Shelby County receives $1.6 million to expand accessibility to Early Head Start programs

Research shows that at-risk children who have the benefit of Early Head Start experience improved cognitive, social, and emotional development. EHS children score higher on language growth measurements, display fewer behavioral problems, interact more positively with adults, and are less likely to test into the “at-risk” category of developmental performance. Children in EHS are more likely to receive immunizations on time and to visit a physician due to illness. Moreover, parents of EHS children are more likely to engage in practices that support early learning, read to their children daily, attend school functions, and provide emotional support.

Early Head Start is a program designed to serve children from birth through age three. Early Head Start offers center-based care, home-based prenatal care, parental support, age appropriate learning, medical services, disability and mental health screenings, evaluations, and early intervention services.

Currently, there are 12,479 children income eligible for Early Head Start in Shelby County. However, there are spots available for less than one percent of these children. Limited space may be expanding as the Department of Health and Human Services announces an additional $1.6 million in grants to expand EHS in Shelby County.

Every parent needs to know: Language development begins at birth, and early literacy skills help children succeed in school

Zero to Three offers good advice for new parents about how to help develop literacy in young children. Children’s relationships with books, capacity to communicate, and ability to read are directly related to their experiences with language. When parents and caregivers make books available and fun, and when they sit down to read with young children, they are helping prepare those children to succeed in kindergarten and elementary school, building their self esteem, problem-solving abilities, and social skills.

Language acquisition begins at birth. Parents should talk to babies often and with a wide vocabulary. The Urban Child Institute informs parents and caregivers about the importance of responsiveness and language exchanges. Responsive parents try to recognize their babies’ signals, allowing parent and child to communicate through a mixture of words and facial expressions. These exchanges foster brain development and prepare infants to begin sounding out different phonemes.

Positive interactions with books and play help to develop literacy among infants. Allow children to play with books in unconventional ways. Sound books, pop-up pages, and bright colors can capture the attention of infants. Naming objects in pictures aids in language acquisition. Ask children to pick out books with a specific characteristic. Creating a book with pictures of family members is a fun way to learn names and relationship words like uncle, brother, and dog.

Toddlers can improve their motor skills by interacting with “lift the flap” books. Parents and caregivers encourage a familiarity with words by posting them around the house or childcare center. Match objects around you with pictures in books. Read stories about going for a walk or about bedtime as ways to introduce those activities. Letter magnets and crayons help introduce letters, words, and the mechanics of writing. Most importantly, adults should encourage and support early literacy by providing children with ample conversation opportunities.

Undercounting may cheat poor children in Memphis out of federal funds.

Title I funds provide federal support to schools with high percentages of poor children. Districts also have the option of targeting Title I funds to pre-school programs designed to support the optimal early development of at-risk children. The formula used to apportion Title I funding is based on the child poverty rate in a district relative to other states and districts. The result of this formula is that a state could experience both an increase in child poverty and a decrease in Title I funding (if poverty rates in other states rise more rapidly).

The New America Foundation has an easily navigable web feature that allows users to type in their school districts and see 2007 funding statistics, 2009 allocation estimates, student enrollment, student demographics, and poverty percentages. Users can also compare their school district with other districts within the state; as well as with state and national averages.

The New America Foundation’s calculator paints a disturbing picture of the well-being of children in Memphis and Tennessee. The rate of student poverty in Tennessee is 50 percent higher than the national average of 13.2 percent. As we would expect, the share of Memphis City School (MCS) children in poverty is another 30 percent higher than the state average, and double the national average. Even more disturbing for policy-makers, the federal statistics used in the foundation’s calculator undercount the share of poor students in Memphis by 12 percent. (According to Department of Education figures, 70.8 percent of MCS students are eligible for free and reduced price lunch, while MCS reports that 81 percent of students are actually eligible for the school lunch program).

