This reflection discusses the author's experience completing an assignment on meeting the needs of children and families. The author learned about fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) for the first time through this assignment and was shocked to learn the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The special needs course taught the author a lot and provided important knowledge that will help in understanding issues like FAS that early childhood educators may encounter. The author overcame a lack of initial knowledge on the topic by doing additional research online and was motivated by their interest in learning about this new subject matter.

1. Reflection:
“Meeting the needs of children and families” is an assignment with great learning experience for me. I
never heard the word FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) before I did this assignment. I knew that alcohol
was detrimental to health. But I was shocked after coming to know the carnage it does to a child if taken
during pregnancy. To me every ECE and every mother should know about FAS. Special needs is a course
which taught me a lot. Without this course our ECE diploma would have been incomplete. Because as an
ECE, I will come across problems outlined in FAS and in special needs children and if we did not have
proper knowledge it would be difficult for me to understand the extent of the problem and to act on it.
FAS and special needs are not local problems. These are global problems and are faced all over the
world. We already saw in USA alone 40,000 children are born with FAS problem every year. Special
needs problems are even worst than FAS problem as nobody knows why a child is born with problems
other than FAS. This assignment was a great challenge for me. My weakness in shaping up this
assignment was lack of my knowledge about this topic. I never heard about this until I studied this
assignment. My strength in shaping up this assignment was my interest in this topic. I overcome the
challenges in shaping up this assignment by my searching in internet to acquire more knowledge. My
driving force in overcoming my challenges was my interest in this new subject which helped me to
overcome the great challenge of this assignment.
http://byebyedoctor.com/fetal-alcohol-syndrome/#fetal-alcohol-syndrome-facts-and-statist