Please join the newly formed non-profit organization Healthy Brains for Children. I don't know if I can express how urgently I feel about getting the message out to our schools, communities, and nation.
The goals of the organization will be to:
1. Educate with educators who understand brain damage from prenatal exposure to alcohol and how that impacts our classrooms
2. Educate all students of the dangers of drinking during pregnancies.
3. Educate the medical profession, the education profession, and all service professions of the impact prenatal exposure to alcohol is having on our society.
4. Lower the number of children coming to early education and kindergarten with learning and behavioral difficulties brought on by brain damage from prenatal exposure to alcohol.
5. Support research of the societal effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol
Please help me with this initiative. The first thing I need to do is publish my book, "The Fatal Link" I currently have the book with a publisher. This book is about what I have learned about the brain damage caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol and how that has impacted our families, schools, communities, and society. This book will reveal to our nation for the first time the connection between school shooters and the fact a high percentage of their mothers habitually drank alcohol, exposing the fetus to alcohol causing brain damage, the Fatal Link. Never has any of the studies of school shooters or any of the talking heads even been close to seeing this link. I have chosen to pay to have the book published while retaining the rights to the book. If I signed the rights away, the publisher could change the message and I will not allow anyone to change the message, as I do not know anyone who knows what I know about the subject. A special thanks to some of you who have helped me with the book.
I believe this book needs to be read by every school teacher, every family practitioner, every psychologist, every social worker, etc. I do not believe there is another educator who has the background and understanding I have as to how this totally preventable tragedy is impacting our schools everyday. My goal is to bring this to our nation's attention. I need your help.
If you are interested in supporting our organization, please send at least $100. With that donation, you will become a member of Healthy Brains for Children. Upon receiving our 501 c 3 status, all your donations will be tax deductible. I believe this organization will become self-sustaining after the publication of the book and with the speaking engagements that will follow. I will serve as the volunteer Executive Director for the organization until such time the organization is solid and can afford to pay for my services. For my current colleagues, I am happily serving as the Director of TEAM Academy Charter School in Waseca, MN and plan to remain as such. Healthy Brains for Children does not need to sustain a salaried position.
I have been speaking on this subject for some time now. I have presented to superintendents, principals, teachers, para-professionals, non-profits, and funding organizations. I will be presenting to the Minnesota School Counselors and doing a three day training in Reno, Nevada in May. There are other opportunities coming that will create even more awareness. As this continues to expand, I need your help.
My immediate goals are to:
-establish the non-profit organization - cost $500
-publish the book - cost $10,000 (I will have more information on this in two weeks-cost relative to number of books printed. Large donations are accepted. I will find a non-profit fiscal agent until we get our 501 c 3 status)
-establish a website - cost $500 (beginning site) If someone has the know-how and time to assist with this, please let me know.
My longer range goals are to:
-develop a replicable model that can be used in communities that will bring educators, the medical profession, the clergy, the social services, and other entities together to learn the facts of the epidemic of prenatal exposure to alcohol, known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and how they can work together to lower the number of prenatally exposed children.
-train and educate educators on FASD and what works in schools.
-bring this subject to the national stage in the form of the book, television programming, national conferences.
-fund research
_________________________________________________________________________
Any donations can be sent to :
Healthy Brains for Children
Jody Allen Crowe
1021 Mill Ave
Brainerd, MN 56401
Contact me at jodycrowe@gmail.com
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Upon donating, you will become a member of our organization with all the rights as detailed in the by-laws. I welcome you to this so very important initiative. If you are interested in having me speak in your community, contact me. If you know of others who would be interested in this initiative, please forward this email to them and/or have them contact me. If you would like me to come to your community to initiate a Healthy Brains Project, let's talk.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The Fatal Link
It has been awhile since I have entered anything in the blog. I have been writing my book, "The Fatal Link". I am nearing completion and will post any news of the publishing of the book.
