Tag: supporting kids with FASDs in school

  • Reflections on the Alberta Child and Youth Advocate’s 2023-2024 Investigative Reports into the Deaths of Children and Youth in Care

    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,…

  • When We Were Vikings / Born Broken

    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.,…

  • “Neurodiverse” as Opposed to What?

    “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…

  • Two Films, Twenty Years: Understanding + Support = a Different World

    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…