I attended a professional development day workshop last Friday on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD) through Coast Mountains School District. FASD has high incidence in Terrace: Terrace-based Dr. Kwadwo Asante was the first person who identified and named the disorder, suggesting its prevalence in the northwest. Many of the children and youth who came to the kids’ camps at the museum where I formerly worked had FASD, and we worked to adapt educational programming for their needs. What often worked was being very clear and very kind, and working with the children’s parents to identify what they individually needed. Generally, I worked with parents to understand where the children were coming from before they attended any camps or workshops, and applied that understanding to the students’ behaviour. Empathy, personalisation, kindness, and clarity are all generally best practice in education.

We didn’t conduct assessment in our museum programs. We of course assessed the program’s overall success, and adjusted programs for future years, and reported participation and general successes and challenges to our funders. We assessed the program without individually assessing what the children learned, though I would include general statements like ‘the children were very engaged in the culturally oriented programs.’ Now, I am learning to think differently, and assess each student within a broader framework, which remains a challenge for me. Focusing on assessment during the FASD workshop asked me to think about how exceptionalities influence our assessment practice, and how we can use assessment to support our students’ needs and academically encourage students with exceptionalities.

Stace Kelsh, the Provincial Outreach Program for FASD (POPFASD) Teacher Consultant, focused on supporting students with FASD within the classroom. Kelsh (2020) noted that 40-50% of pregnancies in Canada are unplanned, suggesting that many women drink while pregnant unknowingly. According to Kelsh, most students with FASD are never fully diagnosed, due to a lack of diagnosticians as well as the stigma around drinking during pregnancy. Many FASD students are instead diagnosed as autistic and ADHD, or never diagnosed as anything. I once attended regional training in FASD where the trainer noted that, when children present with the same symptoms, white children are more likely to be diagnosed as autistic, while First Nations children are more likely to be diagnosed as FASD. My indigenous friend in our cohort who has a child the same age as my toddler, born in the same hospital, told me that the nurses and paramedics asked her over and over whether or not she had drank during the pregnancy while she was in labour. I was asked once. FASD diagnosis can be a measure of racial inequity, and the attitudes toward it starkly illustrate the differential treatment of First Nations children.

How can we assess students with FASD? How can our assessment practices insure integrity, equity, and consistency of learning across the classroom? How can we ensure our assessment positions FASD students for success? The soft edges of assessment Katie White advocates for can go some way toward equity in assessment. 

One form of assessment that is critical for learners with FASD, according to Kelsh (2020) is preassessment. Figuring out what students know and what gaps they have in their knowledge is essential. Preassessment is a crucial part of backwards design, where we plan our teaching within White’s (2017) “learning continuum” that identifies what the students know and what we—and they—want them to know (p. 30). Preassessment allows us to accurately plan for instruction, making the teaching targeted and engaging, and a way of building upon what they already know, rather than clumsily repeating or redoing learning. Kelsh (2020) notes that identifying and teaching lagging skills through preassessment allows teachers to offer direct, explicit, guided practice. He referenced the Mile Math Program as one example of directed mathematics teaching to target specific skills (Kelsh, 2020). 

I want to teach all students in a way that keeps them active and engaged in their own learning. I do not want to teach compliance in order to ensure a calm, controlled classroom. A lot of the teaching practices that seem to be done for students with exceptionalities (in practice, at least) often seem to be directed at getting them to be compliant within the classroom, not at helping to elevate their learning and engage them. Can preassessment help us to teach students with FASD in active and engaging ways? Can it help us teach all students in active and engaging ways?

In order to fairly assess students with FASD, we must first understand how to teach them. Kelsh suggests “Eight Magic Keys” in planning for students with FASD: concrete (talk in concrete terms and avoid abstract language), consistency (parents and educators use the same words and strategies), repetition (re-teach many times to retain in long-term memory), simplicity, supervision (scaffold independence), structure, specificity (saying exactly what you mean and giving step-by-step instructions), and routine (help reduce anxiety) (Evenson and Lutke, 2017). When we are direct and up-front with what we are going to teach and do, we can fairly assess the outcomes of that learning, for those with FASD and those without.

This suggests to me the clarity advocated for repeatedly by White (2017). When we plan our teaching based on accurate, reliable preassessment, begin with the learning outcomes, match the assessment to the learning outcomes, and share all of this with our students, we clarify our teaching and clarify the learning for our students (White, 2017, pp. 30-31). “When we clarify key criteria for a learning goal within the learning continuum,” White (2017) argues, “we are affording ourselves the time and space necessary for anticipating student needs (p. 31). Making classroom learning clear, expected, and aligned with goals supports FASD students within the eight magic keys.

Kelsh (2020) recommends taking a strengths-based approach to learners with FASD or with suspected FASD. This is a good tool for working with all learners: celebrating learners strengths encourages them, creates a safe environment for learning, and approaches learning from a place of positivity rather than deficit. Kelsh (2020) recommends creating structure through routines and consistent expectations, and using visual supports for schedules and as regulation tools, which again supports all learners, especially young ones. Scaffolding students by giving them explicit instruction in missing or lagging skills, including social-emotional skills, supports their overall development and helps them to be more successful long-term. This again can be extended from FASD learners to all learners. Rewards and punishments generally do not work with FASD students, just like they do not work, in the long-term, with most students. Ultimately, many of the strategies that work well with FASD learners work well with all learners.

I always want to find ways to include and engage students with exceptionalities that can be opened up to the entire classroom in order to improve everyone’s learning outcomes. This destigmatises learning supports and ensures the openness of the classroom for all learners, and can improve learning for everyone. Being very clear and up-front with the learning goals and expectations can improve the classroom success of students with FASD, but it can also improve the success of all students. 

References

Evenson, D., & Lutke, J. Eight magic keys. FASD Outreach. https://www.fasdoutreach.ca/resources/all/0-9/8-magic-keys

Kelsh, S. (23 October 2020). Supporting students through an “FASD-informed approach.”  Provincial Outreach Program for FASD.

White, K. (2017). Softening the edges: Assessment practices that honor K-12 teachers and learners. Solution Tree Press.