in grasping music theory and due to motor limitations they do best with voice, keyboard instruments, and drums.I chose this article because of my fascination and familiarity with a girlfriends sister with Williams Syndrome. She could play the organ and had many of the typical physical characteristics of WS such as her inability to reason logically, forgetfulness and high level of language development. She also was a very loving girl, was well liked by her peers but clearly stood out as being different than the normal child. Her face was small and she had the full lower lip and puffy eyes that are also typical characteristics of WS.I was always fascinated with her because she didn’t fit into the stereotypical idea of a person with mental retardation, there were too many brilliant facets to Sue.For obvious reasons I enjoyed learning about the unique musical abilities and strengths that Williams people typically have, hyperacusis being one. It was useful to read about some of the teaching strategies that are effective when working with a child like this, such as 1:1 situations work best, learning by ear and not forcing them to learn musical notation as this is their weakness not their strength. Our job as music therapists will be to help them to feel successful in music....
