Williams Syndrome A Genetic Disorder Psychology Essay

Williams Syndrome A Genetic Disorder Psychology Essay Williams Syndrome is a genetic disorder that is caused by a deletion of genes on chromosome seven. It is a rare disorder, occurring in about every 1 in 20,000 births and affects males and females equally. Small upturned nose, wide mouth, full lips, small wide-spaced teeth, a relatively low IQ, cardiovascular disease and an irregular cognitive profile are some classifications of Williams Syndrome. (Laing, Butterworth, Ansari, Gsodl, Longhi, Panagiotaki, et al., 2002). Many of the physical features of Williams Syndrome are due to the deletion of the gene elastin on chromosome seven. There are some aspects of language that appear to be intact for those with Williams Syndrome including social interaction, however, spatial language, number, planning and problem solving appear to be impaired in most individuals (Laing et al., 2002). Not all features of language are affected in children and adults with Williams Syndrome. Williams Syndrome has a characteristic language delay and there is evidence to suggest that language development follows an alternate pathway than what is seen in language development of a typical child (Laing et al., 2002). Laing et al. performed three experiments in order to assess joint attention, pointing and precision grips. The same children were used over the course of all three experiments and mental age of typically developing children was calculated to match those in the Williams Syndrome group. In the first experiment it was found that the children with Williams Syndrome performed atypically on tasks set to deduce the level of joint attention these children were providing. The second experiment administered was used to establish credibility findings of the first experiment. The researchers are observing if the children with Williams Syndrome can establish reference and therefore test t heir ability to point in response to specific stimuli. Laing et al. found that children with Williams Syndrome produced few pointing behaviors. The third experiment determined if the reason for the difference in pointing between the control group and the Williams Syndrome group was due to impaired motor skills. This was found to not be an issue as the children with Williams Syndrome and those in the control group were relatively similar in their motor skills. These issues in joint attention are thought to be part of the reason there is a language delay among children with Williams Syndrome as joint attention and pointing are both critical in language development (Laing et al., 2002). A study performed by Mervis and John (2008) was designed to tests strengths and weaknesses of children with Williams Syndrome with their vocabulary abilities. Mervis and John performed three experiments in order to determine the specific strengths and weaknesses in abilities of Williams Syndrome children in relation to vocabulary. The first experiment used the following standardized tests; the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (vocabulary and matrices) the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-third edition (concrete vocabulary, including object names, action words, and descriptors) and the Test of Relational Concepts (conceptual/relational language). The first experiment compared typically developing children against Williams Syndrome children in two assessments of vocabulary: concrete vocabulary and conceptual/relational vocabulary. Mervis and John found that the Williams Syndrome group performed better on concrete vocabulary than conceptual/relational vocabulary. Even though the scores fo r children on concrete vocabulary were high for children with Williams Syndrome, performance on these tests showed signs that even this area of language is not completely undamaged. The second experiment took the results of the first three standardized tests and included the Differential Ability Scales Pattern Construction subtest. Mervis and John examined the relation between conceptual/relational language comparative of visuospatial construction. The children with Williams syndrome performed better on tests related to conceptual/relational language as compared to scores on the visuospatial construction tasks. Mervis and John (2008) note that Williams Syndrome is distinguished by strengths and weaknesses within the vocabulary element of language. The third experiment used the formulated sentences subtest on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-fourth edition (CELF-4), in order to evaluate a variety of relational concepts. This experiment measured the knowledge of some m ore evolved relational concepts using the CELF-4. It was concluded that not all, but most children with Williams Syndrome have difficulty in simple relational words and it encompasses both relational terms meant to link two words or short phrase and also to relational terms meant to connect simple sentences into one complex sentence (Mervis and John, 2008). Mervis and John determined that children with Williams Syndrome do seem to have strength in vocabulary in general but rather concrete vocabulary. Laing and Jarrold (2007) sought to determine the spatial language skills of children with Williams Syndrome as compared to typically developing children. While noting that some aspects of language are usually intact for children with Williams Syndrome, spatial skills and non-verbal skills are usually the most impaired. In this experiment, the sample included 17 children with Williams Syndrome and 17 children that were classified as typically developing. There were several tests administered: Picture matching tasks, semantic picture matching, Spatial picture matching, grammatical knowledge task, perception task, naming task, and animal knowledge task. The test was given on a computer that displayed 4 pictures at the same time. There was a target sentence presented for each trial, which appeared on the screen and changed depending on the task. Results found that the Williams Syndrome group and the typically developing group performed with no significant differences on any measure excep t perception scores. There was also found to be a significant difference between the groups on the spatial picture-matching task. Due to the problems with understanding the semantics of spatial skills, it was hypothesized that this lends to problems in language processing in general (Laing Jarrold, 2007). For those with Williams Syndrome, there may be a great effort to form appropriate spatial mental models that may form the foundation for the production and comprehension of verbal descriptions of space (Laing Jarrold, 2007). Research performed by Laws and Bishop (2004) studied social communication, which is normally thought of as a relative strength for the Williams Syndrome population. Laws and Bishop performed a study on the different pragmatic facets of language. Groups of 19 children with Williams Syndrome, 24 with Downs Syndrome, 17 with specific language impairment and 32 typically developing children were studied. The Childrens Communication Checklist (CCC) was used in order to obtain data on social interaction for these four groups. On the checklist, there are two subscales that describe speech production: speech output and syntax. There are five subscales that describe the childs communication behaviors: inappropriate initiation, coherence, stereotyped conversation, use of conversational context conversational rapport. Two more subscales assess aspects of development: social relationships and interests. The raters were asked to respond to these items and rate them on a scale of four possibilitie s: does not apply, applies somewhat, definitely applies and unable to judge (Laws Bishop). When analyzed, experimenters found that individuals with Williams Syndrome had pragmatic impairments. The areas that were found to be the most impacted were the inappropriate initiation of conversation and the use of stereotyped conversation (Laws Bishop, 2004). The children do however have very strong expressive language skills and tend to be very social individuals (Laws Bishop, 2004). Since Williams Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder occurring in every 1 in 20,000 live births more information is needed regarding their communicative abilities. There is evidence to suggest that their language delay is due information traveling through a different pathway than with typically developing children. Spatial language is also a problem that with intervention can be improved along with conceptual and relational vocabulary. Pragmatic language is an issue, however the Williams Syndrome population tends to be overly friendly and very strong expressively. It was found that as these issues seem to dissipate in adulthood as well as the Williams Syndrome population, depending on the severity level, these children can live independently or with support.

