Children grow, develop, and learn in the context of relationships, but the maternal/ child relationship can be disrupted by substance use in pregnancy. This session will explore the biological and psychosocial factors that impact the development of a nurturing relationship between a woman with a history of substance misuse during pregnancy and her child and will provide an overview of intervention strategies that can promote positive attachment. 

As demonstrated by multiple research and clinical studies, successful interventions for children prenatally exposed to alcohol rely on earliest recognition and appropriate treatment. However, several factors interfere with this process, leading to misdiagnosis and delay of treatment. This session will provide an approach to recognizing and diagnosing children within the fetal alcohol spectrum and discuss the implications of misdiagnosis. 

With the legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use, rates of use during pregnancy have steadily increased. At the same time, public health messages have failed to communicate the possible negative effects of marijuana on pregnancy and child outcome. This session will describe the action of marijuana on the developing fetal brain, its impact on maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, implications of a male’s use of marijuana on child outcome, and implications of prenatal marijuana exposure on the child’s long-term neurodevelopment. 

Although prenatal alcohol exposure is the most common preventable cause of intellectual disabilities in the United States, global development most often falls into the normal range for children and youth with a history of prenatal exposure to alcohol and other substances. However, regulatory difficulties across the span of childhood and adolescence have significant implications for long term development and learning. This session will present a framework for understanding the brain-based developmental and behavioral difficulties of children and youth affected by prenatal substance exposure. 

Children affected by prenatal substance exposure face increasing neurodevelopmental challenges as they grow and develop. These challenges translate into behavioral difficulties in the classroom and in the home. This session will translate the conceptual framework for understanding the behavior and learning difficulties of children with prenatal substance exposure from a regulatory perspective and discuss how this framework can be applied to the development of behavioral and educational interventions as well as strategies for managing prenatally exposed adolescents’ online risk and behavior.