Improving Educational Outcomes in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Through Interagency Collaboration

Abstract

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) demonstrate a significant array of neurocognitive impairments including deficits in intelligence, attention, processing speed, executive functions, language functions, visualspatial abilities, memory, and academic achievement. Neuropsychological impairments in children and adolescents with prenatal exposure to alcohol follow a continuum from no identifiable effects at one end to pervasive impairments across areas at the other end (i.e., Spohr, Willms and Steinhausen 1993; Streissguth, Randels and Smith 1991). Due to the continuum of impairments, interagency collaboration was developed to address the special educational needs of the children. The current paper has several purposes: (1) to allow school district staff who were offered an opportunity to share their perspectives and expertise on FASD and special need issues facing their students diagnosed with FASD; (2) to identify the school and social challenges faced by students diagnosed with FASD; (3) to describe the collaborative interagency program and potential impact on classroom ecology; and (4) to determine if the interagency collaboration had an effect on intervention practices of educators within the classroom.