Diagnosis

• Diagnosis is based on the history of alcohol consumption and the presence of the above characteristics. Often children who are adopted and who were actually born with fetal alcohol syndrome are not diagnosed with the syndrome because of the lack of parental history. These children may be misdiagnosed with autism, or other developmental disorders. It is very important to obtain as much history as possible when dealing with an adopted child.
  
  

Behavioral Treatments

• Behavioral interventions may or may not be successful, due to frequent problems with cognition and difficulty with retaining information. Children with fetal alcohol syndrome often benefit from special education services which provide more one-on-one interaction with the child. The standard behavioral training of reward and punishment will probably not work on this type of child because of an inability to distinguish right from wrong, but this will vary depending upon the child.
  
  

Medical Treatments

• Medicine alone will probably not help a child with fetal alcohol syndrome, although the use of medications such as Ritalin, which is used for ADHD, may help with restlessness, irritability, and the short attention span often associated with this condition. These medications should only be used in conjunction with other forms of treatment to address several of the behavioral symptoms displayed with this syndrome.
  
  

Developmental Training

• Human development occurs in several different stages. Because fetal alcohol syndrome interferes with the normal development of the child, one or more of these stages may be skipped as the child grows. Emphasis should be placed on helping the child develop the skills that should be present during these stages. Often these children can reach a developmental stage in which they can perform many of their activities of daily living independently, but this will depend upon the actual amount of developmental disability the child has, and will vary from child to child.
  
  

Prognosis

• The prognosis for children born with fetal alcohol syndrome is not good, as the damage done cannot be reversed. Emphasis is made on helping the child develop to the highest level possible, with appropriate interventions applied to correct behavioral problems. This individual will probably always require some sort of help throughout his life, and the sad thing is that is all could have been prevented if his mother had not consumed alcohol during his development in the womb.