Fantastic Antone Grows Up: Adolescents and Adults with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome » (1)

Fantastic Antone Grows Up is a field guide to life with an adolescent or young adult with fetal alcohol syndrome/effects.  Under the best of circumstances, adolescence is a trying time for young people and their families.  The budding adult seeks independence and autonomy while the resistant child within longs for protection and structure; questions about sexuality and work, social commitments, and solitary accomplishments loom large and can create a family battlefield.  For the challenged and challenging young people with FAS/E, the circumstances as they begin maturing are never the best.

In this sequel to Fantastic Antone Succeeds, young people with FAS/E and their caregivers report on their experiences coping with the problems of adolescence and young adulthood.  Again the editors and authors have concentrated on the wisdom of practice, as they candidly convey which techniques worked and which did not during the difficult passages of the teenage years and beyond.

The twenty-one chapters are grouped according to theme.  Section one discusses the meaning of success for adolescents and adults with FAS/E — the need to define success in new ways.  Cindy Gere found her path to success, for example, through creative expression.  She graduated from college with a degree in fine arts and successfully completed a program in art.  Many of her paintings, including the one illustrating the cover of this book, provide a poignant and candid expression of what FAS/E means to her. 

Section two discusses strategies that work in areas such as counseling, education, sexuality, trouble with the law, andindependent living.  Section three covers what families need from the community, including innovative programs that help individuals with FAS/E, and how to get a diagnosis at adolescence.  The book also contains important resources, organizations to contact, and internet addresses.

More has been learned about how alcohol poisoning in the womb alters brain function and physical development since the release of Fantastic Antone Succeeds, but science is far from providing the answers that affected young people and their caregivers need.  Until such answers are forthcoming, nothing can replace the voices of experience with their practical messages of coping, caring, loving, weeping, laughing, and — more often than might be expected — succeeding.

Library Journal

The sequel to Fantastic Antone Succeeds!: Experiences in Educating Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, also edited by psychologist Kleinfeld, this work provides a glimpse into what it means to struggle through adolescence and adulthood with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Told through the accounts of FAS sufferers, their parents, educators, and the professionals who work with them, this book shares practical lessons learned through experience and demonstrates why the methods used on young FAS children don't necessarily work when they're older. Kleinfeld also employs her own experiences to illustrate how she learned that techniques used successfully with other special-needs children often fail with FAS children. While the individual accounts point out the struggles and the failures, most highlight and celebrate the successes. The extensive bibliography and resource lists are extremely helpful. A welcome addition to consumer health, psychology, and education collections.--KellyJo Houtz Griffin, Eatonville, WA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Foreword/Fantastic Antone is Growing Up

     Sally Caldwell

Acknowledgments

     Judith Kleinfeld

Introduction

The Roller Coaster Ride of Life with FAS/E

     Judith Kleinfeld

Part One

What is Success for Adolescents and Adults with FAS?

Chapter 1

Works in Progress: The Meaning of Success for Individuals with FAS/E

     Jan Lutke

Chapter 2

Ryland's Gift: How My Son Taught Me To Be a Good Mother

     Mary Lou Cannery

Chapter 3

The Graduate: College for Students with FAS/E

     Anne Ruggles Gere and Cindy Gere

Chapter 4

Living Independently: A Mother's Tale

     Marceil Ten Eyck

Chapter 5

Why I Chose to Live Alone

     Sidney Guimont

Chapter 6

How I Grew Up with FAE

     Stef Pummell

Chapter 7

Creating an "External Brain": Supporting a Mother and Child with FAS

     Susan Doctor

Chapter 8

Finding Hope in a Troubled Life

     Janeen Bohmann

Part Two

Strategies taht Work: Education, Counseling, Sexuality, Trouble with

the Law, Living Skills

Chapter 9

Working with Adolescents in High School:

Techniques that Help

     DebraEvensen

Chapter 10

Finding the Right School for Devorah

     Diane Malbin

Chapter 11

Adapting Talk Therapy for Individuals with FAS/E

     Susan L. Baxter

Chapter 12

Trouble with the Law

     Marie Jones

Chapter 13

Sexuality and Young Adults with FAS/E

     Sara Miranda and Karen Levine

Chapter 14

Growing Up with FAS/E

     Pamela Groupe Groves

Chapter 15

Reaching Independence Day: Managing the Behavior of Teenagers

     Jim Slinn

Chapter 16

Adolescents with Disabilities: Insights for Individuals with FAS/E

Claire D. Coles and Mary Ellen Lynch

Part Three

What Families Need from the Community

Chapter 17

Using Community Mentors to Help Teenagers Develop Social Skills

     Janet Adams

Chapter 18

Community Involvement: Lessons from Native Americans

     Rodger Hornby

Chapter 19

Relinquishing Our Christmas Child So We Could Reclaim Him

     Ann Michael

Chapter 20

Caring for the Caregivers: Family Support and Empowerment

     Georgiana Wilton, Raymond Kessel, and

     Moira Chamberlain Clark

Chapter 21

Diagnosis and Thereafter: What We Know Now and

Where We are Going

     Barabara A. Morse

Conclusion

What the Wisdom of Practice Teaches Us About FAS/E at

Adolescence and Young Adulthood

     Judith Kleinfeld

Afterword

Broken Beaks and Wobbly Wings

     Teresa Kellerman

Appendix One

The Case of Ida

     The Honorable Judge C. Cunliffe Barnett

Appendix Two

Annotated Bibliography of Resources

     David A. and Gail S. Hales

Works Cited

Index