I am presenting to the Minnesota School Counselors on May 6 and will be in Reno, NV for a two day presentation later that week. On April 24-25, I will be in Salt Lake City as a guest of Pearson Learning, the company that owns the software we use in our school and I have been using for many years as I developed classrooms that worked for FASD children. Pearson Learning distributed a news article about our school and how we differentiate instruction for our students to every sales representative nationwide and overseas.
I am presenting to the Minnesota School Counselors on May 6 and will be in Reno, NV for a two day presentation later that week. On April 24-25, I will be in Salt Lake City as a guest of Pearson Learning, the company that owns the software we use in our school and I have been using for many years as I developed classrooms that worked for FASD children. Pearson Learning distributed a news article about our school and how we differentiate instruction for our students to every sales representative nationwide and overseas.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Not In My Town Presentation
Today, I presented to educators and other human services personnel in Thief River Falls, MN. I told some of them the Powerpoint presentation would be on this site. I will have to have you go to my professional efolio site and find it in under the Work Samples tab.
Thanks to all who attended today. I hope we can continue this dialogue about getting more information to the students and families.
Thanks to all who attended today. I hope we can continue this dialogue about getting more information to the students and families.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
What Interventions Work?
I was asked by a University student if there were any interventions for an FASD student. Here was my response (with a few changes).
I have some time tonight, so I am going to try to answer your question.
The only true intervention for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is to not drink. When the alcohol enters the bloodstream of the mother, the damage begins. The damage continues until the mother stops drinking or the child is born. It can continue if the mother breast feeds and drinks alcohol during the period of time she breastfeeds.
Early intervention gives the child the best chance of success. The window of time for early intervention has passed by 5 years old. Even the early intervention has minimal success. The brain damage has already occurred. From birth of the child until the child reaches 3 to 4 years old, a full Syndrome, and any FASD child would need focused and intensive diagnosis of hearing, vision, sensory sensitivity, large motor movement, and a full spectrum of physical evaluations. Academically, the child would need intense phonemic and verbal and physical prescriptive activities designed to stimulate the neurons to their maximum capability. Research suggests this type of early intervention provides for more success. I would submit that a parent or guardian who is providing this type of therapy or activities is providing the structure an FASD child needs to give him or her the best chance for success.
Besides having an early diagnosis and intense interventions as a baby, structure in an FASD child's life is the one single best intervention. Unfortunately, many FASD children are born of FASD parents and structure is not something an FASD parent is capable of providing. An FASD brain needs another brain to remind, refocus, direct, and protect the FASD child. An FASD brain is impulsive and does not have the connections other brains have. The FASD child needs structure both in the home and in the school setting. Transistions throw them off. One strategy is to have timers in the classrooms that ring 5 minutes and 2 minutes before transistions. When the timer goes off, the teacher reminds the class that the transistion is coming. This gives the FASD brain time to prepare for transistions. Schedules that change every day are not condusive to structure an FASD brain needs. Bus rides are especially difficult for an FASD brain.
Less sensory inputs rather than more. An FASD brain can not take in all the sensory inputs a normal brain can. Elementary classrooms and books are full of sensory demonstrations. A classroom with limited color and wall hangings provides a calmer environment for the FASD brain.
Another stategy that works is to focus on asking the FASD child a question when the child is observed to be off task, out of place, or doing something that is not allowed in the classroom. Typically , when asked, for instance, "Is that out of place?" the FASD child will be reminded and will return to the activity. You would need to train the child what "in place" means. The question does two things. First, you, as the adult, are using non-shaming, non-blaming language. This presentation does not blame the child for doing something they should not be doing. An example of shaming, blaming language is "Johnny, I told you to sit down!" By always remembering "Brain Damage", you understand what the child is doing is not a fault of the child. Secondly, this questioning give the brain a "jolt" or "restart" and the child has control of his or her thought, however fleeting.
