David Vandenbrink is twenty-one years old and one of five children. He and his brother are foster children, both have been diagnosed with FAS. David is of Native descent and has been in the foster care of the Vandenbrink family since he was three years old, but he was not diagnosed with FAS until he was eighteen years old. His diagnosis finally gave answers to David and his family who had struggled for so many years to understand what was wrong with David. David’s childhood was extremely difficult for him. He like many who suffer from FAS have had a great deal of difficulty in school, suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was impulsive and often hard to control, and lacked the ability to understand the consequences of his own actions. Many of the other children in school, teachers, and even his own parents passed judgment on David, thinking that he was lazy, forgetful, stupid, and slow. These misconceptions of David made it increasingly difficult for him to fit in as a child, and as a result he was often an outsider. David says that he has few childhood memories but he does remember how hard it was for him. Then and now it was hard to understand what was being asked from him and the easiest way to deal with it was to just withdraw (Cardinal, G., & Schreiber, D.; Cardinal, D., 1996). In contrast to these initial perceptions, David is a very intelligent, articulate and self-aware young man who actually possesses a few characteristics that can be described as savant like. These savant like characteristics were a result of David’s brain trying to catch up in its development, sometimes exceeding normal development at times when his mother was not drinking (Cardinal, G., & Schreiber, D; Cardinal, D., 1996).

Some topics in this essay:
Schreiber Cardinal, Connor Streisssguth, Syndrome FAS, David’s FAS, FAS AA, FAS FAS, Medical Association, MRI FAS, Ritalin Adderall, David David’s, cerebral cortex, suffer fas, cardinal schreiber cardinal, schreiber cardinal 1996, cardinal 1996, cardinal schreiber, schreiber cardinal, basal ganglia, corpus callosum, cognitive functions, niaaa 2000, connor streisssguth 1996, streisssguth 1996, perception thinking memory, maternal alcohol consumption,