This text-based course is a written transcript of the seminar, “Outcomes of Children Prenatally Exposed to Drugs: Implications for Intervention” presented by Rhonda Mattingly, Ed.D., CCC-SLP.
>> Rhonda Mattingly: I would like to find out just a little bit about you all first. How many of you currently work with infants or children that have been prenatally exposed to drugs? It looks like about 6 or 7 participants are currently working with children who have been prenatally exposed. My second question is: Regardless of whether you work with children, who have been prenatally exposed, let's find out where you are. How many of you are in the schools? We have about 6 in the schools. How many of you are in hospitals? We have a couple in hospitals. How about outpatient centers? Looks like one in outpatient. How about early intervention? We have a higher number there. We probably have about 8 or 9 people. Last question, how many of you are in a discipline other than speech pathology? It looks like everyone is a speech pathologist.
Introduction
We are going to cover a tremendous amount of information in a really short amount of time. The reason we are doing this is so we can better understand why children who have been prenatally exposed may exhibit certain attributes that result in them needing intervention, particularly from us. It is critical to understand the research and the underlying issues associated with this problem so that we can best plan our intervention and really appreciate why we are doing what we are doing. I also want to qualify that we are only going to be talking about prenatal exposure to drugs today. We are not going to talk about prenatal exposure to alcohol, simply because that is a whole other topic in itself. We will not be talking about that today. Also when we watch our YouTube video later, it is about 5 minutes, but we are not going to watch the entire 5 minutes. We are going to stop about 3 minutes and 37 seconds in. I will remind everyone at that point in time, but I did want to let you know that that is my intention. It is a good video though, so feel free to watch it all the way through once we are through our presentation.
Without further ado, let's talk about the basics. Approximately 10% of all infants born are prenatally exposed to illicit drugs. Prenatal exposure has the potential to contribute and cause a wide variety of not only physical, but also emotional and developmental problems. The damage experienced by the unborn fetus can be long-lasting, and those children often need intervention to help them grow and develop optimally. We have to be, as speech pathologists, very prepared and understand everything we can about this, so we can provide the best service.
Let's review what we are hoping that you get out of this course. I would like, by the end of this course, for you to be able to list at least three of the several substances infants are most often exposed to. I would like you to be able to list three major problems associated with prenatal exposure. I would also like you to be able to describe at least three ways those associated problems impact the child in school. Lastly, it is my intention that you will be able to describe how the associated problems influence a child's ability to use social skills and language appropriately.
Addiction-Overview
Definition
