A great school for the alcohol-affected child is designed to run on predictability and a solid routine. Preparing the student each day, is necessary, and an important early intervention plan for positive and productive behavior. As the day begins, telling the child with FAS what will occur that day and what is expected of the child, reaps great results. Working with a reward system, one that is immediate and visual, brings about cooperation and determination to succeed for the child with FAS

The different issues previously described indicate the varying difficulties experienced by children with FAS and those providing care for the child. There are many interventions that can be implemented, some of which are described; however, there is not a simply designed plan that will work for each child affected by FAS. The home life and educational interventions for a child with FAS need to be consistent, diligent, yet flexible enough to meet the needs of the child as he/she develops.
Early intervention for the child with FAS plays a vital role in the development and success of the child. Due to the wide aberration of alcohol effects done to damage the brain; no child with FAS will respond the same to any/all techniques used. The importance of intervening early, is to aid the alcohol-affected child’s fundamental life skills he/she will need for continual intellectual growth and social development.

Play needs to have a purpose. If the toys are scattered everywhere, the child with FAS will have difficulty focusing on any type of positive play. Keeping the toys in containers and allowing the child to choose his play of choice eliminates distractibility and teaches the child that once he/she is done, all toys must be placed back into the container before another can be chosen. Not only will this teach responsibility and respect for his/her toys; the child will also have a sense
of calmness during play due to less stimulus. Another benefit of play time is teaching your child the ability to pay attention. Take objects and place them around the room, then direct the child to get the item. This will expand the child’s ability to pay attention and will teach the child how to remember simple commands.

To describe and/or identify emotions is very difficult for the alcohol-affected child. Because they have a hard time articulating what they are feeling, it is very important to teach the child how to label the emotion, which will allow for the appropriate emotional response as they grow older.
When reacting out of frustration or despair because of the inability to express how they feel, the child may respond by hitting, pushing, biting, breaking items and many other inappropriate actions. Taking a proactive approach to this behavior, and talking with the child, will teach them how to better handle situations that baffle them.

Bonding with the FAS child

Children with FAS need support, lots of love and affection, even if they react negatively. A few goals to aid in bonding with the child and teaching positive touch responses can be attained by simply working with the child on a daily basis to develop good habits. Making eye contact will teach the child the importance of eye contact while communicating with others. While bathing the child, you can wash quickly and gently his/her arms and legs explaining what you are doing. After bath time, take the opportunity to rub lotion on your child and allow the child to put lotion on you. During this process, the child will learn about touching, and will begin to associate
touching as a pleasant experience.

Continue with Early Intervention

Gradually the child will improve. As the attention span continues to develop, the FAS child will begin to improve with an abundance of vocabulary words. However, the principal problem of distractibility still remains to be a problem. The idea is to gradually teach the FAS child to sit longer periods of time, focusing on a task, even with distractibility factors present. A goal would be to have the child sitting for a period of thirty minutes or longer ignoring all outside stimulus.
The good news is, with early interventions still in place, a continuum of speech and language therapy with enable the child with FAS to continue to develop language appropriate skills for his/her grade level. There will be set backs, because what was learned today may be forgotten tomorrow; however, with continued work the individual will overcome many of the simple speech/language deficits.

Early Intervention

When Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is determined at birth the prognosis of lifelong
rehabilitation is almost unbelievable. Parents/caregivers of children with FAS can immediately begin an early intervention plan for special needs children. Since motor skill delays are an issue, the infant with FAS will have difficulty with “lack of head control. A physical therapist” (Hinde 131) will address the motor needs and the infant will improve greatly. Speech and language development can be addressed as early as “sixteen months;” (Hinde 131) along with working on distractibility issues. Generally when the child with FAS is unable to focus on any task, this can hamper the progress of learning. However, working to develop the attention span with engrossing games can be a very beneficial first step. At the approximate age of 2 years old, the
child may still find him/herself unable to sit and focus.