rdier, Goujard and Ayme 1). Mental Retardation is also a severe and common effects of Fetal Alcohol syndrome including central nervous system (CNS) neurodevelopmental abnormalities and behavioral or cognitive disabilities. CNS abnormalities in FAS children may be defined as hyperactivity, fine and gross motor development delays, or incoordination, impaired language development, impulsivity, problems with memory, poor judgement, poor problem solving, learning problems, distractibility, seizures, and structural abnormalities of the brain or indications of the deficient brain growth. Many children with FAS do not have the ability to understand cause and effect relationships and long term consequences (Hess and Kenner 3). A few of the disorders a child with FAS may suffer from are Reactive Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism, Tourettes Syndrome, Language Disorders, Sensory Development Disorder and Pervasive Development Disorder (http://www.arbi.org). Recently researchers have discovered how consumption of alcohol while pregnant damages the brain of the fetus, conveyed in this statement by a researcher, “This is the first time we’ve had and understanding of the mechanism by which alcohol can damage the fetal brain. It’s a mechanism that involves interfering in the basic transmitter systems in the brain, which literally drives the nerve cells to commit suicide” (http://www.arbi.org). The brain is most sensitive to the damage of alcohol during a period called synaptogenesis, when the brain is rapidly developing, which begins during the third trimester of pregnancy and continues throughout early childhood. Researchers have found that alcohol affects two brain chemicals, glutamate and GABA, which aid in communication between different parts of the brain. Alarmingly researchers found that just one episode of drunkenness during the third trimester is enough to damage the fetus’s brain (http://www.arb...
