This text-based course is a transcript of the live seminar, “Speech-Language Assessment & Treatment of Children with Alcohol Related Disorders”, presented by Tatyana Eleseff, M.A., CCC-SLP.
>> Tatyana Elleseff: It is a pleasure to be talking about one of my favorite topics which is assessment and intervention of children with alcohol-related disorders. Today's agenda is really quite simple. I am going to talk about best practices in assessment of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. I am going to talk about behavioral management of these children, and I am also going to talk about some intervention strategies for these children.
FASD in the Schools
First, I would like to give you this introduction. Unfortunately many times, by the time FAS is diagnosed, it happens to be diagnosed within the school system. Even more unfortunate what sometimes happens is that children with FAS tend to “slip between the cracks” when it comes to qualifying for and receiving services. I spoke at length about that in my previous presentation which was an overview of FAS related deficits. I wanted to reiterate this one more time and give an appropriate reference which indicates that what I was talking about is unfortunately a reality. Public school professionals commonly report quite a lack of knowledge regarding FAS and how to appropriately plan for these children. As a result, these children tend to be underserved, because their learning and behavioral difficulties are really not always recognized or understood. Unfortunately there tends to be a bit of difficulty when it comes to their appropriate assessment as well as when it comes to planning appropriate intervention.
FASD Referral Basics
Background History Collection
I would like to talk about the basics, which is collecting background history. I have broken it down into several parts, because at any point on your caseload or in your private practice or the hospital where you are working, you may have a child with suspected alcohol-related disabilities. That child could be a confirmed case, a suspected case, or it could be a child who was never previously suspected to have some deficits but during the course of my assessment, I see a lot of trigger signs. I see a lot of warning signs. I realize that this has to be a further referral. I do not like how this child presents and how this child tests.
