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by Deb Evensen (Author)
13 Beams of Moonlight: Gentle Guidance for Families and Communities Living with FASD is a relationship-centered, brain-based guide for understanding and supporting children, youth, and adults whose lives have been shaped by prenatal alcohol exposure. Drawing on more than fifty years of work in classrooms and communities-from Pueblo, Colorado, to Iñupiaq villages in Alaska and beyond-educator Deb Evensen invites readers to step away from blame and shame and instead see FASD as a lifelong neurodevelopmental disability that calls for compassion, structure, and creativity.
Organized around 13 "Beams of Moonlight," each linked to an Indigenous traditional moon of the year, the book offers simple, powerful principles that can be put into practice immediately in homes, schools, and programs. These beams include honoring human dignity, understanding brain differences, matching expectations to developmental age, building trusted relationships, using concrete language, creating consistency and routine, reteaching and reinforcing, providing structure and supervision, simplifying demands, and recognizing success. Each chapter blends plain-language explanations, Indigenous teachings, vivid stories, and "Body Wisdom" activities that help readers feel what it is like to live with a brain that works differently in a world designed for neurotypical people.
Evensen shows families and professionals how to change environments and expectations so that the person can do their best. Practical strategies include breaking tasks into smaller steps, using visual cues, teaching through repetition and routine, coaching social skills, planning for transitions, and interpreting behavior as communication of needs for safety, belonging, power, freedom, and fun. Real-life stories-from a boy who cannot follow traditional behavior programs, to a teen who finds a mentor, to adults who finally thrive after age thirty-illustrate that progress is possible at every stage of life when people are understood and surrounded by steady support.
13 Beams of Moonlight is ideal for parents, foster and adoptive families, educators, social workers, justice and health professionals, faith and community leaders, and adults with FASD who are seeking language and tools that honor both their struggles and strengths. This book illuminates a hopeful path forward, showing that when communities learn to walk by the softer light of understanding, everyone benefits.
