A Recommened Book on FAS

I just spoke with a lawyer who is trying to get DHS policy changed on how they handle families with children who need post-adopt services. Please pray for this attorney. He is advocating for families like ours. He recommended this book:

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
A Guide for Families and Communities
By Ann Streissguth, Ph.D.

ORDERING INFO
ISBN 1-55766-283-5Paperback / illus.
336 pages / 6 x 9
1997 / $24.95 ($16.47 at Amazon) 

Here is the original site that I found the book on. It’s worth checking out and has a page that tells a lot about the book.

If you click to here at Amazon, you can look inside the book and get a better price.

Here is an excerpt:

It was January 1973. I was in shock. I had just finished administering a psychological examination to the seventh young child in the group that Jones and Smith, my dysmorphology colleagues (physicians with expertise in congenital malformations), had asked me to see. Although the seven children represented three racial groups and were not themselves related, they looked eerily alike: small, sparkly eyes; small heads; and an appearance about the mouth that appeared as though they were pursing their lips even when they weren’t smiling. Except for the two who were still infants and the one who was so flaccid she was carried in the arms of her mother, the other children had a wispy, flighty quality. I thought to myself that these children who were so curiously and surprisingly unafraid of me were like butterflies.

These children clearly had brain damage. To an experienced clinician, their neurological insults were as obvious as the aftereffects of meningitis or encephalitis. Each of these children had experienced damage to his or her central nervous system (CNS) that was apparent in his or her erratic movements, poor coordination, flighty attentional states, and poor performance on psychological tests, despite a captivatingly alert and bright-eyed manner.