title: A Practical Testing Battery to Measure Neurobehavioral Ability among Children with FASD.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine a brief, practical battery of tests that discriminate between children with a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and unexposed controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children received dysmorphology exams, a targeted battery of cognitive and behavioral tests, and their mothers were interviewed about maternal risk factors. Children diagnosed with an FASD and children unexposed to alcohol prenatally were compared on cognitive/behavioral test results.
  
  
  METHODS
  A community in The Western Cape Province of South Africa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-one, first grade children with FASD and 52 matched normal controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Statistical analyses of maternal drinking behavior and their child's test performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Self-reported maternal drinking patterns before during and after pregnancy were used to confirm prenatal exposures to alcohol in the group of children diagnosed with FASD. With this sample of children diagnosed with FASD and completely unexposed controls, the adverse effects of maternal drinking on children's performance are reported. Results of the battery of standardized cognitive and behavioral tests indicate highly significant differences (p ≤ .001) between groups on: intelligence, perceptual motor, planning, and logical, spatial, short term, long term, and working memory abilities. Furthermore, a binary logistical regression model of only 3 specific cognitive and behavioral tests, including Digit Span A+B (Wald = 4.10), Absurd Situation (Wald = 3.57), and Word Association (Wald = 4.30) correctly classified 79.1% of the child participants as FASD or controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A brief, practical set of tests can discriminate children with and without FASD and provide useful information for interventions for affected children.
authors.affiliation: Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Kalberg
authors.affiliation: Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA ; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Public Health, Nutrition Research Institute, Kannapolis, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Philip A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: May
authors.affiliation: Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blankenship
authors.affiliation: Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Buckley
authors.affiliation: Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: J Phillip
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gossage
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, The University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa.
authors.forename: Colleen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Adnams
keywords: alcohol abuse; cognitive/behavioral testing; diagnosis; fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)