This document provides information about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD): 1. FASD is caused when a mother drinks alcohol during pregnancy. It is completely preventable but has lifelong effects and is not curable. Characteristics include brain abnormalities, growth deficits, and facial features. 2. Students with FASD have challenges with executive functioning like planning, attention, problem solving. Teachers should use a strengths-based approach and simplify their environment with structure, repetition and stress reduction. 3. No amount of alcohol during pregnancy is known to be safe. Over half of women aged 18-44 drink and could become pregnant, so it is important to spread awareness that if you drink, don't

1. FASD
Dr. Cheryl Wissick
College of Education
University of South Carolina
Member: SC FASD Collaborative

2. What do you know
•Pre-survey
• Do no label with name but make up a 4 digit
code to be used again at end
•Brainstorming
• What do you already know about students with
special needs?

3. Objectives
•To learn characteristics of students with
FASD
•To become familiar with teaching
techniques for FASD
•To learn how to prevent FASD
•Who has FASD? Visit SAFA
(http://www.thearc.org/page.aspx?pid=3591)

4. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
•What causes FASD?
•Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders is not a
diagnostic category, but rather an
umbrella term describing the effects that
can occur in a person whose mother drank
alcohol during pregnancy.
•Alcohol causes more long-term damage
than other drugs of abuse.

5. Person First language
•FASD is what a person has not what a
person is.
•Teenager with fetal alcohol spectrum
disorders
•Student with a learning disability
•Man with red hat
•Can you think of one?

6. Quick Facts
•FASD is 100% preventable
•FASD is 0% curable & lasts a lifetime
•Prevalence of FASD is about 1:100
•Many children and adults with FASD are not
diagnosed and do not receive services but
end up homeless, in mental institutions or
prisons.

7. Characteristics
•Specific central nervous system
abnormalities
•Growth deficits
•Facial Characteristics
If all 3 are present, then no confirmation of
maternal drinking is necessary

8. Central Nervous System-1 of 3
•Functional -Performance substantially below
expectations based on age, schooling
• cognitive or developmental deficits
• executive function deficits
• problems with attention or hyperactivity
• social skill deficits
•Neurological problems
•Structural – small head circumference

9. Facial Abnormalities of FAS-all 3 required
Smooth philtrum
no groove above lip
Thin vermillion
thin upper lip
Small palpebral fissures
small eyelid openings
Photo courtesy of Teresa Kellerman

10. Growth Deficiency

11. FASD
•If not a diagnosis then what…
•Leading cause of Intellectual Disability - - -
IQ below 70
•BUT only about 25% of all with FASD have ID
•IQ range from 20 to 110 or higher
•What might be the diagnosis?
• LD, EBD, ADHD, OD,

12. Classroom Challenges
•Students who do not always respond to
Research & Evidence based strategies
•Students do not respond to typical or long
term rewards and consequences
•Students who appear to be unmotivated
and unresponsive

13. Brain disorder creates gaps
Chart of age level functioning

14. Use Strengths Based Approach
•What do they do well?
•What do they like to do?
•What are their best qualities?
•What are your funniest experiences with
them?
•Identify strengths in family, teachers,
community, school
•Always focus on the individual first

15. “Typical” strengths
• Friendly • Determined
• Likeable • Have points of
insight
• Verbal
• Good with younger
• Helpful children or elderly
• Caring
• Hard Worker

16. Weaknesses: Executive Functioning
•Planning •Mental flexibility
•Attention •Multi-tasking
•Problem solving •Initiation and
monitoring of
•Verbal reasoning
actions
•Inhibition
•Working memory

17. UDL* Model
•Paradigm shift: Move from viewing the
individual as failing to viewing the program
as not providing what the individuals need.
(Dubovsky)
•Identify Barriers to learning and then list
possible solutions to those barriers.
* Universal Design for Learning

18. Barriers to Learning
Attention
•Coming to attention
•Filtering out other distractions
•Staying on task for long periods
•Shifting attention

19. Barriers to learning
Verbal Reception
•Verbal expressive ability is much more
advanced than verbal receptive skills or
ability to produce written products.
•Can’t process several directions at
once
•Say they know what they need to do
but they cannot show they can do it

20. Barriers to Learning
Working memory
•Problems with Storage and retrieval
•Cannot keep track of multiple plans
•Cannot remember what they were
supposed to do when (whether its an
hour, day or week after being told)
•Difficulty with number concepts: time,
money, measurement

21. Barrier to learning
Abstract Concepts
•Slow Processing rate
•Difficulty with prediction
•Difficulty making links or forming
associations
•Problems making generalizations
•Literal thinking

22. Barrier to Behavior
Do not learn by experiencing
consequences of their behavior.
•Act oppositional.
•Keep breaking the rules.
•Problems with lying or filling in the truth.
•Only respond to immediate rewards and
consequences.

23. Barrier to Behavior
Social Interactions
•Try to “go along with the crowd”
•Difficulty making & maintaining friends.
•Cannot filter what they are thinking
•Perceptions of situations are different
from others

24. Overall Strategies
•Simplify the individual’s environment
•Use of a lot of repetition, more than what
we think based on their intellect & verbal
behavior.
•Provide one direction or rule at a time.
•De-stress situations, as it creates cortisol in
their brain.
Don’t bring a match to a fireworks factory.

25. Take home information
•Modify approaches to meet needs based on
brain damage
•Simplify the environment and add structure.
•Listen when they tell you that they cannot
do something but they are trying, as they
do learn differently

26. So now you know…
•Why would someone drink while pregnant?
•55% of women aged 18-44 drink and CAN
become pregnant
•Most women drink BEFORE they know they
are pregnant
•Great-Aunt Margaret Marie drank while she
was pregnant and Uncle Harry is just fine

27. How much is too much alcohol
•What is a standard drink:
• 12 oz. of beer
• 5 oz. of wine
• 4 oz. sherry
• 1 ½ oz. of liquor
• 12 oz wine spritzer
•NO alcohol in any form is safe during
pregnancy.

28. Prevalence of Any Alcohol Use among Women
Aged 18-44 Years – United States, 1991-2005
•High-risk drinking among women has not
declined in the past decade
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1991-2005, United States
60
50
Prevalence (%)
40
30
20
10
0
Not pregnant Pregnant

29. Take home message
•No amount of alcohol,
•No type of alcohol,
•No time of pregnancy to consume alcohol
is known to be safe during pregnancy.

30. FASD Reminders
•Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is 100% preventable
•Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is 0% curable
•If you are pregnant, don’t drink
•If you drink, don’t get pregnant

31. Resources
•National Organization on Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome http://www.nofas.org
•FAS Center for Excellence
http://www.fascenter.samhsa.gov
•FAS Community Resource Center
http://www.come-over.to/FAS
•SC FASD Collaborative
http://scfasd.weebly.com/

32. Help spread the word
with the FASD Knot
Can you follow the picture directions to
make an FASD knot?