How does the Common Center form behavioral approaches: An example from taking care of a child with Williams Syndrome
Keira Autera UA’27 and Jim Stellar
Williams Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by a missing section of chromosome seven. It is characterized behaviorally, according to Wikipedia, as follows: “Many people have an outgoing personality, a happy disposition, an openness to engaging with other people, increased empathy, and decreased aggression.” First, KA took care of a child with Williams Syndrome. Second, exploring this syndrome could inform our understanding of the concept of the Common Center of our Thinking.
From a biological perspective, the absence of chromosome seven can lead to a range of effects: cognitive, physical, emotional, and behavioral. Common features include intellectual disability, distinct facial and body features, and an overly social personality. Medical concerns include skeletal issues and abnormalities, as well as hypothyroidism, heart problems, developmental delays, and growth deficiencies.
The unique social disorder can be explained from a multilevel perspective by breaking down various aspects of behavioral function. The critical roles played by specific genes highlight the challenges in accurately modeling the behavior of individuals with Williams Syndrome. By understanding how brain structure influences behavior, we can better link genetic factors to behavioral patterns, establishing a shared foundation for the common center.
Hypothyroidism has a significant impact on neurodevelopment within the brain. This condition leads to developmental delays, which impairs the individual’s ability to actively engage in appropriate activities and perform tasks required for executive functioning. Those individuals with Williams syndrome often exhibit reduced energy levels, which further compromises their participation in physical and cognitive activities. These neurodevelopmental challenges are often associated with learning difficulties. With a pedagogical approach, this also for active responses to the child’s inquiries while encouraging deeper cognitive engagement by proposing thought-provoking questions. This strategy promotes information encoding and reciprocal communication, facilitating cognitive development and enhancing adaptive learning outcomes.
Although diagnosis is typically made on clinical features, genetic testing can support early intervention by informing targeted behavioral support. Through my use of therapies and educational strategies, meaningful improvements are possible. These approaches enable a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving behavior, allowing for more constructive interpretation and reframing of behavioral responses. As we embrace neurodiversity, it is common to encounter challenges, including difficulties with independent living highlights the need for ongoing support and understanding.
We form and integrate their cognitive selves, referred to in a previous blog as the Common Center of our Thinking. As we understand that within our common center, this enables our cognition, which is formed by the conceptual self. Through our conceptual elves, this is what lays down our foundation for our conceptual knowledge. Then, we can understand how our cognition is enabled to enable emotions that pertain through the internalization of stimuli in order to exhibit specific behavior. What I observed after taking care of someone with Williams syndrome is that they have both empathetic and social tendencies. With such cognitive challenges, this can be revealed through their display of behavior with a tendency to display warmth and trust to strangers. Despite this warmth, due to specific impairments, this can affect spatial reasoning, judgement, and abstract thinking. Carrying out executive functions can be difficult and rather complex for the cognitive self to encode. This creates a dynamic which stems from the cognitive self; this is where they become more self-aware in terms of social interaction and emotions. The ability to navigate more intellectual tasks and decipher between non-social contexts is impaired. The social engagement that is found within these individuals can conceal the cognitive struggles they face. This is what makes the integration between the common center and the conceptual self a multilayered and multifaceted process.
We learn that the common center develops, and we start to understand and develop our emotional selves. By being able to integrate our emotional selves, that is where we start to discover our behavior. Behavior is known to be characterized by our cognition and our conceptual selves. By being able to conceptualize our emotions, we are then able to exhibit our internal selves and present our inner selves through our outward approach with behavior. Behavior is formed through our ability to properly interpret our underlying self and interpret our stimuli from the inside to the outside. The way we are able to encode this lays down the foundation for our behavior, which is molded by the way we navigate our intellectual ability to correspond and develop our cognitive development and social self.
With Williams Syndrome, the individual can develop a sense of self by observing and absorbing their environment. Being able to take in such information from their environment allows them to change their common center, so they can develop a sense of their surroundings and their character. They can form their character by being able to analyze others and their actions and interpret them on their own. They can both actively interact with others and also be an observer at the same time. The way they take in their environment is entirely dependent on the knowledge they receive from their internal selves, which forms their external surroundings. These surroundings trigger specific tendencies and highlight specific connections so they can both present their emotional and social self as a mirror to others’ actions. The way that they mirror others is dependent on what created their environment and the self.
Williams syndrome is distinct and understood by the development of the self. By being able to look through the common center, we can analyze the specific parts of one’s character that form the integrative self. The way that one develops relies on the stimuli that one receives from the brain, but also their emotions. These emotions provide us with the framework to understand and discover new ways to approach the disorder. With these new approaches, we can then form a new understanding of what may underlie the behavioral factors that rely on the cognitive and conceptual tendencies. Within cognition, we can form new connections to the common center. Through this approach, we can enhance the intellectual self by reinforcing new strategies that challenge their cognition and foster the development of new behaviors.
