FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome



Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Introduction

Alcohol is a culturally acceptable, legal drug that is part of the lives of many women. However, alcohol dependency can occur when alcohol is continually consumed despite negative consequences to one's overall health and well-being. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, a standard for diagnosis in psychiatry and psychology, define alcohol dependence as the repeated use of alcohol despite recurrent adverse psychological and physical consequences. One of these significant impacts is fetal alcohol syndrome that creates severe impact on the child during pregnancy. This syndrome results from alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Alcohol ingested by pregnant women crosses the placenta and is absorbed by the unborn child. Many researchers have explored the concept of children development and presence of FADS. Core objective of the paper surrounds these two variables.

Research Objective

Main objective of this paper is to explore the impact of fetal alcohol syndrome on children. This research examines the research papers that explored the fundamental of the syndrome in the domain of childhood. This paper also explores how does FADS creates an impact on the child development, and evaluates the researches using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory.

Selected Research Articles

Three articles have been selected for this literary analysis paper. These articles examine the issue from qualitative, quantitative, and ecological theory approach. These articles are listed below.

1.Kalberg, W., Provost, B., Tollison, S., Tabachnick, B., Robinson, L., Eugene Hoyme, H., & May, P. (2006), Comparison of motor delays in young children with fetal alcohol syndrome to those with prenatal alcohol exposure and with no prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, Vol. 30(12), 2037-2045.

2.Rasmussen, C., Pei, J., Manji, S., Loomes, C., & Andrew, G. (2009), Memory strategy development in children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Vol. 12(4), 207-214.

3.Carl, A. et al. (2011), Maltreatment of children with developmental disabilities: An ecological systems analysis. Children and Youth Services Review 33 (2011) 1142-1148.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a disorder that can occur to the fetus when a pregnant woman ingests alcohol during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome is one of a group of birth defects commonly grouped together as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), also known as fetal alcohol effects (Chudley et al., 2005). This disorder includes a range of effects that can occur or develop in individuals whose biological mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. The umbrella term FASD includes FAS, alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (PFAS), and neuro-developmental disorder (ARND) (Chudley et al., 2005).

Alcohol cross the placental barrier and can stunt fetal growth or weight, create distinctive facial stigmata, and nerve cells in the brain and damage to structures, and other cause physical problems, mental, or behavioral. The fetus gets major concentration of alcohol as compare to his or her mother; alcohol also lingers longer in the fetus's body than it does in the mother's. This is irreversible damage to the brain of the child with alcohol. This syndrome has no racial or geographical boundaries and can affect all children born at home and across the ...