Can Exercise Improve the FASD Brain?
June 10th 2011 06:12
This is what researchers are hoping to prove. In two separate studies Dr.Brian Christie and Dr. Chris Bertram are hoping to prove that exercise and use of motor skills strengths can positively change the FASD brain.Dr Bertram’s study is to discover whether children with FASD can rewire their brains by utilizing their motor-based strengths. He and his team from Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada believe that children with FASD can improve the function of other areas of the brain by improving the brain functions of areas in which they have more strength. He calls it a transfer of learning or transfer of performance.
“Traditional intervention programs have these kids doing things their brains are not adept at doing, and their success rates are not great. We flipped things around and said, ‘Why don't we build intervention programs based on things they are good at.” - Chris Bertram
Fraser University Study of FASD and Motor Skills Strengths
Dr Brian Christie of the University of Victoria in BC, Canada first began putting his hypothesis of fetal alcohol damage being treatable through exercise to work on rats who had been exposed as fetuses to ethanol during pregnancy. The rats were in essence cured of their FASD by exercise. The results were positive enough that studies have now begun with human subjects. Although the results are not expected to be as dramatic in humans (our brains are far more complex than those of rats) it is still very hopeful.
In his current study, children with FASD are being monitored for heart and brain function while playing computer games concurrently with cardiovascular exercise.
Previous studies conducted by Dr. Brian Christie concluded that exercise can improve the FASD brain. Through the uses of microscopy and protein chemistry, Dr. Christie discovered that new neurons can grow in FASD brains and that these neurons can communicate better after a regimen of regular exercise, about an hour a day. He also discovered exercise in FASD children creates more of a difference in brain functioning than in any other type of brain disorder
New Research into Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Offers Hope
Dr Christie’s Earlier Study
Exercise has been used to improve the brain in other brain disorders and after brain injuries for years, with much success. Logically it should follow that the same could work for FASD. In the words of John Ratey, Associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical school and author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain,
“Exercise turns on the attention system, the so called executive functions-sequencing, working memory, prioritizing, inhibiting and sustaining attention…. On a practical level it causes kids to be less impulsive which makes them more primed to learn.”
So what can we as parents take from the research that is being conducted in to exercise, motor skills and the brain? A few things:
1. Make sure your child is getting enough exercise, at least one hour a day. 90 minutes is actually the amount recommended by doctors for ALL children so that may be an even better goal for our children effected with FASD. Not a problem for those of us whose children also have ADHD ☺
2. Build on your child’s strengths. My daughter’s strengths are drawing, running, and computer play. I have always allowed her as much time at these activities as she desired because they made her happy and her busyness gave me a break. Whatever talents or strengths your child displays, allow them to spend as much time as possible engaged in activities that will deepen those abilities.
3. Keep up your hope. The world is becoming more aware of FASD. There are vast amounts of research being done that we don’t know about. Several years ago FASD was rarely considered and parents were left to discover how to best raise these children with little help or support from professionals. Suddenly it seems that it is being considered everywhere. Universities are conducting more research into how to help our children better learn and develop, the court systems are changing to adapt to our children’s disabilities. I foresee a great number of changes for the future.
“Traditional intervention programs have these kids doing things their brains are not adept at doing, and their success rates are not great. We flipped things around and said, ‘Why don't we build intervention programs based on things they are good at.” - Chris Bertram
Fraser University Study of FASD and Motor Skills Strengths
Dr Brian Christie of the University of Victoria in BC, Canada first began putting his hypothesis of fetal alcohol damage being treatable through exercise to work on rats who had been exposed as fetuses to ethanol during pregnancy. The rats were in essence cured of their FASD by exercise. The results were positive enough that studies have now begun with human subjects. Although the results are not expected to be as dramatic in humans (our brains are far more complex than those of rats) it is still very hopeful.
In his current study, children with FASD are being monitored for heart and brain function while playing computer games concurrently with cardiovascular exercise.
Previous studies conducted by Dr. Brian Christie concluded that exercise can improve the FASD brain. Through the uses of microscopy and protein chemistry, Dr. Christie discovered that new neurons can grow in FASD brains and that these neurons can communicate better after a regimen of regular exercise, about an hour a day. He also discovered exercise in FASD children creates more of a difference in brain functioning than in any other type of brain disorder
New Research into Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Offers Hope
Dr Christie’s Earlier Study
Exercise has been used to improve the brain in other brain disorders and after brain injuries for years, with much success. Logically it should follow that the same could work for FASD. In the words of John Ratey, Associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical school and author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain,
“Exercise turns on the attention system, the so called executive functions-sequencing, working memory, prioritizing, inhibiting and sustaining attention…. On a practical level it causes kids to be less impulsive which makes them more primed to learn.”
So what can we as parents take from the research that is being conducted in to exercise, motor skills and the brain? A few things:
1. Make sure your child is getting enough exercise, at least one hour a day. 90 minutes is actually the amount recommended by doctors for ALL children so that may be an even better goal for our children effected with FASD. Not a problem for those of us whose children also have ADHD ☺
2. Build on your child’s strengths. My daughter’s strengths are drawing, running, and computer play. I have always allowed her as much time at these activities as she desired because they made her happy and her busyness gave me a break. Whatever talents or strengths your child displays, allow them to spend as much time as possible engaged in activities that will deepen those abilities.
3. Keep up your hope. The world is becoming more aware of FASD. There are vast amounts of research being done that we don’t know about. Several years ago FASD was rarely considered and parents were left to discover how to best raise these children with little help or support from professionals. Suddenly it seems that it is being considered everywhere. Universities are conducting more research into how to help our children better learn and develop, the court systems are changing to adapt to our children’s disabilities. I foresee a great number of changes for the future.
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