By Liz Lawryk; 238 pages. Subtitle: A Parent's Guide to Creating Prevention Strategies and Intervention Techniques Using the OBD (Organic Brain Dysfunction) 3 Step Plan of Action
With so many sad, downbeat, hopeless books about parenting children with fetal alcohol exposure on the shelves, any volume that remains upbeat and provides a useful course of action gets a thumbs-up from me. The three-step plan is pretty good advice for other behavioral challenges, too.
- Takes a positive approach to dealing with fetal alcohol affected kids
- Offers a specific plan that parents can implement
- Forms and checklists help you apply the ideas to your child and family
- Case studies illustrate points
- Lawryk shares cover credit with "parents everywhere"
- As a social worker, Lawryk is a step removed from the actual challenge of parenting
- Advice on avoiding the "label" of FASD is debatable
- Jokey and humorous tone sometimes overdone
- Book could have used some stronger editing
- Chapter 1: Once we heard the diagnosis
Chapter 2: Terminology - Chapter 3: Identifying Central Nervous System dysfunction in your child
- Chapter 4: Can YOU relate?
Chapter 5: Understanding your child's cognitive abilities - Chapter 6: The OBD (Organic Brain Dysfunction) Strategy Guide!
- Chapter 7: The OBD 3 Step Plan of Action!
Chapter 8: Educating other professionals - Chapter 9: Finding perspective
Chapter 10: Compassion fatigue - who's caring for the caregiver? - Chapter 11: Transitions to adulthood
Chapter 12: The Mothers we don't know - Chapter 13: Families making it work
Chapter 14: Our kind of success - Chapter 15: Laughter really is the best medicine
- In Closing: A message to my colleagues; gift ideas for teens and adults!; References; Index
As the parent of a teen with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, I'm always delighted to find a book about raising kids with FASD that's not filled with despair. Even books like Damaged Angels, which ends on a hopeful note and has good information on advocacy, has more than its share of heartache. Finding Perspective is a can-do volume that focuses on finding the positive aspects of children with fetal alcohol exposure, and looking at their behavior in a way that increases understanding and maximizes successful management.
I'm not sure about Lawryk's advice about avoiding the label of FASD lest it stigmatize mother and child -- it makes sense perhaps from a social worker's perspective, but my understanding of risk and protective factors for children with fetal alcohol exposure is that making sure everyone who works with them knows of their diagnosis and exactly what that means is crucial for preventing secondary disabilities. The reluctance to stigmatize has prevented a lot of kids from getting a needed diagnosis, and a lot of parents from accepting it. But that's a quibble, as is my discomfort with the author's jokey and sometimes condescending tone. As kids with FASD often have a jumble of symptoms and behaviors from a number of different diagnoses, their parents often have to pick and choose appropriate strategies from a wide range of sources. Finding Perspective is a worthy addition to their resource bank.