Only one-third of teenage mothers earns a high school diploma or GED

Findings released by Child Trends shows that only 34 percent of adolescent mothers will earn a high school diploma or GED. The age at first birth and education level of the mother are good indicators of the family’s socioeconomic status. Mothers who earn a diploma are more financially stable and more capable of providing necessary resources for the child’s development. Teenage mothers who delayed childbirth until 18 or 19 years old were nearly twice more likely to earn their diploma than younger girls. Studies have shown that children of teenage mothers are more likely to grow up in poverty, become incarcerated, be subjected to abuse or neglect, or have children as teenagers-thus continuing the cycle of premature fertility, poverty, and disadvantage. The attainment of a diploma increases the financial outlook for children and families.

This information is especially important in urban areas where teenage pregnancies, premature births, and infant mortality are high. Adolescent motherhood increases healthcare costs, welfare recipients, and the number of children who live in poverty. Although mothers with high school diplomas are more financially stable, researchers agree that families need to earn twice the national poverty line to adequately support a child. In Shelby County, mothers do not earn that level of financial stability until 29 years of age

Introducing multiple languages to young children helps strengthen the architecture of the developing brain.

Parents and educators sometimes worry that introducing multiple languages to children too early may lead to linguistic and cognitive delays. Research performed by the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) shows that just the opposite may be true. Children introduced to a second language at an early age do not lag behind their peers. In fact, it is common for young children to mix multiple languages in one sentence, and if bilingual children show a lack of vocabulary recognition, they quickly catch up to their monolingual counterparts by elementary school. Further, bilingual children show a distinct advantage in reading acquisition due to their familiarity with a variety of phonemes. With each new language learned, the brain develops new neural connections, thus strengthening the architecture of the brain and preparing the child for future academic successes.

Experts at Zero to Three offer this advice for multilingual families. Be consistent: speak one language at home and the other outside of the home. They also point out those children who learn their family’s native language early on share a stronger sense of cultural identity. A study conducted by the SCDOE followed four different cohorts of children, each one introduced to a language at a later age (0, 3, 5, and 7 years). Results show that earlier is better. The area of the brain that permits easy language acquisition becomes active at infancy and closes around 10 years old. Cities like San Francisco have developed language immersion preschools citing benefits such as improved understanding in all academic subjects, higher standardized test scores, and better career opportunities.

Women need 400 micrograms of vitamin folic acid every day to protect against birth defects

January is Birth Defects Prevention Month, and organizations like the March of Dimes and the Grain Foods Foundation are working to raise awareness of the importance of folic acid for healthy birth outcomes. The March of Dimes reports that only 28 percent of women knew that consuming folic acid helps to protect against birth defects; only 11 percent of women knew that folic acid should be taken before becoming pregnant. Serious birth defects that affect the brain and spine, like spina bifida, begin mere weeks after conception. Something as simple as eating enriched grains can prevent these neural tube defects.

For every 1,000 live births, 276.3 infants will be born with birth defects in the state of Tennessee. Birth defects were responsible for 1 in 5 infant deaths in Tennessee in 2004. Memphis already leads the nation in infant mortality, making it imperative that we emphasize proper prenatal care. Women should eat at least 400 micrograms of the B vitamin folic acid every day. This can be found in an assortment of grain products like breads, bagels, pretzels, and pastas. When compared to whole grain items, products made with enriched white flour contain twice as much folic acid.

In the United States, one out of every 33 babies born will have a birth defect, which could inhibit their physical and mental development as they grow into young children. In 2004, the costs for treating birth defects amounted to $2.6 billion. This figure includes hospital costs but does not take into consideration the expenses of treating behavioral and cognitive delays caused by defects. On January 18th, Schnucks pharmacies announced that they will provide free prenatal vitamins to women who can present a valid prescription. Help the March of Dimes and the Grain Foods Foundation by spreading the message.

Preschools Reshape Pre-Mathematics Curriculum in Response to New Brain Research

New research has prompted preschools in Nashville, Boston, and Washington to create new games, activities, and curriculum to improve mathematic reasoning in young children and to increase kindergarten readiness. Recent studies indicate that even infants can differentiate amounts and quantities. Moreover, by 18 months, children can distinguish between shapes. By preschool, children are able to connect numbers and shapes with corresponding concepts and labels like five and triangle. Aside from basic counting exercises, the majority of early education centers spend little time attempting to teach mathematics to toddlers.

