By Brenda McCreight; 151 pages. From the book cover: "For any parent or professional who needs to work with children with fetal alcohol syndrome/effects (FAS/E), this important guide offers practical advice and solid information on dealing with FAS/E's lifelong effects on behavior and learning."
Drawing on her experience as a therapist and adoptive mother of two children with FAS/E, McCreight offers some good general information on FAS/E and some specific information that may or may not fit your child.
- Chapters 2-4 give good general information on FAS/E
- Emphasis on flexibility and creativity in parenting is helpful
- Goals for each stage of childhood are interesting and positive
- Gives information for teachers at each stage
- Offers specific strategies that parents can carry out
- Heavy reliance on case studies that may not sound like your child
- Chapters on age levels mean most of the book not relevant to you right now
- Details only useful if they fit your child
- Since FAS/E kids are dependent well past adolescence, an "early adulthood" chapter would be useful
- Doesn't always take into account the ways in which all FAS/E kids are different
- Chapter 1: Our Story
- Chapter 2: What Is It?
- Chapter 3: Behavioral Characteristics
- Chapter 4: What to Do
- Chapter 5: Infancy and Toddlerhood
- Chapter 6: Early Childhood
- Chapter 7: Middle Childhood
- Chapter 8: Late Childhood
- Chapter 9: Early Adolescence
- Chapter 10: Late Adolescence
Chapter 11: Conclusion
I'll admit, I'm spoiled for FAS/E books. My favorite on this subject is Diane Malbin's "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Effects," which gave me all the information I needed in a slim 43 pages. I'm all for books that give more detail than that, but since every child with FAS/E is different, the detail that is meaningful for you may not be meaningful for me. I'm raising a child with FAE, and from that personalized perspective I found the more general information in chapters 2-4 of "Recognizing and Managing Children with FAS/E" interesting and useful, and the more specific information in the rest of the book, not so much. If the details are a closer fit for your particular child, you may find it all very useful indeed.
This is a problem that affects most FAS/E books, and parents seeking information on the subject have to read with a philosophy of "take what's useful and leave the rest." Two things that made this book fall more into the "leave the rest" category for me are the heavy use of case studies and the chapters on specific age levels. Case studies are one of those things people love or hate about parenting books; I'm a hater. They take me right out of the text if they don't sound like my kid. And the focus on age levels, while useful for the one your child is in now, means that large portions of the book are already irrelevant for you or not relevant yet. This book is a nice effort that will be useful to many families. But inevitably, not to all.
