Serbia

Williams Syndrome Society, Serbia is the first association of parents of families with children and adults with Williams syndrome (WS) in the Balkans, founded in April 2017 in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Our primary goal is to offer support for people with WS, their families, and professionals interested in WS, as well as to raise awareness of WS in our region and thus make it easier to diagnose. We actively support research related to the educational, social, scientific and medical aspects of WS.

Currently, our members are individuals with WS and their families from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as volunteers with different backgrounds: students, medical doctors, researchers from local universities and teachers of special education and rehabilitation. We welcome members from all the countries of the former Yugoslavia or who have links with the region but are situated elsewhere.

Alexandra Perovic Originally from the former Yugoslavia, Alexandra has been working on raising awareness of WS amongst the research and medical community in Serbia and Montenegro. She lives in London, UK, and is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Linguistics at University College London (UCL). She has been conducting research into language and cognitive abilities of children and adults with WS in the USA, UK and Serbia since 2004, and has met hundreds of people with WS across the globe.

Sabina Halupka-Rešetar Our current president, Sabina Halupka-Rešetar, is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. She is responsible for dissemination of information about WS in Serbia to the media outlets as well as relevant medical professionals such as associations of speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, nurses and teachers in the field of special education and rehabilitation. She is currently organising music and language workshops for children and adults with learning disabilities, together with a team of educators in Novi Sad.