Counting activities have been developed to simultaneously incorporate the three concepts of quantity (e.g.: five apples), the corresponding word (five), and the numerical representation (5). Even traditional games like Chutes and Ladders enhance children’s mathematical ability by teaching the relationship between numbers and quantity. For low-income preschoolers, this head start in math comprehension makes a considerable difference. After one year in a math centered preschool environment, 4 year olds in Nashville and Boston were tested on addition, subtraction, and number recognition and placed in the 76th percentile. Children who did not receive the intervention placed in the 50th percentile. Even after their first year of kindergarten, young children who participated in the program maintained their mathematical advantage by placing in the 71st percentile

Recession pushing more young children into dire poverty

A recent report from The Brookings Institution estimates that across the country, 5 million additional children will fall into poverty as a result of the current recession. In 2007, Shelby county already had an alarmingly high rate of impoverish children, with an estimated 15 percent of all children ages 0-17 living in dire poverty. In Memphis, that estimation is at 21 percent—1 in every 5 children living in dire poverty (with family incomes less than roughly $10,000 a year).

Children who grow up in poverty lag behind their middle class counterparts in both cognitive and behavioral development. Since the most sensitive period for brain development is before the age of five, it is especially disturbing that nearly a quarter of all pre-school age children in Memphis (23 percent) live in dire poverty. Recent analyses demonstrate that children in families that fall below the poverty line during a recession are less likely to graduate from high school or go on to college than children in families that remained above the poverty line. While some observers see the rise in benefit applications as a signal that our social safety net is working, others see it as a sign of a worsening situation. As the labor market changes and job growth remains stagnant, a true estimate of the economic effect of the current recession on children is yet to be seen.

The jobless rate in the state of Tennessee has almost doubled in the last year, rising from 6.4 to 11 percent. By July 2009, unemployment in Memphis had reached 11.6 percent, higher than state and national averages, meaning that more and more children in our community are living in financially strained households. Across the country, 10.5 million children are estimated to have at least one unemployed parent; that is one out of every seven children in the United States. Children of unemployed parents are more likely to experience increased levels of toxic stress associated with homelessness, domestic abuse, and poverty.

An increasing number of schoolchildren in the South are poor and minority

A report released today by the Southern Education Foundation notes that the South has become the first region of the country where more than half of public school children are poor and more than half are members of ethnic minority groups.

According to the report, the shift was fueled by influx of Latinos and the return of Blacks to the South in recent years. These trends have exacerbated the demographic shifts which began with the flight of White families to the suburbs during the 1970s and 1980s.

As communities across the South struggle to grow productive, highly educated work forces, they face daunting challenges given the lower achievement rates among poor and minority students, who - too often - reach school at a social, emotional and cognitive disadvantage. By 36 months of age, a child from an impoverished family may have a vocabulary a third the size of a child from a professional family. This inequality tracks with children as they progress through school, and low income children are much more likely to be held back a grade, and to drop out.

According to Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University, the implications of this trend are enormous: "When we realize that the majority of graduates of our schools are going to come from backgrounds with educational deprivation, it makes it imperative that schools be improved." It also becomes imperative to understand that deprivation begins long before children reach the school house doors.

These trends are well-recognized in Memphis, the largest school district in the state of Tennessee, and 21st largest district in the country. More than 80 percent of students in Memphis City Schools are low-income and a similar percentage of students are ethnic minorities.

Help Prevent Child Abuse

The Memphis CAC (in collaboration with You Have The Power) is providing a free workshop designed to empower ministers, congregational leaders, youth workers, and lay leaders to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse. The event will be held January 11, 2010 from 6:30-8:30 pm at Kingsbury Christian Church (7887 Poplar Avenue, Germantown, TN 38138). The program meets the requirements DHS sets forth for personal safety training and certificates of attendance will be available. To register, contact Su Hartline at 901-888-4337 or shartline@MemphisCAC.org.

How Does Maltreatment Affect Early Childhood Development?