The FASD brain has a hard time following a sequence of commands. "Johnny, go over to the bookshelf, pick up your Social Studies book, go back to your seat and open to page 35." is a series of 4 commands. An FASD brain will hear the first command and not have a clue as to what follows. The child will go to the bookshelf and stand there. A typical teacher response would be, "Johnny, what did I just tell you?" Think Brain Damage! Johnny's brain truly will not be able to follow the sequence of commands. The intervention is to always give one command at a time for the FASD brain. A software called FastForward can be used to train the brain to follow a sequence of commands. The research shows success with this strategy, although there has not been any specific research with FASD brains.
Computer software. An FASD brain needs to have many concepts presented many times. An adult can only review so much before getting frustrated, angry, and shaming/blaming. Have you every heard a teacher say, "How many times do I have to tell you?" A computer never gets angry with a student. A computer gives immediate feedback to a student. A computer with the right software in the classroom allows an FASD brain to move forward in the curriculum at their achievement pace, while saving face with the other kids in the classroom. An FASD brain will shut down when a adult says the above. When the FASD brain shuts down, you get the secondary disabilities of depression, anger, emotional, behavioral disabilities, etc.
Medication. In many cases, FASD is misdiagnosed as ADD or ADHD. Medication does work as an intervention in many FASD brains. The meds, when applied correctly and that may take several different attempts of type and dosage, will give the FASD brain a window of time every day to gather knowledge. How the brain is able to use the knowledge is tied directly to what areas of the brain is damaged. Remember, an FASD brain is not necessarily unintelligent, the brain just does not have the necessary links to make the intelligence work the way a normal brain works.
In my experience, many FASD brains need touch to facilitate learning. Numbers and letters are learned using object letters to feel, touch, squeeze, and stroke. Subject such as, science, reading, math, and others are better learned using kinetic strategies, to the extent the FASD brain can learn and remember. The mouse on the computer gives the FASD brain a tool to move and direct.
Some FASD brains need constant motion, so having devices on the chairs that makes the brain constantly have to balance can help. Objects the child can handle, squeeze, and/or flex can meet the need for the brain to constantly give muscles the command to move.
I could go on. I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions.
I have some time tonight, so I am going to try to answer your question.
The only true intervention for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is to not drink. When the alcohol enters the bloodstream of the mother, the damage begins. The damage continues until the mother stops drinking or the child is born. It can continue if the mother breast feeds and drinks alcohol during the period of time she breastfeeds.
Early intervention gives the child the best chance of success. The window of time for early intervention has passed by 5 years old. Even the early intervention has minimal success. The brain damage has already occurred. From birth of the child until the child reaches 3 to 4 years old, a full Syndrome, and any FASD child would need focused and intensive diagnosis of hearing, vision, sensory sensitivity, large motor movement, and a full spectrum of physical evaluations. Academically, the child would need intense phonemic and verbal and physical prescriptive activities designed to stimulate the neurons to their maximum capability. Research suggests this type of early intervention provides for more success. I would submit that a parent or guardian who is providing this type of therapy or activities is providing the structure an FASD child needs to give him or her the best chance for success.
Besides having an early diagnosis and intense interventions as a baby, structure in an FASD child's life is the one single best intervention. Unfortunately, many FASD children are born of FASD parents and structure is not something an FASD parent is capable of providing. An FASD brain needs another brain to remind, refocus, direct, and protect the FASD child. An FASD brain is impulsive and does not have the connections other brains have. The FASD child needs structure both in the home and in the school setting. Transistions throw them off. One strategy is to have timers in the classrooms that ring 5 minutes and 2 minutes before transistions. When the timer goes off, the teacher reminds the class that the transistion is coming. This gives the FASD brain time to prepare for transistions. Schedules that change every day are not condusive to structure an FASD brain needs. Bus rides are especially difficult for an FASD brain.
Less sensory inputs rather than more. An FASD brain can not take in all the sensory inputs a normal brain can. Elementary classrooms and books are full of sensory demonstrations. A classroom with limited color and wall hangings provides a calmer environment for the FASD brain.
