Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on neuromotor and cognitive development during early childhood: a series of case reports.

The purpose of this article is to present a series of case reports of infants and young children who were exposed to alcohol prenatally. The five infants and two 5-year-old twins in this series all presented facial features characteristic of prenatal alcohol exposure, and all had medical histories of maternal alcohol abuse. The neuromotor and cognitive development of these seven children is described by presenting results of standardized tests administered longitudinally. In addition, clinical observations of growth, behavior, feeding, and musculoskeletal development are provided. Following a discussion of these assessment results, implications for physical therapy intervention and the need for clinical research are provided. Because children with fetal alcohol syndrome or alcohol-related birth defects present a spectrum of developmental differences that often include areas of concern to physical therapists, we need to increase our involvement in the assessment and treatment of these children as well as in research efforts to examine the efficacy of these interventions.