In The Best Interests of the Child

Abstract

I have Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. I have it because my mother was
an alcoholic. My speech, hearing, auditory processing, my heart
and stomach were affected I spent a month in intensive care with
projectile vomiting, bowel infection and a heart murmur… I am
healthy now but the long-lasting effect has been on my brain. My
auditory processing is very slow and I also have trouble with my
memory…. This means I have trouble at school and with learning.”
(Jane, aged 17, writing in The Colours, 2008)