Another stategy that works is to focus on asking the FASD child a question when the child is observed to be off task, out of place, or doing something that is not allowed in the classroom. Typically , when asked, for instance, "Is that out of place?" the FASD child will be reminded and will return to the activity. You would need to train the child what "in place" means. The question does two things. First, you, as the adult, are using non-shaming, non-blaming language. This presentation does not blame the child for doing something they should not be doing. An example of shaming, blaming language is "Johnny, I told you to sit down!" By always remembering "Brain Damage", you understand what the child is doing is not a fault of the child. Secondly, this questioning give the brain a "jolt" or "restart" and the child has control of his or her thought, however fleeting.
The FASD brain has a hard time following a sequence of commands. "Johnny, go over to the bookshelf, pick up your Social Studies book, go back to your seat and open to page 35." is a series of 4 commands. An FASD brain will hear the first command and not have a clue as to what follows. The child will go to the bookshelf and stand there. A typical teacher response would be, "Johnny, what did I just tell you?" Think Brain Damage! Johnny's brain truly will not be able to follow the sequence of commands. The intervention is to always give one command at a time for the FASD brain. A software called FastForward can be used to train the brain to follow a sequence of commands. The research shows success with this strategy, although there has not been any specific research with FASD brains.
Computer software. An FASD brain needs to have many concepts presented many times. An adult can only review so much before getting frustrated, angry, and shaming/blaming. Have you every heard a teacher say, "How many times do I have to tell you?" A computer never gets angry with a student. A computer gives immediate feedback to a student. A computer with the right software in the classroom allows an FASD brain to move forward in the curriculum at their achievement pace, while saving face with the other kids in the classroom. An FASD brain will shut down when a adult says the above. When the FASD brain shuts down, you get the secondary disabilities of depression, anger, emotional, behavioral disabilities, etc.
Medication. In many cases, FASD is misdiagnosed as ADD or ADHD. Medication does work as an intervention in many FASD brains. The meds, when applied correctly and that may take several different attempts of type and dosage, will give the FASD brain a window of time every day to gather knowledge. How the brain is able to use the knowledge is tied directly to what areas of the brain is damaged. Remember, an FASD brain is not necessarily unintelligent, the brain just does not have the necessary links to make the intelligence work the way a normal brain works.
In my experience, many FASD brains need touch to facilitate learning. Numbers and letters are learned using object letters to feel, touch, squeeze, and stroke. Subject such as, science, reading, math, and others are better learned using kinetic strategies, to the extent the FASD brain can learn and remember. The mouse on the computer gives the FASD brain a tool to move and direct.
Some FASD brains need constant motion, so having devices on the chairs that makes the brain constantly have to balance can help. Objects the child can handle, squeeze, and/or flex can meet the need for the brain to constantly give muscles the command to move.
I could go on. I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask more questions.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Alcohol Babies
Crack Babies! Meth Babies! Cocaine Babies! We have seen and heard about all. In fact, I have had adoptive mothers tell me they went to Europe to adopt because they did not want crack or meth babies. It is so easy to identify and demonize mothers who deliver crack or meth babies. It is so socially acceptable to look to those mothers and say they are producing babies that the rest of society will need to take care of. We have no problem as a society to identify the crack and meth babies. But here is the problem. We only know of the crack and meth babies if the mother is using crack or meth at the end of the pregnancy. Evidence of any impact the drug has will only be evident if the drug is being used at the end of the pregnancy. Both drugs will leave the body within days. Certainly damage will occur with a crack or meth baby, but not the type of brain damage that will have lifetime reprecussions.
People are not getting the message when we use terms like FAS, FAE, FASD, ARND, pFASD, etc. We need to simplify the message. We need to link to what everyone knows. We need to reach the ones who don't care. Well, here is my solution.
