FASD: Educational Assessment and Planning for FASD Videos

On the Parenting FASD site, someone posted a great BOOKMARK Worthy webpage.

Videos for Educational Planning for students with FASD's.

FASD: Assessment and Planning for Videos


Anny

Article: Over 400 Conditions Co-Occur with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Study Finds

Article:  Over 400 Conditions Co-Occur with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Study Finds

I found this amazing article and actually downloaded the article at the Lancet.  It was bookmark worthy and worth the $31.50 I paid for the hard copy.

"Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified 428 distinct
disease conditions that co-occur in people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), in the most comprehensive review of its kind."

Here is the link  for the 1/5/16 article in The Lancet
"Comorbidity of fetal alcohol disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis."

Anny

Article: Fine Motor Skills and Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

Article: Fine Motor Skills and Prenatal Alcohol Exposures

More and more is written about the effects of FASD.   A couple of my kids on the FASD spectrum have struggles with fine motor skills and visual motor integration.

Anny

Article: 10 Ways Kids with FASD Are Just Different- And, No, I Can't Just Relax (A Must READ and Bookmark)

Article:  10 Ways Kids with FASD Are Just Different- And, No, I can't Just Relax 
               authored by fasdfamilies.com  1-1-2016

Happy New Year and one of my resolutions are to get back to blogging, writing and sharing resources to help families with FASD and to get them much needed help and understanding.

This post came across my Facebook this morning and I have shared it on my personal wall.  I know this all too well and the author did a phenomenal job of sharing what l8 years have taught me.

This is must READ, must SHARE, and must BOOKMARK article that will really help the cause.

Thank you fasdfamilies.com for the amazing post.

Anny

New Article: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A Guideline for Diagnosis Across the Lifespan

A must bookmark:
NEW ARTICLE:  Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: A Guide for Diagnostic Across the Lifespan.
                                          published December 14, 2015 at www.cmj.ca

 

Sharing my own thoughts. As I learned my sib set had FASD, I often thought of the kids biological Mom. She had developmental challenges of her own, she came from a family where dad was an alcoholic, she was young, rebellious and schools had failed her. With six children, living in poverty, addiction, little ability to care for herself, little self esteem she became fixated on an abusive relationship.  Could she help herself, probably not. She fits the profile of someone with FASD and she couldn't provide for her children, couldn't parent them and couldn't understand that she wasn't.  Her limited insight on her psychological profile shows that.  I have had periods of anger, but not at biological Mom, but at the system who time after time closed the file and ignored numerous red flags to help them. Kids shouldn't eat grass, shouldn't be diapered in maxi pads and plastic bags, 8 year olds shouldn't have to parent babies and feed them sugar water from the condiments section at Burger King.  Kids shouldn't have to experience the horror stories of what my children faced.  But also their Mom deserved to not be expected to handle all this on her own, she couldn't even handle her own day to day needs, much less her reproductive health.

My little guy's biological Mom walked away from social services after they took her son away. She had lost two other children in two other states, she has developmental delay, an undiagnosed genetic disorder, child of an alcoholic, bio dad wanted to help little guy, but he had been raised in the foster care system since the age of 10, child of an alcoholic and finally decided his child needed more than he could offer and walked away.

What I realize for my children who came from the system, their parents mental health needs, their stories, their prenatal exposures, their poverty and the multitude of issues they couldn't do it and thus the services had to intervene.

My daughter once asked me if I am angry at her bio Mom, I told her no, she had her own illnesses and challenges and if it was not for her... they would not be in my life.

My husband and I took my middle son to meet his mother and I finally after 16 years met the woman who gave birth to my children.  It took but 5 seconds to realize that she had developmental issues, I could see the look in her eyes of the sadness in seeing them and the joy to be reunited. But my son found that she thought everything is all better now that he is back and like nothing ever happened.  She could not understand her circumstances and how any of it affected them.  It is just how her brain works and her challenges prevented her from parenting. I had to help my son come to terms with his bio Mom and help him understand her compassionately.

After entering the FASD realm I realized that my own brother may have been affected by prenatal alcohol exposure back many years ago. Back in the 1970's my mother was given alcohol IV's to stop her premature labor at 5 months. He would have learning challenges and we helped intervene with his dyslexia by

It has now been 18 years since we brought our children into our lives, I have learned one thing...  Anger doesn't change anything.  It only hurts.
I have had to forgive the system for failing my children, I have to stop being angry at Alcohol and addiction. But I do not have to like it.  But turn my anger and sadness into something positive.

I am not a productive parent if angry.  My kid's little PTSD radars sense it and their healing and stability depends on me being the best mom that I can be. I can be honest, sad and answer them with honesty, but blame is never productive.

Resource: Professionals Without Parachutes: Supporting Students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Having resources to share with our schools and professionals who work with our kids is a must.
Here is a great resource to pass on.

Professionals Without Parachutes: Supporting Students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

"A key to supporting students with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD) is having a good understanding of FASD and how individuals with FASD are impacted. This resource provides an explanation of FASD, its impact on the brain as well as explores behavioural patterns in students with FASD. Strategies for designing classroom instruction and routines to support students with FASD are also highlighted. The resource was developed by Dr. Jacqueline Pei and her colleagues, Stephanie Hayes and Alethea Heudes."
Pass this on to help train those who work with our kids.