A behavioral analysis, case formulation and treatment for William Syndrome

Jimmy is a three year old boy who displays an excessive amount of socially-directed behaviour. His adoptive parents are concerned that he is always approaching strangers when outside. His language is extremely well developed, but can have some odd prosody, and he seems to have some difficulty with understanding the meaning of hat people are saying to him. There are some areas of intellectual difficulty, but these are not widespread, and he sometimes displays signs of anxiety and temper tantrums. Jimmy also seems to have some physical problems with distinctive facial features. What would be your brief preliminary formulation of Jimmy’s problems? What are the key behaviours that require intervention? What strategies would you employ in order to gain information to enable you to develop and confirm the factors maintaining these problem behaviours? Drawing on the published evidence, outline the steps in an intervention programme and the strategies that could be used to help.