Study Shows Improvement of Executive Functioning in Children with FASD

The 11-page American Journal of Occupational Therapy free PDF can be found here.  The Chicago clinic doctors and therapists from Children’s Research Triangle who treat children from foster care and international adoption conducted the study.

Wells, AM, Chasnoff IJ, Schmidt CA, Telford E, Schwatrz LD. Neurocognitive Habilitation Therapy for Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: An Adaptation of the Alert Program AJOT 2012; 66 (1):24-34.

The study was done in foster and adopted children aged 6 to almost 12 years old.

“OBJECTIVE.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of neurocognitive habilitation, a group therapy intervention
for foster and adoptive caregivers and their children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol.

METHOD.

Participants were recruited from clients seeking evaluation for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) and were randomly assigned to treatment and
no-treatment control groups. Forty children participated in the treatment program and were compared with 38 control participants using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and the Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC).

RESULTS.
Significant differences between the treatment and control groups were demonstrated on the BRIEF and on the RATC, suggesting that the intervention improved executive functioning and emotional problem-solving skills.

CONCLUSION.
These findings yield promising evidence of the effectiveness of the neurocognitive habilitation intervention in improving executive functioning and emotional problem solving in children with FAS or ARND.”

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