Raising Kids and Teens with FASD: Advice and Strategies to Help Your Family to Thrive!
By Barb Clark
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2025, ISBN: 978-1-80501-390-7, 237 pages, $17.95
When Barb Clark and her husband Michael adopted 5-week-old Akila in 1999, they thought it would be the start of building their family. Instead, Akila’s diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, which was unknown to them at the time, has helped them build a community of understanding and hope for individuals living with this hidden disability. Clark shares the couple’s journey parenting Akila and learning about FASD in the new book “Raising Kids and Teens with FASD.”
Clark shares the trial and errors of their parenting, the struggles they had to find help and the relational parenting techniques that finally helped them find hope and healing. The book provides readers with a basic understanding of FASD and why it’s so challenging to diagnose. This statistic cited in the book is startling: “The current prevalence of FASD in the United States is 1 in 20 children. This is nearly double the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which affects 1 in 36 children.”
While this hidden brain injury is so prevalent, it does not receive as much attention as ASD because of the stigma and difficulty in diagnosing. There are thousands of children and adults walking around with this brain injury, and Clark even writes in the book her own recent diagnosis of FASD.
Clark spent 10 years sharing what she has learned about parenting a child with FASD at the national nonprofit Families Rising, a child welfare organization that provides support, training and advocacy in the adoption and foster care communities. She continues to offer that training and guidance to families through her own consulting business FASD Mosaic at https://www.fasdmosaic.com/.
The value in this book is that many parents, especially foster and adoptive families, may see the struggles with their children reflected in the stories Clark shares. She offers very hands-on tips and resources to address the behaviors and challenges these children often face because of their diagnosis. Whether it’s lying, stealing or raging, Clark shares why consequence-based punishment doesn’t work and why shifting to relationship-based parenting is required. The practical guidance is what families need when they struggle to find the help and support to help their children.
“Raising Kids and Teen with FASD” is not only a book for parents and caregivers, but also for teachers, social workers and others who interact with children with FASD.
-Reviewed by Kim Phagan-Hansel