We are still adding to this section. Most parents feel like they are barely keeping their heads above water, when in fact, we are daily helping our kids in all kinds of ways. The brain is a wonderful thing, and new connections can be forged from our positive and creative parenting approaches. That said, it’s not easy to know what is best in such a rapidly changing environment. This list is incomplete – we will continue to add to this. Suggestions welcome!
Parenting tips for kids with FASD
- When you feel like you don’t make a difference, remember this – Rachel Martin, Huffington Post, 6 February 2015
- 5 Lessons I’ve Learned From Parenting A Child With FASD, Mike Berry, 18 January 2016
- Broken Things, by Kathleen Fleming, 15 October 2015. This piece describes so beautifully some of the challenges of parenting, it also applies to kids with FASD.
- 10 Ways Kids With FASD Are Just Different- And, No, I Can’t Just Relax, from FASDFamilies.com, an insightful and well-written piece by a mum
- When I Realized Why My Son Melts Down at Home but Not at School, by Michelle Meyers, this is about autism but it could just as easily be about FASD
- FASD: Strategies Not Solutions, Edmonton and Area Fetal Alcohol Network (this is excellent, with age-specific suggestions)
- 10 Strategies That Work For Kids With FASD, FASD Families – lots of concrete suggestions, tips and a bit of humour
- Interventions and Support for FASD, Michigan Coalition for Fetal Alcohol Resources, Education, and Support (MCFARES) – has lots of great links & videos
- Behavior Environmental Adaptation Model: The 15 BEAM Rules of FASD Behavior Management (Also known as the Fasstar Trek Model, Teresa Kellerman, 2004
- How to Help Someone Who Has a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, by CPI Training and consulting in behavior management & dementia care.
- Guides for Parents, by Cerebra – a collection of health and social care information for the parents and carers of children aged 0-16 years with neurological conditions (not necessarily FASD specific), including info regarding legal issues, rights, education.
- Dealing with Stealing, video with Dr. Nathan Ory, POPFASD
- Why Typical Behavioral Approaches May Not Work, video with Dr. Nathan Ory, POPFASD – includes concrete examples of what might work
- 9 Tips for Creating a Sensory Space at Home on a Budget, Christina Massimi, The Mighty, 12 January 2017
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FASD Tips for Parents and Caregivers (PDF), by the FASD Support Network Of Saskatchewan
Blogs written by families affected by FASD – it’s so important that we help others understand FASD, beyond the medical aspects. These bloggers help give insights into lives affected by FASD.
- FASD Learning With Hope (one of our favourites)
- Life with Katie and Pip: Our Adoption Story
- Quirks and Chaos: “My adventures and thoughts as I mother my two youngest children. They are the youngest of seven and both have special needs: a boy with autism and an adopted little girl with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and ADHD” (Note this author uses creative comic strip format to help others understand her kids)
- FASD Families
- Tales from Our House
- Adopting Faith: A Father’s Unconditional Love,
- EACH Child is Special: Working Smarter Not Harder to Raise Every ONE
- Familiestied: “a family brought together by adoption, playing their hand the best they canhand the best they can”
This beautiful video is about the importance of diagnosis and the impact it can have on mothers/children, changing lives.
Many parents have questions about what they should tell their children about their condition. This video by a woman who teaches kids with special needs, and who herself has learning disabilities, is inspiring.
I was glad to see the title above BLOGS WRITTEN BY FAMILIES AFFECTED BY FASD instead of FASD Families. It takes longer but it is way better!
I know it is an easier short hand to call our kids “FASD kids” and our families “FASD familes” but we and they are SO much MORE than that. Our kids all have aptitudes and strengths but it is darn hard to see these positives when they are FASD kids and we are FASD families. And no parent out there means to make any of this more difficult than it already is do we?
Two great people in the FASD community taught me person-first language years ago. Dr. Dan Dubovsky and Jan Lutke. Dan in Toronto at a training he was giving where he impishly said, “you wouldn’t call them hemorrhoid kids would you?” (I have NEVER forgotten that for obvious reasons but don’t have the nerve to do it in most of the presentations I do) and Jan – bless her heart – came out on the stage after lunch one day in Victoria at a national or international conference I was presenting at (Blush!!) and chewed us ALL (hundreds of people) out – why? she was hearing a lot of references to “FASD kids” as she walked around the conference !!! “Gulp” I thought. I say that – it took me months to change my words to focus on the person-first and the condition second. We are about far more than FASD. (Even though on many days it seems like everything is about FASD doesn’t it? I not only train but have been parenting with FASD for decades!)
We need to use person-first and family-first language. Otherwise it is harder to find the natural aptitudes our kids possess if all we see is their FASD. We can hardly expect the best from others when we don’t put it out there ourselves.
Our children are affected by FASD, we have classrooms for students with FASD, and families dealing with FASD. It is harder but it works better.
Mary Cunningham
Kitchener, ON
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