Harmful Substances and How They Affect Motor Development

1. By, Jesslynn Patton Harmful Substances and How They Affect Motor Development

2. Exposure of Heavy Prenatal Alcoholism • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome • 2-5 cases per 1000 births • This can cause the child to have many defects such as growth, deficiency, facial features, and CNS problems. • These children also show signs of… • cognitive, language, and behavioral problems in their future. • Children who experienced Fetal Alcohol Syndrome experience… • poor grammar skills, comprehension skills, single word vocabulary, and were consistent on having a slower development. • "FAS is characterized by growth retardation, central nervous system impairment, and a distinctive pattern of craniofacial anomalies," -said Sandra W. Jacobson, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine, and first author of the study.

3. Risks… • alcohol use while pregnant is one of the most common known causes of preventable birth defects. • It is proven that women should not drink while being pregnant for the risk of having their unborn child experience • growth defects • abnormalities in facial structure • skull structure • CNS deficiency • mental retardation • behavioral problems -(Cynthia & Nancy, 1989)

4. Streissguth and his Colleagues • 61 subjects that had fetal alcohol effects. • They followed the subjects throughout their life, and at adolescent and adulthood they were…. • short in stature • and had small head circumference. • They also exhibited abnormal facial features. • Some of the discriminating features that were observed were • flat midface, • short nose, • thin upper lip. • Not only does prenatal alcohol affect the fetus physically and mentally, it is also proven that the probability of a child drinking as an adult will increase. It is demonstrated that there is a strong contextual effect of school failure when alcohol use is involved (Henry & Slater, 2007).

5. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

6. (McGee, Bjorkquist, Riley, & Mattson, 2008) -Decreased physical and cognitive growth is a result from alcohol usage during pregnancy. -Evaluated the receptive and expressive language skills -intellectual cognitive functioning -Decreased IQ levels

7. Research States • “Two groups of children between the ages of 3 and 5: 25 children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and 26 typically developing children with no known exposure to alcohol. • mothers had to have drunk 14 drinks per week during pregnancy. • These children were evaluated by professionals in prenatal drinking. The study found… • decreased language abilities • decreased motor functioning -Alcohol exposure was found to • impair receptive and expressive language deficits. • Also it affects interpersonal skills, • formation of peer groups, • self-expression, • development of self (Kimberly & Michael, 2007).

8. 2 Angles of Research • first is studied the language deficits • second id was the affects on general cognitive functioning. -Prenatal alcohol exposure correlates with weakness in cognitive functioning. -The learning process is at a much slower rate when a child is exposed to prenatal alcohol. “Many studies have identified abnormalities in speech production and hearing children with prenatal alcohol exposure and suggest that they may impact the acquisition and comprehension of language (McGee et al.).

9. Third Trimester…Selfish?

10. Evidence • In a sample of 20 children with fetal alcohol syndrome • 90% of them demonstrated speech pathology. • In this same study 77% of the children had impairment of hearing, which caused the auditory learning to be defected. • All domains are all affected when a child has a mother that used alcohol while being pregnant

11. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Babies Have…

12. Prenatal Cocaine

13. Prenatal Affects • Cocaine exposure to infants has a negative outcome in adolescents motor skills. • exposure of cocaine in infants affects fetal development, and child development. • Cocaine usage had a correlation with poorer motor skills. • Prenatal cocaine has many risk factors and can come with long-term effects (Loncar et al., 2004)

14. National Institute Of Child Health and Human Development • longitudinal study of 1388 children. • Their ages ranged from 1 month to 36 months, • exposed group had infants with mothers who abused cocaine, and the comparison group consists of infants whose mothers did not use cocaine ever during their pregnancy. • The Motor development was assessed at 1, 4, 12, 18 months of age. • The mothers of these infants for both the comparison and the exposed groups brought their infants to the hospital to be assessed at these ages. • There were certified examiners assessing these infants, and doing clinical testing on these infants. Mothers also completed 2 different interviews, -each of which was detailed interviews on the amount of cocaine used during the pregnancy. They used he NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale was used at 1 month of age and assesses three different sides of neurobehavioral function.

15. Three Aspects • First, the neurological component tests the reflexes, and the central nervous system maturity of the infant. • Second the behavior component is a test to see the sensitivity to the drug. • And last, the stress component is a checklist of items to determine the level of stress. • “Five summary scores related to motor function were derived: hypertonia, hypotonia, quality of movement, abnormal reflexes, and self regulation. The summary score of self-regulation includes items such as general tone and motor maturity. The five summary scores were then averaged together to form a single composite motor score (Loncar et al., 2004).”

16. Summary • Clearly extensive research proves that prenatal alcohol and cocaine exposure negatively affects the fetus and deficits will continue to surface throughout a child’s life particularly in motor skill development. • It has been proven that an unborn child who has been exposed to prenatal cocaine and alcohol use can have birth defects such as • FAS • decreased motor skills, • language impairment, • and a harder time being successful in school. • Along with the studies it is clearly defined that prenatal alcohol consumption will have devastating effects on the fetus by having negative effects on long term impairment and in cognitive development.

17. References • Cynthia, L., & Nancy, D. (1989). The effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. Alcohol Health & Research World, , 192-198. • Henry, K. L., & Slater, M. D. (2007, February). The contextual effect of school attachment on young adolescents' alcohol use. Journal of School Health, 77(2), 68-74. • John, M. R., Adam, A. R., Xochitl, C., Jiansong, X., & Edythe, L. D. (, 2005). Deficits in response inhibition associated with chronic abuse. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, , 273-277. • Kimberly, H. L., & Michael, S. D. (2007, Febuary 2007). The contextual effect of school attachment on young adolescents' alcohol use. Journal of School Health, Vol. 77(2), 67-74. • Loncar, C. M., Lester, B. M., Seifer, R., Lagasse, L. L., Bauer, C. R., & Shankaran, S. et al. (2004, November 25). Predictors of motor development in children prenatally exposed to cocaine. Neurotoxicaology And Teratology, , 213-220. • McGee, C. L., Bjorkquist, O. A., Riley, E. P., & Mattson, S. N. (2008). Impaired language performance in young children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 2008, September., 1-5. • Streissguth, A. P., Barr, H. M., & Sampson, P. D. (2006, April 11). Moderate prenatal alcohol exposure: effects on child IQ and learning problems at age 7 1/2 years. Society On Alcoholism, 14(5), 662-669. • Wolansky, M. J., & Azcurra, J. M. (2005, January 29). Permanent motor activity and learning disorders induced by exposure during gestation and early infancy. Neurotoxicology And Teratology , , 229-310.