FASD The Course > Module 4: FASD Signs and Symptoms > 9. Signs and Symptoms: 12-17 Years Page 1
Module 4: FASD Signs and Symptoms
Signs and Symptoms: 12-17 Years
The happy young child may as an adolescent become depressed, hostile, aggressive, or withdrawn. This change probably results from misunderstanding; isolation; rejection; repeated failures at home, in school, and in the community; and the onset of puberty. For many young people, chaotic lifestyles contribute to the problem.
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
- Problems 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