Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a diagnostic term used to describe impacts on the brain and body of individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol. FASD is a lifelong disability. Individuals with FASD will experience some degree of challenges in their daily living, and need support with motor skills, physical health, learning, memory, attention, communication, emotional regulation, and social skills to reach their full potential. Each individual with FASD is unique and has areas of both strengths and challenges.
A lot of research and development went into creating this definition. Its goals are to:
- Reduce the stigma surrounding FASD;
- Improve society’s understanding of this disorder;
- Generate consistency in how we talk about FASD; and
- Shift how we think about FASD to a strengths-based whole-body approach.
CanFASD strongly recommends that policy makers and service providers use this definition in their practices. An evidence-based consistent definition is a huge step forward in the FASD field. However, this definition is too long and too technical for everyday use.
For everyday use, or when a plain language version is needed, we’ve created a public definition of FASD:
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a lifelong disability that affects the brain and body of people who were exposed to alcohol in the womb. Each person with FASD has both strengths and challenges and will need special supports to help them succeed with many different parts of their daily lives.
We encourage everyone to incorporate this definition into their daily lives in order to improve the public’s understanding of FASD and create consistency in how we talk about this disorder.
If you have any comments or feedback regarding this new definition, please email info@canfasd.ca.