at “Sister, can I ask you a question?” followed by “Oh, no. Sorry, I haven’t got enough money to buy a paper.”. We passed the newsagent as we went out and […]
All Out of Money
Following the Buried Under Paper episode, I’ve just realised that I’m facing an even bigger crisis tomorrow. We give Linda enough money each week to buy her agreed newspapers and magazines, to pay for various classes or events and to buy a drink and a snack as needed each day with a little left over […]