Many abused children develop issues that impair their social, emotional and physical development- these issues manifest early in life and can continue throughout the lifetime. Hostility, elevated sexualization, and other delinquent behaviors commonly observed in maltreatment victims, combined with diminished concentration, lead to higher school dropout and retention levels for abused children when compared to nonabused children. When children experience sexual maltreatment, they are more likely to have an elevated number of sexual relationships and, accordingly, an increased likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted disease or becoming pregnant unintentionally. Notably, the rate of teen pregnancy among sexually abused girls is approximately 4 times higher than non-abused girls (Putnam, 2006).

Fast facts (Zero To Three, 2009):

- Children from birth to 36 months of age are consistently the age group most likely to be victims of maltreatment. Infants and toddlers account for almost 30 percent of child abuse and neglect victims.

- Infants (under 12 months of age) are at greatest risk of maltreatment.

- The maltreatment rate for 2002 was 12.3 per 1,000 children (USDHHS, 2004). However, child welfare researchers suggest that actual incidences are much higher than recorded. A primary reason for this is that some less easily identifiable and sensitive cases of maltreatment, such as sexual abuse, are underreported.

Local Resources Designed To Prevent Maltreatment and Assist Victims

Child maltreatment prevention and intervention can help to decrease rates of abuse and neglect. Additionally, these programs are cost-effective, saving a minimum of three dollars for every dollar dedicated to program operations (Karoly et al., 1998).

The Memphis community is fortunate to have a city-based agency dedicated to providing for children who are victims of maltreatment. The mission of the Memphis Child Advocacy Center (CAC) is to serve children who are victims of sexual abuse and severe physical abuse through prevention, education and intervention. The Memphis CAC vision is a community where children are safe, families are strong, and victims become children again.

For more information on the well-being of children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Home.

References

Karoly, L., Greenwood, P., Everingham, S., Houe, J., Kilburn, M., & Rydell, C. (1998). Investing in our children: What we know and don’t know about the costs and benefits of early childhood
Interventions. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.

Putnam, F.W. (2006). The impact of trauma on child development. Juvenile and Family Court Journal, 57, (1), 1-12.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families. Child maltreatment 2004. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Zero To Three. (2009). Facts about abuse and neglect of infants and toddlers. Washington, DC: Zero To Three.

Approximately 3 out of 5 Family-based Child Care Programs Restrict Mobile Play As A Form Of Punishment: Findings From A Recent Study

Stewart Trost, Oregon State University researcher and expert on obesity problems, surveyed approximately 300 family-centered child care facilities serving families with children aged 2 to 5. Even though about 4 out of 5 surveyed programs provided more than an hour of mobile playtime per day, approximately 2 out of 5 indicated that the children enrolled in their programs were required to sit still for prolonged time periods. Two-thirds of providers surveyed reported that they leave the television switched on for most of the school day.

Perhaps even more distressing was that over 60% of the surveyed child care staff reported that they withheld mobile playtime and movement (sometimes called “time-out”) as a punitive measure. Although time-out is preferred to corporal punishment, requiring children to sit still doesn’t improve behavior if what they really need is to burn off some energy. “Would you withhold fruits and vegetables for kids who misbehave and negatively affect their health?” Troft asks.” All the research shows that restricting physical activity makes children more, not less, likely to misbehave. So, it’s not even an effective means of punishment.”

Play is one of the most critical things a child does. Through active play and engagement with adults and other children, a child explores her surroundings, retains important information and builds connections in her mind. Play also provides children with the opportunity to develop crucial social traits (BBB, 2007).

As Trost suggests, preventing children from participating in the act of play is not effective in changing inappropriate behavior. Need ideas on parenting and discipline techniques that work? Please visit The Urban Child Institute’s resource page on sensitive discipline techniques at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Parenting.

References
Better Brains for Babies. (2007). Better Brains for Babies Trainer’s Guide. Athens, GA: Better Brains for Babies.

