FASD Brief Primer with Dr. Sterling Clarren and Carolyn Hartness

Thursday I took some time to go to the FASD Conference for Southeast Alaska in Centennial Hall. I came in as Dr. Sterling Clarren was getting ready to speak. Clarren has been in on the research on FAS from almost the very beginning. This is a topic where I'm a somewhat informed amateur. My wife has had some training in this area and I was a mentor for an FASD young man.

I urge you to view at least one of Dr. Clarren's videos (they're short) and the Carolyn Hartness video (also short).

Dr. Clarren covered a lot of ground that had been somewhat blurry for me in the past and he did it incredibly well. He had things organized into neat little bits, so that the few videos I took turn out to be like mini-lectures. Instead of putting them into one long video, I've broken them down into three separate videos.

Please recognize these are just a few minutes out of a long talk. But I think anyone could learn something about this issue (and it's something everyone should understand because it has become so pervasive) from watching these three short videos. But keep in mind, these are missing the context of the whole talk.

And I've got one from Carolyn Hartness. If Dr. Clarren is clinically precise, Harkness communicates with her warmth and from the richness of her experiences with her adopted daughter.


Dr. Clarren talks about the early days as FAS was being first recognized and named.




Here Dr. Clarren talks about the FAS Face.



Dr. Clarren defines FAS and FASD and the complications of trying to define them.


Here Dr. Clarren talks about diagnosis:




And here Carolyn Hartness talks about how people have so much trouble 'getting it,' understanding how much parents of FAS kids have to do to help their kids fit into the non FAS world. And how wonderful the kids are.