Discovering the Treasures within your FASE child and loved one

P A R E N T T O P A R E N T

Discovering the treasures within

My child hates herself,
thinks she is stupid and ugly...
what can I do?

Common Good Qualities and Talents of Persons with FASD.

Many individuals with FASD have these positive characteristics.
However, without identification and appropriate supports,
these "positives" may gradually extinguish, erode or mutate.

Here is an excellent information piece from ARC Northland in Duluth. Their sources were from Clarren, Streissguth, Morse, Malbin, Rathburn, RAS Resource Coalition.

tactile and cuddly friendly and happy spontaneous

trusting and loving great sense of humor loyal

determined and committed kind and caring concerned and sensitive

helpful affectionate gentle

curious and creative persistent willing

athletic moral and fair involved

loving of animals enjoy gardening enjoy constructing

artistic and musical highly verbal rich fantasy life

good with younger children nurturing compassionate

devoted as parents strong sense of self wonderful story tellers

good long term visual memory hard workers atypical strengths

creative intelligence

My heart breaks for the self-esteem of these children. They try so hard and then dive into social abyss with their dismal behaviors. They are misunderstood, misdiagnosed and struggle with normal daily life issues. We decided to go on a treasure hunt for our child and this is what we discovered. We kept this published on our refrigerator for months and read them to our daughter whenever she asked. We also gave a copy to her therapist so she knew what we thought about our daughter. Go on a treasure hunt for your child and they put it on the refrigerator or frame it in their room!

Mom and Dad’s Treasure Hunt:

Our child has the following gifts

PERSONAL

She is caring about her appearance

She is kind to animals

She likes being creative with clothing and hair

She is very good at working with hair

She is musical

She is a very artistic

She likes to dance

She likes to act and dress up and make movies

She is a caring, sensitive person

She is helpful and does quality work when she knows what is expected

She is capable of doing many adult things like caring for her own clothes, room, pets and helping with family projects.

She follows through with her responsibilities

She has come a long way in controlling her behavior

She can stop herself and refocus when she gets angry

She can be determined and learn to do new things or stop old behaviors with her own power

She has figured out some of her own healthy ways to calm down

She smiles and has sparkling eyes

She is affectionate with her family — her dad and mom like her hugs

She can communicate when we have a discussion

She is persistent

She is not afraid to say something to get her needs met

She is willing to take a position and hold on to it during a discussion

She has a sense of humor

She is moral and fair

She is highly verbal

RELATIONSHIPS

She is very social and likes being with people

She is good at making new friends

She is loyal to her friends

She keeps in contact even with old friendships cares about what people think

She can be very compassionate

B R E A K I N G D O W N B R I C K W A L L S F O R F A S D

Minnesota Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
P.O. Box 131911, Roseville, Minnesota 55113-0021
(612) ---------- email: -----------

B U I L D I N G N E W F O U N D A T I O N S F O R H E A L T H Y G R O W T H