Courage Mother and her Children critique Essay

â€Å"Mother Courage and Her Children† by Bertolt Brecht took place during the 30 Years’ War in Europe. The whole play revolved around the survival of a lower class family, trying to live through the harsh war with their canteen wagon business. Each scene in the play contained the factors of religious, honesty, war, loyalty, and family. The theme of â€Å"Mother Courage and Her Children† was maternity, due to the fact that Mother Courage’s sense of coldhearted business caused her become unable to protect her children, which led to their deaths, leaving her all alone in the end. Mother Courage was always doing business while each of her children died during the play. This shows that she was more interested in her business and money than her own children, and an example of this can be seen when her thirst for money had caused Swiss to die because she took too long to decide whether or not to trade her money in for her son’s life. Mother Courage was the protagonist in the play, while the war was the antagonist. The war caused Mother Courage to base her living on it. Due to the fact that they were living during a war, this caused Mother Courage to be so focused on making money, that she ended up neglecting her children. It also caused her to be unable to watch her daughter get married, since Kattrin could only get married when peace returned and the war ended. War is also the antagonist, due to the fact that is also caused Mother Courage to lose her sons as well. The play was a tragedy because in it, Mother Courage’s children all perished, and she was left all alone in the end. In the play, Bretch assigned each of Mother Courage’s children with a â€Å"tragic flaw† as a result of her failure to learn to choose family over business. The tragedies that Mother Courage’s children suffered throughout the play were Swiss, with honesty, Eilif, with arrogance, and Kattrin, with pity. Mother Courage had to go through suffering of the death of each of her children one by one and was unable to do anything about it. The set of the play was a major contribution to the play. The use of a proscenium stage was the best fit for this type of play since it allowed the audiences to focus on the center of the stage where Mother Courage’s wagon was. Mother Courage’s family always moved around. However, their wagon was still placed at nearly the same spot on the stage, which tells the audience that they were not moving anywhere because no matter where they moved to, they still faced the same struggles and hardships. Even though the setting mostly remained the same from scene to  scene, backgrounds changed from one scene to another, which allowed the audience to know that the scene was taking place in a different location. There was almost always the same lighting throughout the whole play. The only thing that changed about the lights was the brightness; the lights were brighter during the day and dimmer at night. There were some spotlights. However, it only appeared upon the actors who came before each scene, in order to tell the audience what will happen in the upcoming scene. The lighting of â€Å"Mother Courage Mother and Her Children,† was different from the other play that I went to. Usually lights would go off when changing from one scene to another, so that characters were able to get on and off stage, in order to prepare the set for the scene. However, in this play, the lights were still on during scene transitions. Bretch made pulling the wagon in and out of the stage as an exit and enter for each scene, which didn’t require the actors to quickly change settings for different scenes. The background sound of gunshots and bombs that were playing throughout the play allowed the audience to feel as if the war was actually taking place during the play. The gunshots sounded very loud, making the audience feel as if it was nearby. Without the sounds, the audience would not have been able to feel the mood of the war. Sounds of gunshots added more effects to the mood of war, giving the audience an the image of how deadly the war was. The play was a musical play, since there were many parts where Mother Courage and some singers in the background sang and played instruments. The entrance to the play was also a song that expressed the mood and feeling of the war. Mother courage sang in almost every scene, to express her feelings. She also sang in the last part of the play when Kattrin died. The costumes of the play reflected the life of the characters in the play. The costumes did not really tell the time period in which the play took place because the characters were just wearing normal types of rural clothes that had many layers, and were attached with many pieces of fabric. The characters in the play had the same outfit throughout the whole play, and this outfit not only showed their poverty, but also the condition of life during the war, due to the fact that they were unable to have clothes to change into. The many layers of clothes worn were everything that the characters owned, and this showed their struggles, due to the fact that they are unable to buy any new clothes. Overall, the play was easy to understand because it was in modern  English and there were no accent in the characters’ pronunciation, which allowed the audience to understand what the characters were saying. Mother Courage struggled throughout her life with her business and children, but ended up with nothing due to the war, in which she was favoring. The war had brought Mother Courage the business she needed, but took away her children one by one.