I submit we need to start a new designation, one that is short and to the point......ALCOHOL BABIES. The difference between crack and meth babies and Alcohol Babies is when and how and what damage occurs. An Alcohol Baby can be damaged before the mother even knows she is pregnant. Drinking alcohol any time during the pregnancy will cause damage. Alcohol Babies are permanently damaged. An expectant mother could binge one day and go through all the rest of her pregnancy without drinking and create an Alcohol Baby. Evidence of the damage from drinking does not disappear like it does with meth and crack babies. Alcohol Babies are putting much more strain on our social system than crack and meth babies, we just don't know it. We need to have a shock campaign to get the message out loud and clear! Alcohol Babies cost our system over hundreds of thousands of dollars and more each over the course of their lifetime. Alcohol Babies fill our special education systems, judicial systems, and social systems. Many Alcohol Babies grow up to be violent offenders, abusers, and sexual predators. Many Alcohol Babies grow up and have Alcohol Babies. We need to stop this epidemic of Alcohol Babies!
People are not getting the message when we use terms like FAS, FAE, FASD, ARND, pFASD, etc. We need to simplify the message. We need to link to what everyone knows. We need to reach the ones who don't care. Well, here is my solution.
I submit we need to start a new designation, one that is short and to the point......ALCOHOL BABIES. The difference between crack and meth babies and Alcohol Babies is when and how and what damage occurs. An Alcohol Baby can be damaged before the mother even knows she is pregnant. Drinking alcohol any time during the pregnancy will cause damage. Alcohol Babies are permanently damaged. An expectant mother could binge one day and go through all the rest of her pregnancy without drinking and create an Alcohol Baby. Evidence of the damage from drinking does not disappear like it does with meth and crack babies. Alcohol Babies are putting much more strain on our social system than crack and meth babies, we just don't know it. We need to have a shock campaign to get the message out loud and clear! Alcohol Babies cost our system over hundreds of thousands of dollars and more each over the course of their lifetime. Alcohol Babies fill our special education systems, judicial systems, and social systems. Many Alcohol Babies grow up to be violent offenders, abusers, and sexual predators. Many Alcohol Babies grow up and have Alcohol Babies. We need to stop this epidemic of Alcohol Babies!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
How has FASD impacted our Society
Has anyone asked the question for violent perpetrators such as Son of Sam David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahlmer and others who have captured the media attention as serial killers? I would bet we would be amazed at how many were fetally exposed to alcohol.
Wikipedia states (among other traits):
The element of fantasy in a serial killer's development is extremely important. They often begin fantasizing about murder during or even before adolescence. Their fantasy lives are very rich and they daydream compulsively about domination, submission, and murder, usually with very specific elements to the fantasy that will eventually be apparent in their real crimes.
Some serial killers display one or more of what are known as the "MacDonald triad" of warning signs in childhood. These are:
Fire starting, or arson invariably for the thrill of destroying things, for gaining attention, or for making the perpetrator feel more powerful.
Cruelty to animals (related to "zoosadism"). Many children may be cruel to animals, such as pulling the legs off spiders, but future serial killers often kill larger animals, like dogs and cats, and frequently for their solitary enjoyment rather than to impress peers.
Bed wetting beyond the age when children normally grow out of such behavior.
I think we would be utterly amazed at the impact of FASD. Only when society can see how it effects them on a day to day emotional basis, a financial basis, or in a personal way like paralyzing fear, will we truly have an impact on stopping this tragedy.
The greater community has not seen this as the reservations communities has. Bill Lawrence, editor of the Ojibwe News contacted me last year to gather information on FASD, as he saw the growing level of violence on the reservations and was looking for the root cause. His editorials on FASD were revealing, as he did his homework to find out more about the behaviors exhibited by FASD victims. He concluded, as I have, the violence on the reservations are a direct result of the brain damage of FASD. The elders on the reservations sit in fear of their lives while the bullets fly. The gangs own the streets and villages at night. Young kids are drawn or threatened into gangs. FASD kids become the gang enforcers and victims of gang violence, as they will act without caution due to the inability to connect an action to a consequence. Guns have become part of the action. Adrenalin feeds the action. Alcohol, the drug of choice, feed the action. So little attention is paid to the level of violence on the reservations due in part to the reservation's policies of limited or no access to information. The people on the reservations know how much impact FASD has in their lives, but most are unwilling to admit the problem due to the fact they contributed to the problem by drinking during their pregnancy or allowed their partner, daughter, or partner to drink during the pregnancy. The only ones who would talk to me about it were the grandmothers who are taking care of FASD grandchildren because the mothers had discarded the children, were in jail, or had lost custody because of their actions (most of the time because the mothers are FASD). Only once, after I wrote an article about FASD, did an American Indian mother talk to me about her child and the lifelong devastating effect her drinking during the pregnancy had on her child. Through all this, tribal leaders still refuse to see or state the truth. In fact, I have had tribal leaders go after me politically because I dared to state the obvious. I consider their attacks a badge of honor. I can't stand back and see this happening to innocent victims because some political figure wants to hide his head in the sand. We need to have the same aggressiveness when it comes to political actions at the state and federal level.
