FASD Activists

Pictured above is John Kellerman. Now grown, he wrote an article (link below) that beautifully sums up his life as an FASD-affected child. His adoptive mother, Teresa Kellerman started the website http://www.come-over.to/ to provide information for other parents, since very little was available at the time.

Right after Sandy’s death, an on-line support group of FASD parents contacted us. The first note in the chain was from Teresa Kellerman, who sent out the alert after coming across Sandy’s obituary.

At the time we were barely coherent but very grateful for the contact with others who understood.

Teresa Kellerman remains one of my great heroes. Her son now joins her in presentations on FASD awareness.

John Kellerman’s article: http://www.fasarizona.com/ihavefas.htm

Teresa’s journey: http://come-over.to/FAS/news/citizen2008a.htm

False Confessions

Prize-winning research by Kaitlyn McLachlan, above, found that 43% of youths affected by FASD in the Canadian criminal justice system gave false confessions under the mistaken belief that they would be released more quickly or to protect a friend.

I thought of Sandy not realizing that after age eighteen her crimes would go on her permanent record. “They will?” she asked, genuinely shocked.

Sandy would also do anything to protect her friends. At age thirteen she lied to her boyfriend’s mother, denying their first sexual encounter. “He told her it never happened,” she said, “so I changed my story.” Hearing this broke my heart.

Young people with the brain damage of FASD need significant support to navigate the legal system, as well as to navigate life.

http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2012/fasd-youths-give-false-confessions.html

White Matter

Highlighted areas show white matter studied

by Beaulieu and Rasmussen at the University of Alberta

A new medical study from the University of Alberta shows that the brains of children affected by FASD generally do not develop as rapidly as the brains of normal children, with brain volume and amount of white matter remaining lower as the children grow up.

But the study also finds that the “brain wiring” within the white matter of children affected by FASD can, under the right circumstances, develop more rapidly.

As a teacher, I have used interventions that build brain connections to help these children achieve better outcomes.

1) Multi-sensory reading instruction allows children to access information with multiple senses--visual, auditory, and tactile--building stronger connections between letter and sound.

2) Number sense can be taught in a concrete multi-sensory way, starting with visually grouping dots on a card to help understand how numbers can be taken apart and recombined, the first step in mental addition and subtraction.

It's also exciting to think that brain imaging may one day help identify additional specific interventions for children with brain damage from FASD.

Read the full article in Science Codex

Additionally, Stanford sometimes offers a free on-line class on  How To Teach Math, for helping children work on basic number sense. Researchers there continue to come out with useful information on teaching math.