Focusing on Strengths Rather than Deficits in FASD Interventions (OIP)

Project Description

Challenge

Approximately 1 in 100 children per year affected by prenatal alcohol exposure. These estimates translate to thousands of affected infants born each year with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Intervention programs for children with FASD have traditionally focused on addressing deficits in cognitive ability and intellectual capacity, or on adapting social behaviours. Such programs have met with limited success, and there is a growing consensus that new and innovative approaches are needed.

Project Summary

The goal of the intervention was to strengthen the participant’s motor and sensory domains primarily and included a study to determine its effectiveness. The research consisted of children between the ages of six and twelve with a confirmed FASD diagnosis. Each child underwent an initial assessment that dictated where their strengths lied, and therefore the activities in which they would participate. In this way, each child had an individualized intervention program.

The strength-based motor skill intervention portion of the program consisted of 90-minute sessions and had seven stations. These stations generally focused on manual dexterity and accuracy, balance, bilateral coordination, upper limb coordination, speed and agility, strength, and fine motor control. Of these seven stations, each child participated in three—the three in which they scored the highest on their initial assessment. Also, each participant chose one motor skill they’d like to work on in a one-on-one session with an instructor for 20 minutes.

Result

The project used a neurofeedback technique, which used real-time displays of the brain’s electrical activity to teach self-regulation. A newly developed software has been designed to act like a video game, where a child uses a game controller to “play” while other aspects of the “game” responded to their brain activity. In this way, the researchers proved that the brain could be trained to self-regulate through gentle reinforcement by the “game.”