|
March 25, 2009
Media contact: Anne Russell
Cell: 604-798-3709
Office: 604-795-2826
anne.russell@ufv.ca
Motor Skill program for children with FASD seeks more participants
 |
| Models demonstrate the types of activities children with FASD get to enjoy at the FAST club, run by the UFV Kinesiology department. |
A group of kids shoot hoops together. In another corner a child tries to master Wii tennis and Dance Dance Revolution. Over to the side, another puzzles over a challenging game involving pegs and ropes.
These are all fairly typical activities for school-aged children. What makes this group atypical is that all have been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. FASD is a preventable brain injury caused by alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy that results in lifelong challenges in all areas. It’s estimated that for every 1,000 births in B.C., nine infants will be affected in some way by FASD. They tend to be two or three years behind their peers in development and size, and have difficulty focusing.
The children have gathered together on a Friday afternoon in an Abbotsford school gym as part of a University of the Fraser Valley project entitled Toward Exercise Intervention for Children with FASD: A Strength-Based Approach. The project, now in its second year, brings together children with FASD and UFV student workers for twice-a-week motor skill sessions. Or, as the kids see it, just plain fun and games.
At “FAST Club”, as they call it, the children work with UFV students at different stations where games and activities are set up to help them develop various motor skills. The stations focus on areas such as balance, upper limb development, bilateral strength, fine motor skills, and running.
The UFV team pre-tests participants on a variety of different motor tasks that measure basic strength, speed, agility, and fine motor skills. They then continually retest the participants, but not just on whether they’re improving at the selected tasks. They also monitor success in school and family stress levels, changes in attentional capabilities, and take physiological measurements, such as checking saliva samples to see if stress hormone levels are changing.
A year into the program, the researchers are hearing positive anecdotal evidence of the benefits of a program that provides a positive and supportive environment for children with FASD.
“The kids love the program,” says UFV kinesiologist Alison Pritchard Orr, one of the lead researchers for the project. “They don’t want to leave at the end of the session. Kids with FASD tend to be followers, and here they are getting intense, one-on-one attention from a supportive group of university students who act as positive role models. Also, they’re with their peers, so they don’t feel as marginalized as they often do at school. It’s a safe and supportive environment for them.”
The UFV organizers are always looking for more children diagnosed with FASD to join the program. Free escorted taxi transportation is available to Abbotsford from Mission, Chilliwack, and other valley locations.
Julie Folland, the mother of a nine-year-old girl diagnosed with FASD, echoes Pritchard Orr’s statement, and says that finding any kind of healthy, enjoyable, motivating, encouraging, confidence-boosting, self-esteem enhancing and FASD-friendly program is very difficult. She travels to Abbotsford from Richmond to bring her daughter to the FAST Club.
“Fun, healthy, educational programs that I am able to get her into are few and far between. This is one of the few programs she has ever been able to follow through with. It has kept her stimulated without overwhelming her, and is one of the few that she can handle and manage,” says Folland. “She cannot wait to go and never wants to leave. It also helps her to build peer/social relationships in a dignified manner.”
The FAST Club program lasts eight weeks, after which new sessions begin with new children. Future plans for the research project could include a program that is longer in duration and includes a follow-up component where UFV students work with participating children in their homes. The home sessions would focus on helping children achieve goals, such as learning to ride a bicycle, using a “task-analysis” approach.
The UFV students and alumni participating also derive great value from it.
“It’s a lot of fun to interact with the kids and get to know them personally,” says kinesiology student Amy Hall. “It’s neat to see how they progress in different ways and learn to deal with their emotions and behaviours.”
Project coordinator Ryan Konarski handles the day-to-day operations of FAST Club.
“We really focus on motivation and teaching the student to manage behavioural issues, in addition to the motor skill development,” he notes.
The program is being funded through a $347,339 grant from the Victoria Foundation as part of the $10-million Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Action Fund established by the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development in March 2006.
UFV Kinesiology professors Dr. Chris Bertram, Dr. Kathy Keiver, and Alison Pritchard Orr are working in partnership with the Fraser Valley Child Development Centre and paediatrician Dr. Sterling Clarren, a leading authority on FASD research.
Alison Pritchard Orr and others involved in the program presented at the 3rd International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Victoria March 11 to 14.
To find out about getting a child involved in this program, contact recruitment director Mina Thomas at 604-615-5744 (mina.sass@gmail.com) or project coordinator Ryan Konarski at 604-226-2266 (ryan.konarski@ufv.ca) or project director Alison Pritchard Orr at 604-504-7441 (local 4755) or (alison.pritchardorr@ufv.ca).
Information is also available online at www.ufv.ca/kpe/fastclub .
- 30 -
|
|
News Archives
For news published August 2011 and onward, search the UFV Today blog. Older news releases are below.
UFV Today Archives
For UFV Today e-newsletters published August 2011 and earlier, visit the UFV Today archives.
|
|
