Sometimes families are dealing with kids who only have attachment issues or attachment disorder. Other times (and often this is the case) there are other issues thrown in the pot. One of those issues is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or Alcohol Related Neurological Disorder (ARND).


I remember reading something written by Foster Cline years and years ago. In his book Hope for High Risk and Rage-filled Children, he writes about an unnamed therapist who described FAS kids like this:

I remember when I was a child and we had little cars with a fly-wheel inside. We’d put them on the floor and get that fly-wheel spinning and then put the car down on the floor and watch them squeal like mad across the linoleum. Well, I have found that I can rev up children who have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in therapy. But there is no follow-through. It is as if they don’t have a fly-wheel.

In Healing Parents, Helping Wounded Children Learn to Trust and Love, the authors Michael Orlans and Terry Levy write that “biochemically irritable, agitated and anxious” infants who were exposed to drugs and alcohol in utero are less able to be comforted post natally, thus complicating the normal attachment process. (Not to mention that if those infants are still in the care of their drug or alcohol-abusing parent{s}, what kind of care are they receiving?)


In my previous post I wrote about Nancy Thomas camp, and now I am going to tell you about yet another “special” camp. The Life In The FASLane Teen / Adult Conference will be held August, 3-6, 2007 at Confidence Learning Center, Brainerd, MN. It is limited to 50 teams and a team consists of a person with a diagnosis of FASD plus a support person aged 15 years and over. To learn more, donate or register go here.


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