What are the common characteristics of RTS?
Resource type:
Frequently Asked Questions —
Date posted:
February 26th, 2019
Number of views:
505
What are the common characteristics of RTS?
RTS children have a combination of characteristics rather than all of them.
- Learning difficulties, developmental delay.
- Affectionate.
- Friendly and cheerful characters.
- Feeding difficulties (especially as a baby including gastro-oesophageal reflux and vomiting).
- Can suffer from constipation
- 33% suffer from congenital abnormalities of the heart.
- 90% have speech difficulties – a small percentage will not develop speech.
- 80% of patients with RTS will have some eye abnormality.
- 50% of children suffer with ear problems (glue ear).
- Facial features - beaked nose, downward-slanting eyes and heavy or highly-arched eyebrows, slightly malformed ears.
- Highly-arched palate. 65% suffer from dental problems.
- Broad thumbs and big toes (sometimes angulated, which can be corrected surgically).
- Smaller than average height.
- Microcephaly (small head).
- In males - undescended testicles.
- Poor/delayed gross and fine motor skills including hand/eye co-ordination, hypotonia and hyper-extensible joints.
- Prone to over-eating, this means patients with RTS tend to be overweight.
- Can be affected by epilepsy.
- Can suffer from sleep apnoea.
- Can suffer from keloid formation (overly aggressive healing response to a wound).