Kids in home-based day care lack exercise. (2009, December 18). Yahoo! News. http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20091219/hl_hsn/kidsinhomebaseddaycarelackexercise/print

Preparing Early Childhood Staff To Adapt To The Diverse Educational Setting: Findings From a Recent Study

Today’s early education environments exhibit our country’s evolving cultural landscape. In the future, most early childhood educators will doubtlessly interact with an increasing number of children from families very different from their own. The transforming makeup of the American educational system demonstrates the advancing unification of ethnicity, faith, physical capability and language. This inspiring (yet demanding) cultural phenomenon mandates that new educators be increasingly perceptive and ready to teach young, multifaceted pupils, as well as become powerful advisors in the multicultural educational setting.

Leaders in college-level early childhood education programs have reacted uniquely to this crucial concern. Little is understood about variables that may influence how diversity and language issues are approached in university early childhood degree programs. Recently, the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina conducted a study examining the impact of geographical locations, institutional features and program components on the diversity-related educational requirements in over 400 Bachelor’s degree programs that educate early childhood teachers.

Some Findings:
- Four-year degree programs with a higher number of nonwhite faculty were more likely to mandate more coverage of cultural issues in the ECE program. This finding implies that attracting and maintaining a diverse faculty may be a critical approach for creating a culturally sensitive early childhood labor force.
- Early childhood programs in rural locations were less likely to require coursework focused on linguistic diversity than programs located in metropolitan areas[1].

The complete results of the study emphasize the significance of coordinating best practices with teacher readiness mandates, retaining a diverse faculty, and providing information about cultural contexts to the largely White early childhood teaching personnel.

The University of Memphis offers a four-year program in which students can earn a Bachelor’s of Science degree in early childhood education. Prior to earning the degree, students are required to complete coursework relating to race and ethnicity, family and culture and gender issues. For more information about the early education program, please call 901.678.5915.

For more information on the well-being of children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Home/.

[1] For a more complete listing of the findings, please visit the UNC Child Development Institute’s website at http://www.fpg.unc.edu/

New Research Suggests That Daily Television Viewing Time Varies Significantly By Type Of Child Care Setting

According to new research published this fall in the journal Pediatrics, young children enrolled in out-of-home care may be spending over 30% of the time they are awake each day watching television. The study (the first in more than two decades to examine television watching in the child care setting) suggests that television viewing patterns vary significantly by type of child care setting- about 70% of family-based child care programs reported daily television watching, while 36% of center-based child care programs reported daily television viewing.

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and a researcher at the University of Washington, surveyed 168 licensed daycare programs in four different states. The results suggest that among preschool-aged children, those in family-based day care programs watched television for 2.4 hours per day on average, compared to 24 minutes in larger centers. Only family-based providers conceded to placing infants (less than 12 months of age) in front of the television, for an average of about 12 minutes per day.

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages any television watching of any kind during the first 24 months of life and advises a daily restriction of 60 to 120 minutes of superior programming for older children. Young children attend child care programs in order to foster social abilities, cultivate cognitive skills and partake in creative play, as well as allowing parents to work. According to Christakis, “It’s not what parents have signed up for. I’m not sure how many parents are aware of this…We know what is good for children and we know what’s not. High quality preschool can make a very, very positive difference. We’re so far from meeting that, that we really have a lot of work to do…It’s alarming to find that so many children in the United States are watching essentially twice as much television as we previously thought.”

Other studies have linked extreme television watching during early childhood with language problems, weight issues, attention difficulties and hostile behavior. (See Television Viewing Associated With Increased Combative Behavior In Young Children ). Christakis suggests that one of the primary issues with television watching for young children is that it replaces time that could possibly be spent running in the backyard, reading a story, playing with toys and interacting with adults and peers- all behaviors and activities that promote optimal cognitive, social and emotional development during the first years of life.

For more information on the well-being of young children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/.

References

Blankinship, D.G. (2009, November 23). Study: Kids watching hours of TV at home daycare. Associated Press: Yahoo! News.

Measuring Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education: Moving from an “Inputs” Focused Program to an Outcomes Based Model of System Reform

All across the U.S., low income and minority students are consistently less likely to be prepared for kindergarten, less likely to be proficient on achievement tests, more likely to be held back and less likely to graduate from high school; this phenomenon is called the “achievement gap”.

Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) that was held in Washington D.C. During his remarks, Secretary Duncan commented on the importance and value of early learning systems that span pre-kindergarten to 3^rd grade as the best opportunity policymakers have to “get schools out of the catch up business” (Duncan, November 2009, para. 6). In other words, - as NAEYC’s call to action on pre-K to 3^rd grade systems states-, “to close the (achievement) gap, we must prevent the (achievement) gap” (Duncan, November 2009, para. 5).

However, the most interesting aspect of Secretary Duncan’s speech is not in recognizing the role of early education in helping to prevent achievement gaps between children from different backgrounds. Instead, his most valuable point is that system reform in early childhood can not have the intended effect of eliminating the achievement gap, unless reform efforts are measured in terms of children’s “outcomes” instead of “inputs” to their early education.

Traditionally, education reform in early childhood has been focused on raising teacher qualifications, lowering staff to child ratios and improving curriculums. While these are all “inputs” which have been linked to better child outcomes in research studies, Duncan’s larger point is that it is ultimately not enough to simply raise the quality of early childhood education. We have to know if reform efforts are leading to better outcomes for children served by the system.

What types of outcomes? Kindergarten readiness has traditionally been thought of as a child’s academic or intellectual preparation for school. Certainly knowing letters of the alphabet, having a large receptive vocabulary and the ability to distinguish beginning and ending sounds of words are all important to the process of becoming literate. Many, if not most, of our current assessments of pre-kindergarten programs are focused on children’s intellectual preparation for kindergarten. However, we also know that social and emotional development, which encompasses the ability to self-regulate and participate in groups, is a key component of school readiness. Therefore, as Secretary Duncan pointed out, effective outcomes measurement must be expanded to include all dimensions of school readiness, not just the ones we actively know how to measure.

There are several valid tests of children’s social and emotional development including:

- Behavioral Skills Rating Scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development;

- Ages & Stages Questionnaire on Social and Emotional Development; and

- The Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA).

Currently in Shelby County, Head Start and Early Head Start are the only early care and education programs that are required to asses and track children’s social and emotional development. Head Start and Early Head Start are also the only early care and education programs that are required to help children access physical, mental, and developmental health services. Children need to be academically, social/emotionally and physically prepared to participate in school from day one. Effectively expanding and improving our current early care and education system to help eliminate the achievement gap locally should include assessment of the full range of children’s developmental preparation for school.

Sources

Duncan, Arne. November 18, 2009. The Early Learning Challenge: Raising the Bar — Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. [Accessed December 3, 2009]

Action Steps To Improve Child Well-being In Memphis: Call the White House Today!

Children’s early brain development occurs through a process of interaction between children and their environments. The quality of these environments and relationships shape the degree to which children’s brains will develop effectively. Children’s early developmental experiences build the foundations for their subsequent success in school and life.

More than half of the children born into our community every year are raised in families lacking access to resources that children need for healthy development. As a community, we need to understand that many of our problems stem directly from the earliest experiences of our children. We can’t wait- NOW is the time to invest wisely in our youngest citizens in order to achieve an ideal future for the city of Memphis.

The national financial plan is crucial to maintaining and expanding high-quality early childhood education programs, such as Early Head Start and early intervention programs for children with special requirements. In order to confirm that the federal 2011 national budget incorporates the monetary support that these programs need to assist vulnerable young children, we are encouraging all Shelby County citizens to communicate with the White House in order to advocate for early childhood issues.

Why contact the president NOW? The Obama cabinet is presently laboring over the financial plan suggestions for the next fiscal year and we need to guarantee that programs that serve infants and toddlers are penciled in. President Obama’s financial plan delivers a message to Congress regarding the issues that should be the primary expenditures during the next financial phase- fundamentally setting the model for what is incorporated into our national budget.

Why is expansion in these early childhood programs critical for the Memphis community? We have a tremendous number of susceptible young children who are not receiving federal services that could be hugely beneficial to families and the greater Shelby County community.

- Designed to promote healthy physical, emotional and cognitive growth for at-risk children, Early Head Start (EHS) has been shown to improve child developmental outcomes and strengthen parenting skills. Currently, less than one percent of eligible children in Shelby County have access to EHS.

