[IV. We Know What Works]
[Notes]
The accomplishments of recent years can be a basis for sustained progress. No endeavor promises more long-term benefits for our nation than giving children a better start in life. But for this effort is to succeed, every sector of our society must be involved.
Parents can support their children?s healthy development by doing what parents do best—loving their children, spending time with them, chatting with them, protecting their health and safety, and creating the predictable routines and consistent limits that help children feel secure. They can stimulate their children?s intellectual growth by reading to them and engaging them in age-appropriate activities that will tap their creativity and spark their curiosity.
Generations of parents need no convincing that raising children is taxing, both physically and emotionally. It requires not only stamina, but also skill; not only nerve, but also knowledge. Mothers and fathers can enhance their children?s development by becoming better informed about parenthood, beginning even before their children are conceived. Today, countless parent education programs, publications, radio talk shows, TV specials, videos, and Web sites are available in communities across the nation. Family support organizations, childcare centers, libraries, hospital and health clinics, human service agencies, and schools and universities are among the institutions that make these resources available to their communities.
Parents? familiarity with all of these institutions benefits children. Being involved in the community not only increases parents? knowledge and contacts; it interrupts the isolation so many mothers and fathers feel. And as young children grow, their parents? ability to access services and programs on their behalf becomes very important.
As parents reach out for information and support, two kinds of learning are particularly important. The first is learning to observe children closely, to notice their rhythms and preferences and to read and respond to the signals they send through body language, crying and other sounds, facial expressions, and responses to stimuli.
The second kind of knowledge challenges parents to know not only their babies, but also themselves. Child development specialists often speak of the "ghosts in the nursery"—the experiences in mothers? and fathers? pasts that affect their own parenting, consciously or not. 39 By thinking and talking together about their own upbringing, parents and other caregivers can gain insight into their own responses to their children. Why does the sound of crying drive Yvonne so crazy? Why does Kyle lose his temper so quickly when the children squabble? Thinking about their own responses can make parents more patient and decisive as they react to their own children.
At satellite downlink sites around the nation, local residents who gathered to view and discuss the White House Conference responded to speakers? viewpoints, related research findings to the concerns of their own communities, and conveyed their reactions. Some emphasized the need for better preparation for childcare providers. Others called for a special focus on teen parents. Many expressed a deep concern for the fate of abused and neglected children. But one theme was sounded most emphatically: the needs of young children and their families are so diverse and complex that no single institution can fully meet them. There is an urgent need to mobilize whole communities, and to ensure greater coordination within them.40
This requires strenuous effort, and efficient, frequent communication among a wide range of service providers. It challenges professionals who may have only superficial knowledge of each other?s roles to work together. Police officers need to talk to mental health specialists; welfare caseworkers need to be in frequent contact with the staffs of family support organizations; health care professionals need to link up with childcare providers. All of these professionals—and many more—need to share information in ways that benefit children and families without violating their rights to privacy.
When coordination is strong, fewer children fall through the cracks. Most communities have a long way to go, because services for children and families are spread among so many agencies and organizations. The challenges are immense in terms of logistics, record keeping, and communication. Collaboration might include monitoring and documenting children?s health, safety, and progress toward developmental milestones, analyzing the factors that promote or hinder healthy development and learning, and making the changes needed to improve results for all children.41
Beyond institutional coordination, people must also come together to envision a future in which children and families will thrive and take steps to move the entire community toward that future. In mayors? offices, town halls, houses of worship, and parent gatherings across the nation, a promising movement to mobilize communities is now underway. Parent groups, community leaders, policymakers, business groups, and many others are working together to shape broad-based action strategies aimed at improving life for young children and their families. As communities differ, so too do the strategies they employ. In many places, community mobilization efforts have resulted in the creation of Children?s Councils to bring together the concerns and ideas of community members and policymakers. In other places, leadership on behalf of children has taken other forms—from parent groups, clergy, community organizers, educational leaders, health professionals, or other sources.
However different communities are, certain goals can be pursued almost universally.42
Throughout the 1990s, strengthening education has been among the nation?s highest priorities. Despite fiscal constraints, the nation has doubled its investments in training and education.43 The federal government has called upon Americans to help ensure that every child can read well and independently by the third grade. It is also working closely with states to put into place educational standards that set high expectations for all students, while providing the learning opportunities and resources our young people need to meet them. Nearly every state has now set higher academic standards for its public schools.44
To succeed, the nation?s commitment to promoting learning and healthy development cannot take effect only when children enter elementary school. Across the nation, elementary school principals are hearing from their kindergarten teachers that large numbers of children—by some estimates, one-third—are not "ready to learn."45 That is, they are unprepared for the academic, social, and emotional challenges they face in their kindergarten classrooms. Many principals are addressing this problem by shifting their focus from "ready children" to "ready schools"—rethinking kindergarten settings and programs to make them appropriate for the children who will fill them.
That approach is wise, but insufficient. As the education research plan issued recently by the U.S. Department of Education noted, there is mounting evidence that educational efforts that begin only a age five—the traditional age of entry into public schools—are too late and have limited payoff for children?s schooling.46 School leaders need to work more closely with the preschools and childcare programs whose children will soon be moving into their kindergartens, sharing curricula and engaging teachers and caregivers in joint professional development activities. Educational leaders need to become involved in community-based efforts to support young children?s healthy development and learning. To the extent possible, they need widen their focus, and communicate with and provide support to parents from the time their future students are born.
