EFFECTS OF PRENATAL ALCOHOL EXPOSURE ON NEUROMOTOR AND COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENT DURING EARLY-CHILDHOOD - A SERIES OF CASE-REPORTS

The purpose of this article is to present a series of case reports of infants and young children who were exposed to alcohol prenatally. The five infants and two 5-year-old twins in this series all presented fa cial features characteristic of prenatal alcohol exposure, and all bad medical histories of maternal alcohol abuse. The neuromotor and cogni tive development of these seven children is described by presenting re sults of standardized tests administered longitudinally In addition cl inical observations of growth, behavior, feeding, and musculoskeletal development are provided. Following a discussion of these assessment r esults, implications for Physical therapy intervention and the need fo r clinical research are provided Because children with fetal alcohol s yndrome or alcohol-related birth defects pre sent a spectrum of develo pmental differences that often include areas of concern to physical th erapists, we need to increase our involvement in the assessment and tr eatment of these children as well as in research efforts to examine th e efficacy of these interventions.