- Early Intervention services support optimal early childhood development, and help families trying to provide for their children’s special needs. Approximately 2% of Shelby County children under three are enrolled in the Tennessee Early Intervention Service system. Recent estimates suggest that our community has a significant need to expand enrollment in services for children with disabilities or developmental delays.

You can help by asking for increased funding for Early Childhood Programs. Please take action today by contacting the White House in one of the two following ways:

1. Leave a message for the Obama administration on the White House Comments line. To call the White House Comments line, please dial 202-456-1111.

2. Send President Obama an e-mail in support of the expansion and maintenance of quality early childhood programs. To e-mail President Obama, fill out the form on this website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

For more information on the well-being of young children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute website at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Home.

Perry Pre-School: Still a Good Investment but Not as Good as Previously Reported

The last 10 years have seen enormous growth in the amount of state and federal funding being directed towards creating pre-kindergarten programs. In spite of a grim economic climate nationally, state pre-kindergarten programs were slated to receive $5.3 billion in state and federal funding next year (Pre-K Now, October 2009, 2). Why are pre-kindergarten programs becoming a major target of public spending? Many pre-kindergarten programs have been funded in the hope that they will help low income children be better prepared for kindergarten and that they will narrow the achievement gap and earnings between lower and upper income children as they grow to adulthood. So where does Perry Pre-School fit into this picture?

The Perry Pre-school Project was a two year, high quality early childhood education program offered to low income children in Ypsilanti, Michigan in the late 60’s. The notable thing about Perry Pre-School is that its original researchers created equally sized control (children who did not participate in the program) and experimental (children who did participate in the program) groups at the beginning of the project. Then they tracked each group of children for the next 40 years to measure how the control and experimental groups did on various indicators as they grew to adulthood. For instance, they tracked whether or not the children failed grades, were suspended in school, became teenage mothers, graduated from high school, went to college, went to prison, how much they earned in adulthood, how often they used welfare and food stamps, etc.

Forty plus years into the program they can now demonstrate that children who participated in Perry Pre-School at ages 3 and 4 have lead significantly more productive and stable lives. For instance, they were less likely to fail grades in school, less likely to be suspended, less likely to go to jail, less likely to be teen parents, more likely to go to college, more likely to be employed, etc. All of these findings on the experimental group were then compared with the results of the control group in order to calculate the long range cost savings associated with having participated in the program. Researchers then compared the cost savings generated by program participants to the initial cost of providing them with high quality pre-kindergarten. For many years, this return on investment (ROI) was calculated for Perry Pre-School as being either 16 or 17 to 1. In other words, for every dollar invested in the program, the program participants cost society $16 or $17 less than they would have if they had not gone through the program (Rolnick & Grunewald 2003, Belfield et al., 2006).

This fall, Nobel prize winning economist James Heckman revisited the earlier work of the return on investment from Perry Pre-School to determine the accuracy of the estimated ROI. They found that due to errors in earlier estimation analysis, the ROI for Perry Pre-school has been overstated. They describe an estimated ROI of between $7 and $10 for every dollar invested in Perry. While this is much smaller than the earlier estimates, it still represents a substantial return (Heckman et al., November 2009).

Given the reality that much of the enthusiasm for investing in state pre-kindergarten programs has been fueled by the promise of generating large ROI’s for the next generation, it remains to be seen whether or not a $7 to $10 ROI is large enough to inspire lawmakers nationwide to continue to invest in these programs. It should also be noted that Perry Pre-School was only able to demonstrate a $7 to $10 ROI after 40+ years of tracking its participants. None of our current state pre-kindergarten programs has existed long enough for us to know whether or not they will prove as cost-effective as Perry Pre-School.

Sources

Belfield, C.R., Nores, M., Barnett, W.S., Schweinhart, L., (2006). The High/Scope Perry Preschool program: Cost-benefit analysis using data from the age-40 followup. Journal of Human Resources, 41, 1, pg. 162-190.

