Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a term that describes a range of effects that occurs in an individual whose mother drank alcohol during her pregnancy. Alcohol damages a fetus in the following ways: a)alcohol can trigger cell death in a number of ways which cause different parts of the fetus to develop abnormally; b)alcohol can disrupt nerve cell develop, travel to form different parts of the brain, and function; c) the blood flow in the placenta is constricted resulting in difficult in the deliverance of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus; and d) toxic byproducts become concentrated in the brain and contribute to the development of an FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center for Excellence, …show more content…
They include Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS), Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND), Neurobehavioral Disorder/Alcohol Exposed (ND/AE), and Static Encephalopathy/Alcohol-Exposed (SE/AE) (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Center for Excellence, 2015). Symptoms of FAS include abnormal facial features, impaired growth, and cognitive and behavioral abnormalities where symptoms of pFAS include no growth deficiency and the symptoms of FAS (2015). ARND symptoms include prenatal alcohol exposure and neurodevelopmental abnormalities but without the facial features whereas symptoms of ND/AE include prenatal alcohol exposure, moderate cognitive/behavioral impairment (2015. SE/AE symptoms include prenatal alcohol exposure and severe cognitive/behavioral impairments without the FAS facial features (2015). Behavioral characteristics that are seen by caregivers with a family member with FASD include but are not limited to, having a deficient in risk perception, are unaware of the consequences of their behavior, they miss the fine point or subtleties in communication, they like to talk about unrealistic subjects, are overly friendly with strangers, people-oriented, poor judgment in who they trust, poor attention span, enjoy talking but have a disregard about the content, and they have the inability to understand the subtleties of communication (Brown Novick, Gudjonsson, & Connor,