Research Paper on "Cause and Effects of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome"

Research Paper 11 pages (3104 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The problems related to fetal alcohol syndrome would seem on the surface to be ones that could be mostly be solved with ample medical research backed by good public information for women. But both of those potential solutions have been tried again and again and have failed to curb the number of babies being born with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). In this paper the National Institutes of Health provide good information about how to help person with FAS, and ten scholarly peer-reviewed articles delve into a number of important aspects of this syndrome. Those aspects include: a) exactly / technically happens to a baby born with FAS, what the baby looks like that makes it different from healthy babies; b) why university curricula do not emphasize information germane to this problem; c) the need to have better technologies applied to determining if children actually have FAS and to what degree they are afflicted; d) large numbers of women who seemingly are aware of the need to stop drinking when they are pregnant nonetheless continue consuming alcohol, and there is nothing that apparently has been done to make the danger any clearer; e) animals are being used (rather then humans) now to study the effects that alcohol has on the woman and the baby; and f) in France, if a baby is born with FAS the hospital has the option of taking the baby from the mother and putting the baby into a home where it will receive proper care.

Annotated Bibliography

Medline Plus. (2011). Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. U.S. National Library of Medicine / NIH

National Institutes of Health. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.nim.nih.gov/medlineplus/fetalalcoholsyndrome.html.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) explains to a reader that if a woman is pregnant and she is consuming alcohol, her baby is also consuming alcohol. This problem can and does hurt the babies of pregnant women who are drinking alcohol during pregnancy. In fact the most "severe" effects of drinking alcohol during pregnancy is "fetal alcohol syndrome" (FAS), the NIH fact sheet asserts. And according to the NIH the problems that can result for the baby include: mental retardation; birth defects; abnormal facial features; growth problems; problems with the child's central nervous system; difficulty remembering and learning; hearing and vision problems; and behavior problems (NIH). This paper delves into the scholarly literature regarding fetal alcohol syndrome, including how to avoid FAS, what help is available for children suffering from FAS, where the current research is focused, and more. The Medline Plus / National Institutes of Health information also emphasizes that students who are living with fetal alcohol syndrome can be helped. There are eight bullet points of advice NIH offers to teachers: a) talk in "concrete terms" and avoid words that have double meanings; b) be consistent with the vocabulary used; changes are scary to FAS students; c) re-teach the material because FAS students have "chronic short-term memory problems"; d) stay in a day-to-day routine; e) keep it simple; f) "say exactly what you mean"; FAS students have difficult with abstractions; g) the structure is the "glue" that keeps the world for them making sense; and h) constant supervision is a necessity.

Blackburn, Carolyn, Carpenter, Barry, and Egerton, Jo. (2010). Shaping the future for children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders. British Journal of Learning Support, 25(3), 139-145.

This peer-reviewed article reviews the facts of fetal alcohol syndrome (called "spectrum" disorders in the UK). Fetal alcohol syndrome is the "most common, non-genetic cause of learning disability in the UK" hence it is an important area of research. The FAS hits a child prior to its birth when the mother consumes a given amount of alcohol (as to the exact amount of the consumption, and the timing of the consumption, that go into corrupting the child, is not known, the authors explain). There are several common physical result of FAS that can often be found in the child's face: a) "short palpebral fissures" (a palpebral fissure is the separation between the upper and the lower eyelids), a thin upper lip and "philtrum elongation" (the philtrum is the groove that extends from the upper lip to the nose); b) "a flattened mid-face"; c) "epicanthal folds" (these are folds from the skin just above the upper eyelid that covers the corner of the eye when a child has FAS); d) a short and upturned nose; e) a receding forehead and chin; and f) "asymmetrical ears" (140). Beyond the physical impairments, children suffering with FAS have learning issues as well. They tend to have "cognitive confusion," they have learning and memory impairment, and they struggle to understand "the consequences of their actions" (140). It should be noted that there is no absolutely typical FAS child in terms of learning issues, but it is common for FAS children to have "verbal recall" allowing them to "parrot back" information -- but that doesn't mean they are actually learning.

Brems, Christiane, Boschma-Wynn, Rachel V., Dewane, Sarah L., Edwards, Alexandra, and Robinson, Rebecca Volino. (2011). Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders:

Educational Needs in Academia. Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, 55(1), 15-37.

The article points out at the outset what is well-known, and that is that while 4.5 live births per 1000 births are unfortunately affected by FASDs (fetal alcohol spectrum disorders). These babies and their suffering could be prevented, the authors argue, but in order to truly engage in preventative interventions, education about the problem needs to be part of the academic community (15). The research presented in the Brems article indicates that upon investigation of 45 university academic programs, directors of those higher education programs would be pleased to incorporate FASD education, but those 45 institutions say they have "few resources to support it within their own programs" (15). The costs to the United States in medical terms is enormous when it comes to FASD: an estimated cost of $3.6 billion -- and "lifetime costs estimated as high as $1.6 million per affected individual" -- which is staggering, and ironically, avoidable. The ongoing situation where so many children are born with FAS is in spite of the fact that warnings have been given from the Surgeons General and public service announcements have gone out over television and radio for years. Still, Brems asserts that 12% of pregnant women report drinking some alcohol during pregnancy, and up to 2% of pregnant women admit to "binge drinking" (16). The bottom line for this research is that of the 45 institutions that Brems et al. queried, nearly all "strongly endorsed" FASD education belonged as part of the curriculum in their programs. Moreover, almost 87% of programs in allied health disciplines do not have courses with meaningful FASD content (20).

Domellof, E., Fagard, J., Jacquet, a.Y., and Ronnqvist, L. (2011). Goal-directed arm movements in children with fetal alcohol syndrome: a kinematic approach. European Journal

of Neurology. Vol. 18, 312-320.

The authors in this peer-reviewed article claim that while several studies have looked into the "deficits in general motor functioning" in children with FAS, few studies have used strategies that actually explore the "specific nature" of the disability of fetal alcohol syndrome. Hence the authors launched a research project that utilized three-dimensional "kinematic analysis" in the hopes of learning more about motor control issues in the unfortunate children suffering from FAS. Ten children with FAS and ten children that were "typically developing" children (TD) were hooked up to an optoelectronic tracking system. And the results showed that children with FAS showed "evidently poorer task performance" in comparison with TD children. While this was not surprising, indeed it was expected, the results also provided insights into the motor disabilities in the FAS children. To wit, FAS children "exhibited longer arm movement trajectories at both the proximal and distal level" and the FAS children demonstrated "faster velocities" in their proximal level and their head movements were "fast" and "augmented." What does this mean for researchers looking into FAS? Basically all the researchers learned is that using 3D technologies helps to further the understanding of motor control restrictions in those children with FAS (Domellof, 2011). And moreover, this paper attempts to encourage more studies on movements within children suffering from FAS.

Jones, Kenneth Lyons, and Streissguth, Ann P. (2010). Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal

Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A brief history. Journal of Psychiatry & Law, 38(4) 373-382.

The authors in this scholarly article provide a short history of FAS, and they explain that in 1973, the syndrome was reported in 11 children born to "chronic alcoholic women" -- and these women had continued to consume alcohol throughout their pregnancies (373). Back in the 19th century, Dr. William Sullivan had investigated females at the Liverpool Prison, females that were known to be alcoholics; from this research he determined that there was -- among alcoholic women -- an increased "frequency of early fetal death" as well as "early infant mortality" in the babies born to these women. Dr. David Smith, professor of Pediatrics at the University of… READ MORE

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