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A siloed, faux-progressive Lancet opinion piece blind-sides the FASD community
Eliason et al. do not in fact challenge recent epidemiological findings about prevalence rates of FASDs, nor do they call into question the neurological and physiological reality of the condition; instead, they advance claims about nomenclature, contending that the term used to refer to the disorder is what causes the greatest harm in the lives…
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Reflections on the Alberta Child and Youth Advocate’s 2023-2024 Investigative Reports into the Deaths of Children and Youth in Care
Towards the end of my last post, I wrote these sentences: “Kids with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder aren’t ‘born broken,’ but they are born with some of the crucial neurological connections incomplete, and hence if they are going to thrive in the world they will need to fit, and be fitted, consciously and intentionally,…
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When We Were Vikings / Born Broken
Disability advocate CJ Lutke wrote recently that when she was growing up, Amelia Bedelia was the closest thing she ever came across to a representation of herself in a book or movie. Amelia Bedelia, the children’s book character, is quirky, spontaneous, and tends to take figures of speech literally (she “undusts” a room, for e.g.,…
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This Is What I Know — CJ Lutke’s blog
For today’s post — returning after some months away — I’m going to link to CJ Lutke’s excellent blog (hosted by NOFASD Australia), and quote a paragraph from it. She is a member of the Adult Leadership Committee of the intrepid, inspiring fetal alcohol spectrum disorder advocacy organization Changemakers Canada. Re: the name of the…
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“Limbic System” — How a German Poet’s Picture of the Brain Helped Me Wrap My Head Around Emotional Regulation, Difficult Behaviour, and the “Little Deficits” We All Live With
I’d been a foster and adoptive parent for about six and a half years when, in late 2014, I first came across the poem “Limbic System” by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1929-2022). I was learning about brain function in relation to prenatal exposure and developmental trauma. (The latter term refers to injuries to a child’s brain…
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“Neurodiverse” as Opposed to What?
Okay, “neurodiverse” or “neurodivergent” is an adjective you’ve probably heard used to describe high-functioning people on the autism spectrum, but how does it apply to kids with fetal alcohol disorders? Aren’t these completely different phenomena? Is there any good reason for expanding the use of this term? The word “neurodiversity” first started to be used…
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Two Films, Twenty Years: Understanding + Support = a Different World
I want to praise a recent documentary film, Learning the Dance: Community Making a Difference, made by Lisa and François Balcaen in 2018 about two students, their families, and educators at a school district in rural Manitoba. Learning the Dance [48 min.] introduces us to Arielle and Troy, two grade seven students (at two different…
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Keeping On Keeping On (and Some Days Much Better Than That)
(Dec. 28, 2022; updated Sept. 14, 2025) Welcome! My name is J. Mark Smith. I’m a writer and literary scholar. And I’m a proud parent of two neurodiverse children. My family’s story is somewhat out of the ordinary. I tell about it in a work of narrative nonfiction — Motley Green Blanket — that was…
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WALKING THE ROAD 