Getting to Know Sarah and Matthew
Who is Sarah?
My abstracts for Sarah and Matthew, have not been written yet, so this will actually only be an outline in order to introduce them for this blog challenge. However in saying that, writing this introduction, it will of great benefit to writing the abstracts.
Sarah is Molly’s mother and she is Matthews Grandmother. Because of Molly drank during pregnant Matthew was diagnosed with FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), but was recently re-diagnosed with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). Through a Kinship program Sarah was able to gain legal custody of Matthew.
Sarah is a Residential School Survivor, but due to abuses she endured while at the Blue Quills Residential School, she is still on her own healing journey. As a young mom herself raising six children and having no one to fall back on for help, Sarah was not able to encourage or raise her children in the ways of her ancestors.
As a residential school student her culture and traditions were taken away from her. Because she was in the system from the time she was five until she married at the age of seventeen, she never learned what it meant to have her own beliefs or what the elders of her culture would do.
While in the Blue Quills Residential School, she had to learn how to speak English and was not allowed to speak her own language. The leaders and teachers in the school Sarah grew up in were not real teachers (Cardinal, 1969) and the real purpose of Residential Schools was to build Christians. Teachers were not really required because anyone could teach how to read and write. It didn’t take an educated person to reinforce a notion of hygiene.
It took her youngest daughters pregnancy and the diagnosis of the infant to bring Sarah to a place of trying to understand the events of her life and change the outcome for the sake of her new charge ‘Matthew’. Having gained custody of her grandson, she is now learning about her culture and traditions and how to raise a child who has special needs issues.
As part of her coming to terms with her childhood and her feelings of failure as a mother of six, Sarah has been learning how to deal with her childhood issues. She has learned that she, her children and grandchildren have suffered from the effects of Historical Trauma. Historical traumas are afflicted injuries created over a lifetime due to emotional and psychological abuse (Yellowhorse-Braveheart, 1995)
Who is Matthew?
Matthew, is an eight year old boy who has barely seen his birth mom, because she lives in St. Paul and he lives in Grande Prairie with his Grandmother. He has lived with FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) from the time he was born until this last year at which time he was re-diagnosed with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder).
He is in grade two and has some learning issues to work through. He acts out and finds that he does not understand what his teacher is teaching him. He is easily confused and distractions plague him throughout the day. He feels alone and frustrated by those around him.
Living with FASD is hard to do at the best of times, but as a child in amongst other children who have no idea what FASD is, is one of the hardest things for a child to experience. Repetition is key to helping someone with FASD learn. A brain with the influence of FASD means, hearing multiple noises in the brain and those noises never stop, so keeping the attention of someone with FASD is an action taking finesse and stamina.
Family, friends, teachers and anyone else working with, dealing with or living with Matthew need to learn what it is to be an external brain (Sinclair, 2015) – repeating what he needs to do, learn and continue doing in order to remember what has been said and taught.
References
Cardinal, Harold (1969) The Unjust Society
“Intergenerational Trauma and Historical Grief in American Indians: A Review of Conceptualizations from Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart”, powerpoint, Melanie Ottenbacher
Sinclair, Matthew (2015) Conversations about FASD, A man/coworker who has and lives with FASD everyday
Tilley, Brian (2012) Industrious, but formal and mechanical: The sisters of charity of Providence in residential school classrooms
Yellowhorse-Braveheart , Dr. Maria (1995)