As things stand, few districts or elementary schools make systematic efforts to stay in contact with their communities? early care and education programs. In a national survey, 10 percent of schools reported systematic communication between kindergarten teachers and their kindergartners? previous caregivers or teachers; 12 percent said that their kindergarten curricula were designed to build on preschool programs. The vast majority of our elementary schools have no formal policy governing activities aimed at strengthening continuity and smoothing transitions. Different communities and schools benefit from different kinds of transition activities, but research shows that across the nation, the success of such efforts hinges on the involvement and support of principals and district-level administrators.47
Educational leaders can take many concrete steps at the national, state, and local levels to support the healthy development and learning of children before the age of five. In so doing, they can provide more continuity for children and move the nation toward the first national education goal—school readiness for all.
Business leaders increasingly acknowledge that they share significant responsibility for the well being of the families with young children who count among their customers, employees, and neighbors. They are keenly aware that today?s tots are tomorrow?s workforce. They realize that investments in early development and learning will save billions of dollars now spent by corporate America on basic skills training for employees. Moreover, they recognize that their employees can work more productively when they are free from worry about the care that their young children are receiving during the workday.
Some are making active efforts, leading community mobilization efforts, pioneering more "family-friendly" employee practices, and supporting innovation and research. Some are creating or subsidizing childcare care programs for their employees? small sons and daughters. Others are forming coalitions within the business community to address these issues on a larger scale.
Business leaders have unique access to American households through their products and services, and through their advertising capacity. As one panelist of the Conference noted, the back panels of cereal packages are one of the most powerful communication vehicles in America. Those who sell to families with small children usually have a great deal of credibility with consumers. All of these companies can provide to parents and other caregivers important information, including insights that spring from recent brain research.
Media leaders have often remarked that in America, if it isn?t on television, it isn?t real.48 This is hyperbole, of course, but it does suggest the powerful impact of the broadcast media on our society. Programming that sheds light on the importance of the early years can help build and sustain efforts in states and communities across the nation to improve results for young children and families.
Media decisionmakers are increasingly taking young children into account as they make decisions about programming. They have also responded by giving parents more control over their children?s program selections—V-chip and a TV rating system. These measures—once considered unlikely—are now in place. However, the broadcast media can do much more, supporting more programming aimed at parents with small children, increasing educational fare on TV and the radio, and disseminating new research findings. As the "I Am Your Child" campaign has demonstrated, media figures are powerful influences.
The print media are devoting more space to children?s issues, and more journalists are now devoting themselves to the children?s beat. To be sure, when a toddler is kidnapped or falls in a well, they capture headlines. But new findings about how children develop or the state of America?s childcare care still tend to appear on back pages, or the "women?s page." There has been significant progress, but the print media can do still more to communicate the importance of healthy development in the early years of life.
Finally, any discussion of the media?s role must include the Internet and other electronic outlets for the dissemination and exchange of knowledge. In the next century, more parents will have access to these resources. Many Web sites, reflecting diverse concerns and emphases, offer advice to parents or let parents and caregivers chat online. Some are sponsored by corporations that specialize in baby products. Others have been created by national organizations, child advocacy groups, and research institutions or universities. Over time, these resources will expand. But information on the Internet is not always reliable; it has not been fact-checked as articles in reputable newspapers and magazines usually are. Parents may need help evaluating the knowledge and advice they receive. Efforts to strengthen Internet offerings for parents need to take into account the wide gap that now exists between technology "haves" and "have nots." Communities can provide access to more of their residents by placing appropriate technology in libraries, workplaces, schools, community organizations, museums, housing projects, and other places where parents can use them.
At every level, government can make sure that parents have a range of choices about how to raise and care for their young children, as well as the tools and information that can help them make sound decisions. The federal government has a strong role to play in shaping legislation and policies that promote the health, well-being, and learning of young children and their families; supporting research; disseminating its findings; and providing technical support to states and communities as they plan, implement, and evaluate new initiatives. It also creates and supports programs that meet a clear national interest, such as Head Start and Early Head Start.49
Many of the most exciting initiatives will come from states and communities that can tailor programs to local needs and adjust to changing circumstances. Across the nation, many states are launching or expanding family support efforts, home visitation programs, and a variety health care initiatives designed to safeguard young children. They are setting higher standards for childcare accreditation, and focusing more on enforcement. They are encouraging or requiring professionals from diverse fields to work together. States and localities must keep children at the top of their agendas, confident that over time, their investments will strengthen the fabric of their communities, while increasing workplace productivity and containing social spending.
Decades of research have led to breathtaking discoveries about early child development and learning, but much remains to be known.50 How can we build on recent findings about how children think and communicate? What more can be known about how individuals learn? How can different kinds of developmental delays and disabilities be prevented or overcome?
The insights reported at the White House Conference resulted from decades of systematic inquiry. They emerged from the questions pursued by scientists and other scholars. But they also derived from the experiences of parents and other people who have spent their days working with children and families. Scientific inquiry requires independent thought, but no researcher is an island. Researchers can make a vital contribution by taking into account, at every stage of their work, the implications of their findings for policy and practice. After all, the purpose of their investigations is not simply to accumulate knowledge, but to reach a deep understanding of how children grow, and how families and communities, and the nation as a whole, can contribute to the next generation?s healthy development and learning. We need to build bridges between research and practice. And we need ways to understand how the many findings that spring from research connect to each other.
[IV. We Know What Works] |
|
[Notes] |