Reference no: EM133302421
Assignment:
Carrie, age 21, a single mother of three-year-old twin boys, drank alcohol almost daily during her pregnancy. Brennan and Brandon were born prematurely and were hospitalized for over two months due to health problems. Their biological father remains an absent parent. The boys were diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) shortly after birth, and are developmentally delayed. Carrie was court-ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, counseling, and parenting classes so that she could better parent her children. She has been sober for one year.
The twins attend a special education preschool program for (4) hours a day, three times a week. Carrie is frustrated with the day-to-day challenges and responsibility of caring for Brennan and Brandon, and blames herself for their condition. Carrie sometimes thinks about drinking again but knows that it would only make matters worse. She is estranged from her family of origin, and currently does not have a good support system. Both Brennan and Brandon are lagging in cognitive, social-emotional, speech-language, and motor development. The boys are very active, have difficulty focusing and paying attention, and have poor receptive and expressive language skills.
1. What emotions emerge after reading this vignette?
2. What is a teratogen?
3. What is fetal alcohol syndrome? Is this a preventable condition? If so, how?
4. What does it mean to have poor receptive and expressive language skills?