Parents and school staff have long been interested in ideas for effectively educating children with FASD, and both training and research have gathered momentum. Curricula for educators and videos related to school have been produced. Experts have written chapters and books with information for teachers. More recently, educational information has been made available on Web sites. One good example of a Web site useful for educators is the “FASD Toolkit” at do2learn.com.
Also of interest to educators has been an approach sometimes called “cognitive rehabilitation,”(or “cognitive habilitation”) in which children are trained in the skills underlying learning (such as attention or organization). This approach has been used in children with other disabilities or learning deficits, such as those that occur after traumatic brain injury or in the presence of ADHD. Strategies drawn from this approach are being used in current FASD intervention research (e.g., Coles et al., 2006). Approaches using a sensory-integration framework are also of interest to educators (and occupational therapists) because techniques based on this framework are thought to help children learn to cope and self-regulate, thereby allowing better classroom performance and adaptive behavior. Intervention ideas based on data gathered from a sensory integration framework have been suggested (e.g., Jirikowic, 2003), incorporated into FASD intervention models (e.g., Carmichael Olson et al., 2004), and drawn from recommendations by multidisciplinary FASD diagnostic clinic teams (e.g., Gelo, personal communication, June, 2006). Anecdotal reports note such intervention ideas are quite useful.
As yet, there is few research data showing whether these promising ideas for learning and behavior management in the classroom would actually work with children prenatally alcohol-exposed or actually diagnosed with FASD. But techniques drawn from these frameworks are just beginning to receive attention in research with children who have FASD, both in terms of direct child-focused intervention (e.g., Adnams et al., 2006; Coles et al., 2005) and as a source of information for creating accommodations in the home and school environments (e.g., Carmichael Olson et al., 2005; Chasnoff et al., 2003). One area of vivid interest is early intervention.
Another area of specific educational interest is computer training for somewhat older children with FASD. One research group has created a fire safety computer-training program, teaching simple but essential fire safety skills, with promising results (e.g., Coles et al., 2006). This is an exciting area because of possibilities seen in computer training of other skills (such as social skills)—or attention training in virtual reality environments or computerized neurobehavioral feedback training.
A final promising area of educational interest lies in FASD intervention that can respond to higher-level language deficits that many believe are common among children with FASD. So far this framework has been used to create accommodations in home and school environments (e.g., Carmichael Olson et al., 2004). But careful step-by-step research in this area is underway. Researchers are carefully describing the social communication, higher-level language, and social skills deficits among children with FASD, especially in “real-life” classroom situations with peers (e.g., Coggins et al., 2003; Svennson, unpublished dissertation; Timler, Olswang & Coggins, 2005). With careful descriptive data, tailored interventions can eventually be created to respond directly to the social communication and social skill deficits this group of children show.
Some innovative researchers have begun to compare different types of educational strategies used in very high-need school situations. In South Africa, for example, Adnams and her colleagues (2006) are comparing several different school-based programs to see what can make a difference for children drastically affected by prenatal alcohol, poverty, and many environmental risks. Example classrooms have been created that can be thought of as “laboratories” for producing and testing good teaching and classroom management ideas, as detailed at the SAMHSA FAS Center for Excellence site.
• Continue to train educational staff, evaluating the success of training efforts.
• Test some of the most promising educational intervention strategies.
• Expand and evaluate the ways in which computer training can be used with children who have FASD.
• Expand the activity of regional centers and centers providing FASD diagnosis and intervention to provide targeted school consultation.