Comparative study between commencement addresses

By analyzing texture of speech and choice of content, we will observe that though the speakers are early Identical In age, choice of career and professional status; there Is disparity In the personae projected and ultimately the message delivered by them. The message in Jobs' speech (Stanford university News, 2005) was to encourage the students to not be afraid to do what they love, and he arrived at this point by lugubriously narrating three stories of adversity from his life.Gates' speech (Harvard gazette, 2007) In contrast was aimed to inspire the students to strive to reduce Inequity In the world, which he achieved by humorously recounting his exploits at Harvard and his thoughts on inequity. We notice here that despite similar situational influences, the two men try to present antithetic images of themselves by the tone of their speech and also by carefully filtering which aspects of their life they disclose (Leary, M. R. , & Allen, A. B. , 2011, p. 1199).The first major differe nce is the tone of the speech; Jobs opts for a very solemn approach with few humorous departures while Gates Is very liberal in his use of humor which In fact forms a very Integral part of the first half of his speech. The second difference Is the kind of content In the speeches; Gates shares his thoughts on inequity, the journey of his arrival at this epiphany and his thoughts on how the problem could be tackled while Jobs divulges very personal stories about his adoption, getting fired from Apple and being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.Due to the fact that Jobs' speech contains more elements personal to himself, we see a very clear congruence of animator, author and principle and as a result his speech seems more authentic as compared to Gates' speech (Montgomery, 2001 , p. 00). We discern this from the sense of passion and honesty which permeates throughout Jobs' address, and the fact that he divulges stories of some of the lowest points in his life.This is a clear attempt to break free of the impression of himself as an ultra-successful businessman in the audience eyes, and instead replace that image with a more human one so that the audience can fully appreciate the struggles of his life and the truth about his success. As such we see that Gates seems more open to audience Interaction while Jobs seems to be In a ore pensive and distant mood which is apparent in both his vocalic and gestures.We can observe this distant mood of Jobs speech most clearly in his gestures, more specifically in his gaze and pause, because sentences are rarely uttered in a behavioral vacuum (Tim Wharton, 2009, p. 1). During Gates' speech we see that he is very responsive to audience reaction, in that he always and looks up at the audience to accommodate for their applause.By contrast Jobs does not take this approach, he feature of the speech ties into the previous two we have discussed, and contributes o the personae that they are trying to project; Jobs' being that of a solem n successful tech-enthusiast while Gates' is that of a humorous successful philanthropist. These personae that they have constructed over the course of the speech are not superficial to the speech, but in fact play an important role in fulfilling the respective purposes of their speeches. The main aim of any commencement address is to inspire the audience in some way, be it to bring about a change in their lives or a change in the oral.Both Jobs and Gates have achieved the objective of inspiring the audience, but we have seen that they went about it very differently. Since Gates' message is one of global proportions, he uses his fame and background as a philanthropist to convey his message and this is why the content of his message is structured around humor, but in contrast Jobs' message is personal to each individual and so we see that in his speech he tries to be more personal himself to elicit the kind of response he wants.

The Victory Of The Battle Of Issus, And The Conquering Of...

However, the accuracy of the film takes a turn when transitioning from Alexander taking over gaining more power and taking over the thrown and the battle of Gaugamela. Covering Alexander’s accomplishments concerning the defeat of the rebellion of Thebes, the battle of Issus, and the conquering of Tyre would have drastically increased the running time of the film, but these events are important to understanding Alexander’s overall triumph. Before his father, Philip, died a Greek city called Thebes showed their loyalty to him, but with Alexander’s rise to the throne, they attempted to take back their freedom. Alexander handled this conflict expeditiously by capturing and annihilating Thebes. Like the defeat of Thebes, the battle of Issus was skimmed over. This battle was important in showing Alexander’s success against the Persian army. He gained this success by attacking the king of Persia himself and causing him to retreat. After this, Alexander blockaded Tyre with the intent to conquer. This attack was extremely brutal and was described by Plutarch as one that was, â€Å"performed with so much vigour that the Tyrians retired, and the town was carried that very day.† (Plutarch) Once he conquered Tyre, Alexander was faced with the reality of the amount of men he lost and became so infuriated that he obliterated half of the city. The lack of these details from Stone’s rendition of Alexanderâ €™s life causes a failure in the development of his merciless and remorseless attitude.Show MoreRelatedThe Success Of Alexander The Great1374 Words   |  6 Pageseffectively utilize these new innovations. He was a skilled tactician, and his combined use of infantry, cavalry and terrain brought him victory on many occasions. Although his army was not nearly the size of the Persian Army, it was much more skilled. Because of the smaller size, Alexander was able to effectively control all sectors during battle. 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