Understanding the Student
A person’s “best” may differ from day to day. Think about being sick with a bad cold. You’re trying to finish a project, but it is not coming out right. If you really concentrate, focus, work hard, you might get the job done, but you cannot really work at that level of effort all the time. Similarly, a student with FASD can accomplish a project quickly and with less apparent effort one day and be unable to perform at the same level on another project or another day, but it does not mean the student was trying harder the first time. The student with FASD probably hears a teacher or friend say, “You could do this if you only tried harder.” Because the student does not understand the way his brain functions, he believes it when he is told he should be able to do better.
Information in this section is adapted from Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide to the Sensory Universe. Melissa Croskery, OT. Special Programs, Yukon Department of Education,