Module 4: FASD Signs and Symptoms
Signs and Symptoms: 12-17 Years
The happy young child may as an adolescent become depressed and hostile, aggressive, or
withdrawn. This change probably results from misunderstanding; isolation; rejection; repeated
failures at home, school, and the community; and the onset of puberty. For many young people,
chaotic lifestyles contribute to the problems.
Difficulties that can become apparent during this time can include:
- Concrete thinking and lack of abstract reasoning; faulty logic
- Difficulty with math
- Difficulty with language
- Quick information overload
- Difficulty separating relevant from irrelevant data
- Problems with judgment
- Restlessness
- Limitations with daily living skills
- Difficulty with situation-specific actions
- Difficulty with lasting relationships
- Small support system, such as few friends
- Unfocused and distractible tendencies
- Problems handling money
- Problem with the concept of time
- Problems learning from experience
- Truancy
- Trouble perceiving social cues
- Problems with social communication
- Poor frustration tolerance
- Depression, schizophrenia, and other co-occuring disorders
- Difficulty maintaining good hygiene
- Difficulty holding jobs
- Naiveté and gullibility
- Risk of substance abuse
- Low self-esteem
- Low motivation
- Arrest, jail time, and other legal problems
- Inability to share feelings
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