Supporting Students with FASD

Primary and Secondary Disabilities

Date:

Location:

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Agenda

• Welcome back• Reflections on learning • Primary Disabilities• Break• Secondary Disabilities• Connections• Reflection

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Primary and Secondary Disabilities (Session 2)

• To increase understanding of primary and secondary disabilities

• To increase understanding of how all learners are unique, each with his/her own set of strengths and needs

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Making Connections!

Why is it important for educators to understand FASD?

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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

FASD describes a spectrum of disorders caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol.

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What works?

• Understanding the child

• The approach that we will share with you today.

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Shift in Thinking

• View FASD as a brain-based disability• IS a problem to HAS a problem• Willful behaviours to supporting disability• Identify what the learner needs and

provide the supports

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FASD Approach

• FASD = physical, brain-based disability• Know your learner well (relationship)• Observe closely and try different strategies• Set up the environment for learner success• Plan and interact proactively• Be visible• Provide the necessary accommodations to

support the suspected primary disabilities

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Primary Disability

A functional deficit that is the result of permanent brain injury.

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Primary Disabilities

• Impulsivity• Linking actions to

outcomes• Predicting outcomes• Generalizing

information• Abstracting • Staying still• Paying attention

• Memory• Processing pace• Sequencing• Over stimulation• Sensory issues• Perseveration• Language• Dysmaturity or

“uneven maturation”

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Impulsivity

• Acting before thinking it through• Not always seeing dangerous situations• Blurting out• May get caught up in the moment and

not follow rules• Difficulty with impulse control (can be

seen as lying, stealing or defiant acts)

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Linking Actions to Outcomes/ Predicting Outcomes

• Being able to imagine something happening before it happens

• When coupled with impulsivity, there may be safety concerns (does not see danger)

• Consequences may not work

• Difficulty problem solving

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Processing Pace

Slow cognitive pace• Need more time to think• “10 second people in an 1 second world Diane Malbin

• May use “I don’t know” as a defense

Slow auditory pace• May take more time for sound to connect with

meaning• Similar to hearing every third word of a conversation

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Generalizing Information

• Literal interpretation of words

• Different logic (if you don’t understand the reasoning behind an action, ask)

• Learns a rule in one setting but can’t apply it when the environment changes

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Abstracting

• Difficulties learning math concepts

• Time concepts are challenging (planning future events, being on time, delayed rewards/consequences)

• Making change or managing money can be difficult

• Difficulty comprehending the meaning of language/questions

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Paying Attention• Hyperactive or fidgety• Missing directions• Responding to questions with unrelated answers• Some kids can pay attention much better when

they are moving• Easily distracted• Difficulty multitasking (e.g. listening and taking

notes)• Appearing focused but difficulty understanding

and responding appropriately

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Memory

• Inability to recall information despite repeated instruction or study

• Inconsistent recall

• Difficulty following verbal instructions

• Problems remembering daily routines

• Challenges recalling facts and procedures (math facts or steps for long division)

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Sequencing

• Difficulty relaying information in order

• Confusion with event order

• Recognizing the passing of time is challenging

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Over Stimulation

• Possible difficulties prioritizing and filtering stimuli

• Could show up as inattention

• Sensitivities could include sight, sound, touch, smell or taste

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Perseveration

• Keeping on with a task once started

• Difficulty stopping a task prior to completion

• Difficulty switching gears

• Resistance to change

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Language

• Delays in developing speech and language (articulation problems?)

• Using talk as “filler” (non-stop chatter or “nonsense” questions

• Parroting without understanding• Missing the link between words and actions• Confabulation (can be seen as lying or

making up stories)

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Dysmaturity

• Understanding the gap between chronological and developmental age is critical to understanding FASD

• Gaps can become increasingly apparent as the child ages and the disparity is greatest during adolescence

• Think younger (the child needs “catch-up” time)

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Primary Disabilities

• Impulsivity

• Linking actions to outcomes

• Predicting outcomes

• Generalizing information

• Abstracting

• Staying still

• Paying attention

• Memory

• Processing pace

• Sequencing

• Over stimulation

• Sensory issues

• Perseveration

• Language

• Dysmaturity or “uneven maturation”

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Video clip

• “FAS: When the Children Grow Up”

– National Film Board, 2002

– www.nfb.ca

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Creating a “Good Fit”

Creating a “good fit” involves understanding the learner and providing appropriate accommodations.

For more information or for viewing additional POPFASD Learning Modules, go to www.fasdoutreach.ca

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Strengths Based Approach• What are the strengths of your learner?• Is your learner…

• Creative? • Artistic?• Athletic? • Helpful?• Caring? • Generous?• Determined? • Willing?• Friendly? • Etc. Etc. Etc.

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Sentence Activity

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Sentence Activity

Expectations in the Environment

- give a quick response

- provide a related, descriptive sentence

Requirements of your brain

- process quickly

- remember, utilize prior information, formulate

Possible Primary Disabilities

- slow processing

- memory difficulties

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Secondary Disabilities / Behaviours

• The feelings/behaviours that develop over time when the primary disabilities (i.e.. needs of the learner) are not supported.

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Secondary Disabilities / Behaviours

• Frustration• Anxiety• Shutdown• Anger• Fatigue• Isolation• Poor self esteem• Depression

• School problems• Trouble with law• Drug and alcohol issues• Independent living

challenges• Mental health issues• Parenting difficulties

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Poor Fit Good Fit

• Exists when there is a gap between the expectations and the learner’s abilities

• Exists when accommodations are provided that support the suspected primary disabilities

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Accommodations - Good Fit

Environment Instruction/ Curriculum/

Communication Resources

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Accommodations- creating a “good fit”

• To Accommodate means to make fit or suitable

• Strategies and/or adaptations that address the brain disability and reduce the likelihood of secondary disabilities

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Making Connections!

Think of a student you have worked with who may have had one of the primary disabilities discussed.

What were some indicators?What worked to support that student?What did not work to support that student?What strengths did that student have?What interests?

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