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Meet Dalilah, a girl who won't let Williams Syndrome slow her down

Dalilah has spent a lot of time with the team at the Permian Basin Rehab Center. From physical therapy to speech, she's working not only to meet it but jump over it.

ODESSA, Texas — Time is perhaps the most precious commodity.

Spend just a little time with five-year-old Dalilah Ramos and you'll see just how special and truly precious she is.

"She pretty much has a smile on her face the entire time," said .

Dalilah has spent a lot of time with the team at the Permian Basin Rehab Center. From physical therapy to speech, you name the skill, she's working not only to meet it but to jump over it.

"Since the beginning, she has been a spitfire," physical therapist Paula Diffie said.

To see this spunky little girl running and jumping is a testament to the work she and her therapists have been doing.

"She's always willing to try new things, even if they're hard," Diffie said.

Dalilah was born with Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that carries with it developmental delays often cardiovascular disease. Because of it, Dalilah has had two open heart surgeries.

"They had to expand her heart valves because they were too thin," Dalilah's mom Marysol Fierro said.

She was also born with low muscle tone.

"It makes it much more difficult to hold her body in just in a stable position. It also gives her a hard time to control her movements when she's moving," Diffie said.

Her therapists are helping her reach that goal.

"She's progressing with a lot of fun activities like running, jumping, ball play, skipping, all of those fun things," Diffie said.

Progressing to the fun things required a lot of work from Dalilah. One of her early milestones was to master crawling, and then walking.

"She didn't walk until she was like two," Fierro said.

"After she began to walk consistently, it was been an even brighter kid. Every time she comes here, she's bright, she's happy and she's laughing," Diffie said.

A little found independence was the first step to a new world for Dalilah. Today, a lot of her therapy is focused on speech.

"Her goals are just to expand different word combinations... We're talking about a difference between five words to maybe two words. We definitely want to expand those sentences and have different combinations," speech therapist Andrea Garcia said.

It's only a matter of time before she masters that too.

"Having her be able to describe what she wants is incredible progress. I know that her timeline and the goals for her are a little different for her age, but what she is doing is phenomenal. How she's meeting her goals is really appropriate," Garcia said.

Because if we've learned anything from Dalilah, it's that regardless of the journey, you're always right on time.

For more information on how to help people like Dalilah through the PBRC, you can click or tap here.

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