Reservations are a microcosm of what can happen in our society. Russia and mid-European countries are other windows into FASD impacts in society. Canada is further ahead of the USA in recognizing the impact of FASD. Wake up America. This is real!!!!!!
Wikipedia states (among other traits):
The element of fantasy in a serial killer's development is extremely important. They often begin fantasizing about murder during or even before adolescence. Their fantasy lives are very rich and they daydream compulsively about domination, submission, and murder, usually with very specific elements to the fantasy that will eventually be apparent in their real crimes.
Some serial killers display one or more of what are known as the "MacDonald triad" of warning signs in childhood. These are:
Fire starting, or arson invariably for the thrill of destroying things, for gaining attention, or for making the perpetrator feel more powerful.
Cruelty to animals (related to "zoosadism"). Many children may be cruel to animals, such as pulling the legs off spiders, but future serial killers often kill larger animals, like dogs and cats, and frequently for their solitary enjoyment rather than to impress peers.
Bed wetting beyond the age when children normally grow out of such behavior.
I think we would be utterly amazed at the impact of FASD. Only when society can see how it effects them on a day to day emotional basis, a financial basis, or in a personal way like paralyzing fear, will we truly have an impact on stopping this tragedy.
The greater community has not seen this as the reservations communities has. Bill Lawrence, editor of the Ojibwe News contacted me last year to gather information on FASD, as he saw the growing level of violence on the reservations and was looking for the root cause. His editorials on FASD were revealing, as he did his homework to find out more about the behaviors exhibited by FASD victims. He concluded, as I have, the violence on the reservations are a direct result of the brain damage of FASD. The elders on the reservations sit in fear of their lives while the bullets fly. The gangs own the streets and villages at night. Young kids are drawn or threatened into gangs. FASD kids become the gang enforcers and victims of gang violence, as they will act without caution due to the inability to connect an action to a consequence. Guns have become part of the action. Adrenalin feeds the action. Alcohol, the drug of choice, feed the action. So little attention is paid to the level of violence on the reservations due in part to the reservation's policies of limited or no access to information. The people on the reservations know how much impact FASD has in their lives, but most are unwilling to admit the problem due to the fact they contributed to the problem by drinking during their pregnancy or allowed their partner, daughter, or partner to drink during the pregnancy. The only ones who would talk to me about it were the grandmothers who are taking care of FASD grandchildren because the mothers had discarded the children, were in jail, or had lost custody because of their actions (most of the time because the mothers are FASD). Only once, after I wrote an article about FASD, did an American Indian mother talk to me about her child and the lifelong devastating effect her drinking during the pregnancy had on her child. Through all this, tribal leaders still refuse to see or state the truth. In fact, I have had tribal leaders go after me politically because I dared to state the obvious. I consider their attacks a badge of honor. I can't stand back and see this happening to innocent victims because some political figure wants to hide his head in the sand. We need to have the same aggressiveness when it comes to political actions at the state and federal level.
Reservations are a microcosm of what can happen in our society. Russia and mid-European countries are other windows into FASD impacts in society. Canada is further ahead of the USA in recognizing the impact of FASD. Wake up America. This is real!!!!!!
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