Children With FASD and Behavior
Issues:
Getting Inside Their
Heads
Does your child have difficult behaviors? Is your child
impulsive? Does he or she make the same mistakes over and over. Does
your child have problems interacting with peers or playmates? Does your
child have a hard time showing respect to parents or teachers or other authority
figures? When it comes to functioning in every day life, many children and
adults with FASD have some difficulties. Depending on the age, the level
of functioning, and extent of alcohol damage, this disorder might take on
different manifestations. One child might push and shove other children
without any apparent provocation. Another child might flit from one
thought or activity to another. One child might have emotional outbursts
for no obvious reason. Another child might be obsessive or compulsive
about certain behaviors. Some children will be aggressive, others may be
unusually friendly to others, to the point of being inappropriate or vulnerable
to dangerous situations. One child might have unreasonable fears, yet have
no sense of real danger. Any of these behaviors would be considered
“normal” for a child or adult with FASD.
There are several factors that behavior. Some are external in the
environment, and others are internal and are related to damage to the brain in
the womb. Some affected children will only have a few, others will have
many of these behaviors. Try to identify these neurological factors, then
you can address appropriate solutions.
1. Sensory issues:
Sensitivity to labels, seams, or
elastic
Inability to sense cold or hot
temperatures
Sensing a light brush as if it were a
blow
Responding to a bump with
aggression
Prefers to touch, but not to be
touched
Startles easily to sudden noises
Overly sensitive hearing
Blocks out loud speech
May hear only parts of spoken direction
Easily
overwhelmed in the middle of
chaos
Easily overstimulated by
environment
Sensitive to dietary ingredients and meds
2. Visual-spatial
issues:
Mixing
up left-right,
front-back
Not having a sense of where they
are
Getting “in your face” or standing too close
3. Attention deficits:
Not
focusing well on task at
hand
Getting easily distracted from
task
Hurrying through one activity to
another
Not finishing what is started
4. Memory deficits:
Forgetting rules or
directions
Needing constant cues and
reminders
Forgetting the consequences from
yesterday
Remembering the rules too late
5. Self-perception
issues:
Don’t
see themselves as others see
them
May
not be cognizant of
appearance
Self-centered but not
self-aware
Socially and emotionally immature
6. Lack of motivation:
Just
might not really care how they
behave
Rewards and punishments are not
effective
Desire to be appropriate is not
internalized
Give up to easily in face of frustration
7. Planning issues:
Inability to think ahead to plan
action
Inability to think about the
consequences
Inability to set long-term
goals
Inconsistent impulse control
8. Poor judgment:
Knows
how to behave, but does it
anyway
Thinks no one will notice the
misbehavior
Makes the same mistakes over and
over
Conscience means don’t get
caught
Cannot measure the risks
accurately
Cannot weigh the risks and benefits well
The last one may be the most difficult. Poor judgment may persist
even when all the other developmental milestones are accomplished. The
important thing to remember is that these factors are biological in origin, and
not always within the control of the affected individual. What we can
control and change is their environment. By modifying the environment, we
can optimize their success and their ability to control their behavior.