Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) exhibit cognitive, neuropsychological and behavioral problems, and numerous secondary disabilities including depression and anxiety disorders.
Many children and youth with FASD also experience secondary conditions. Mental health disorders are seen in over 90 per cent of individuals with FASD, compared to 20 per cent of the general population. Depression and anxiety are among the most common.
Learn more about FASD
“Also, kids with FASD often experience more negative emotions than other kids their age. They may also feel bad about themselves, especially if they don't get supportive responses from adults in how to cope with strong emotions.”
Children with FASDs often have problems with learning, attention, memory, and problem solving, along with poor coordination, impulsiveness, and speech and hearing impairments.
As they grow older, these children may have behavior problems. They may experience learning disabilities, trouble with memory and attention, and hyperactivity. Symptoms tend to get worse as the child grows older.
FASD Diagnoses
People with FAS can have problems with learning, memory, attention span, communication, vision, or hearing. They might have a mix of these problems. People with FAS often have a hard time in school and trouble getting along with others.
Difficulty with abstract thinking – mathematics, money, time. Perseveration (getting stuck in a thought pattern or an action and find it difficult to move on) Explosive behaviour or running away (fight or flight response to their environment) Inappropriate sexual behaviour.
Children with FASD often have difficulty with cause and effect reasoning and adjusting to new or unfamiliar situations. This can result in teachers or caregivers misinterpreting the behaviour and responding in a way that may create a more difficult situation.
Children with a FASD experience extensive difficulty with many aspects of social relationships, including: Poor social skills/social competence. Difficulty forming interpersonal relationships. Social relationship problems.
The FASD population is different. They are not manipulating or disobeying deliberately in the classroom; they do not understand what was expected of them. They have poor cause-and-effect reasoning and difficulty generalizing and understanding abstract concepts.
Furthermore, the effects of PAE on the HPA system (i.e., changes to stress responsivity) may underlie the susceptibility of those with FASD to depression and anxiety disorders in adulthood [11].
Children with FASD showed a wide range of total IQ values, from moderate degree of mental retardation to very high intelligence.
People with FASD often have a number of autistic-like traits. Sometimes people with FASD are also on the autism spectrum; one study found that as many as 72% of children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) have autism. However, there are a number of differences between the two disorders.
Intellectual tests show that average IQ is 85.9 for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. This group has an uneven profile of abilities and disabilities that means their average level of intellectual functioning is not truly reflective or predictive of their pattern of cognitive strengths and needs.
Studies have found that people with FASD are 10 times more likely to have ADHD. Other studies have found that about half of children with FASD also have ADHD.
Distinctive facial features, including small eyes, an exceptionally thin upper lip, a short, upturned nose, and a smooth skin surface between the nose and upper lip. Deformities of joints, limbs and fingers. Slow physical growth before and after birth. Vision difficulties or hearing problems.
Various individuals can experience stigma related to FASD. First, women who consume or have consumed alcohol during pregnancy can be held responsible for drinking alcohol during pregnancy and can therefore be blamed for having a child with FASD.
Therefore, quantity of alcohol consumed, particularly over a short period of time as in binge drinking, is the major factor in producing FASD.
These features include: a thin upper lip. small eyes or shorter distance between the eyes. little or no groove or ridge between the nose and upper lip.
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) affects the lives of millions of individuals in North America and is associated with a vast array of physiological, psychiatric, and neurological consequences that can significantly impair behavioral, emotional, developmental, and social functioning.
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the most serious type of FASD. People with fetal alcohol syndrome have facial abnormalities, including wide-set and narrow eyes, growth problems and nervous system abnormalities. Diagnosing FASD can be hard because there is no medical test, like a blood test, for it.