|
FAS/FAE
Cycle: With Early Identification
Diane B. Malbin, M.S.W. FAS Resource Coalition (503) 246-2635
- Intervention
in parental alcoholism/chemical dependency; the home is stabilized,
parenting improves. Subsequent impaired births are prevented.
Abuses are prevented.
- Full range
of assessments (vision, hearing, speech, motor skills) determine
deficiencies at an early age.
- Infant stimulation
programs and specific ameliorative work is implemented. Little
remedial work is necessary.
- Environments
are structured to enhance development. Early failures and sadnesses
are prevented.
- Parental
supports for recovery and parenting skills continue. Rates of
relapse decline.
- Care is coordinated;
smooth transitions are accomplished between infancy, toddlerhood
and school.
- Headstart
and other appropriate programs are accessed. The home-school continuum
is established.
- 'Preventative
parenting' techniques are taught, i.e. conscious problem solving,
structure rather than control.
- Identification
of strengths, inclinations and interests; these are reinforced.
- Optimal learning
mode is identified.
- 'Preventative
parenting' continues: Advocating and educating to prevent the
erosion-of self esteem which results from inappropriate levels
of expectation and unresolved frustration.
- Prevention
of alcoholism and chemical dependency through early identification
of FAS/E occurs through intervening in the cycle of early school
failure, poor peer and family environments, unstable homes, and
unaddressed impulsivity.
FAS/FAE
Cycle: In the Absence of Identification
- Poor bonding,
failure to thrive, interrupted sleep patterns, difficulty feeding,
withdrawal
- Possible
physical and emotional issues, abuses and neglect. Early removal
from home, multiple residences, inconsistency and abrupt transitions
exacerbate early developmental problems.
- Early inconsistent
memory, poor sequencing, hyperactivity.
- Developmental
delay, may be mild or masked by some, skills speech and language,
motor, vision and auditory processing deficits.
- Partial diagnosis
= incomplete intervention: vision, hearing, cognition, behaviour,
etc.'
- Early school
failure: Attention deficit disorder/hyperactive. Majority are
"grey area kids", unidentified, ineligible for services.
- Function
at levels lower than indicated by testing (performance, verbal)
FAS and FAE are functionally the same
- Differential
interpretation of behaviours by parents and school compounds problem;
ie, wilful misconduct rather that organicity = punish rather than
support. Internal frustration and sadness without resolution leads
to outbursts of anger, inappropriate responses.
- Difficulty
with abstractions: Math scores typically lowest communication
nuances lost.
- Not competitive
by fourth grade academically. School refusals start at 4th grade
when called upon to use higher cognitive processes.
- Socially
isolated: Intrusive, inappropriate, few friends
- Early school
refusal (fourth grade), problems with family
- Early first
use of drugs, other behaviour problems shoplifting, arson, aggression.
- Sexual victimization/acting
out: Experimentation, other inappropriate behaviour.
- Alcoholism
/ chemical dependency; early first use, rapid deterioration.
- Traditional
attempts at intervention ineffective, end up 'blaming the victims
(ie, insight therapy doesn't work). Treatment for substance abuse
fails to incorporate functional processing deficits. This population
"talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk". Treatment
fails.
- Pregnancy:
Latter births of former teen parents at greatest risk for FAS.
AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases pose a major risk.
High rate of male, female prostitution, topless dancing.
- Involvement
with the legal system; truancy, shoplifting, arson, run aways,
prostitution
- Termination
of parental rights
- High rates
of depression, suicide, incarceration
- Highly suggestible,
'unrealistic', impulsive
- Unable to
manage money, time
- May get jobs,
not be able to keep them
- Persistent
narrow repertoire of behaviours, ie, anger / withdrawal. Apparent
inability to modify behaviours based on past experiences.
- Unstable
relationships with significant others, abuses, abandonment.
|
