Discovering the treasures within

Common Good Qualities and Talents of Persons with FASD

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

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

Children with FASD typically have low self esteem. They try so hard to be socially successful, but too often their behaviors limit their success. They are misunderstood, misdiagnosed and struggle with normal daily life issues.

One parent created a treasure hunt of positives for their child and this is what they discovered. The family posted it on our refrigerator for months and read them to their daughter whenever she asked. They also gave a copy to her therapist so she knew the parents felt about their daughter. Go on a treasure hunt for your child and then put it on your 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