Heckman, J.J., Moon, S.H., Pinto, R., Savelyev, P.A., Yavitz, A. (November 2009). The Rate of Return to the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program. NBER Working Paper No. 15471. [Accessed November 11, 2009] http://www.nber.org/papers/w15471.pdf

Pre-K Now. (October 2009). Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal year 2010. Washington D.C.: Pew Center on the States. [Accessed November 10, 2009]

Rolnick, A., Grunewald, R. (2003). Early childhood development: Economic development with a high public return. Tech.rep., Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN.

Television Viewing Associated With Increased Combative Behavior In Young Children

Recent research suggests that television watching is related to hostile behavior in children under the age of three. While investigators in the current study (published in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine) found that young children who received corporal punishment, resided in a dangerous community, or had a mother who was distressed or under mental pressure were more likely to display aggressive behaviors, they also found that television viewing (both direct and indirect) had a statistically meaningful effect on children’s aggression.

The study, conducted by Dr. Jennifer Manganello- an assistant professor of health communication at the University of Albany School of Public Health- provides results from an analysis of national data collected for over 3,000 children born between 1998 and 2000. Because so many variables can impact a child’s actions, the investigators attempted to control for as many variables as possible, including maternal parenting beliefs, maternal experience with violence, the security of family surroundings and demographic characteristics. Even after weighting for these variables, television was more likely than many other factors to elevate aggressive behaviors.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is disturbed enough about the media’s impact on the behavior of young children that they recently refreshed their protocol on media brutality:

“Exposure to violence in media, including television, movies, music and video games, represents a significant risk to the health of children and adolescents. Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares and fear of being harmed,” wrote the AAP Council on Communications and Media.

According to Richard Gallagher, director of the Parenting Institute at the New York University Child Study Center in New York City, television is not a harmless instrument- it does have an impact on children and families. While media subject matter may influence actions, Gallagher suggests that children’s behaviors may also be influenced by “opportunities lost.”

In other words, when an infant or toddler is viewing a television show, which is an inactive behavior, the child does not have the occasion to engage with other family members and may have decreased interaction with his or her companions. “The AAP guidelines that children under 2 shouldn’t watch any television may be fairly strict and hard to carry out, but parents should be judicious about how much TV young children are watching, and be aware that it’s not likely to be appropriately stimulating,” stated Gallagher.

Parents should operate as a television “purifier” for their young children. For instance, moms and dads should indicate when something is nonsensical on television and that it is not a real-world situation. Also, if they happen to see something disturbing or violent- even in a television show designed for children- parents need to translate that situation for children, and inform them of what would happen if that were a real scenario.

For more resources on parenting and early child development, please visit The Urban Child Institute’s Parenting Resources webpage at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Parenting.

References

Gordon, S. (2009, November 2). TV may increase aggression in toddlers: The more watched, the more aggressive the behavior, study finds. HealthDay Reporter.
http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=632720

New Research Links Tobacco Exposure During Pregnancy to Various Neuro-developmental Problems in Early Childhood

According to new research presented at the 2009 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Annual Meeting, tobacco exposure during pregnancy has been found to be associated with disagreeableness in very young infants, inadequate concentration and information synthesizing during the first year of life, as well as impulsivity during the preschool years.

“We found that even in the first year of life, we can see differences in attention and irritability and in the regulation of emotions…Then at age 3, we saw that kids with prenatal tobacco exposure seem to have trouble waiting for an award, which ties in with findings that smoking during pregnancy can have a specific impact on the parts of the brain that are involved in regulating behavior, ''stated Dr. Sandra A. Wiebe, lead investigator and professor at the University of Alberta, Canada.

An estimated 10% to 30% of females in the United States use tobacco during pregnancy (Brauser, 2009). Last year in Tennessee, over 16,000 (18.8%) of mother’s giving birth in our state reported cigarette smoking during pregnancy . Over 1,100 (6.9%) of the birth mother’s reporting cigarette smoking during pregnancy gave birth in Shelby County (TN DOH, 2009).

Dr. Wiebe acknowledges that it can be difficult for mothers to quit smoking; however, she believes that information and education on the effects of prenatal tobacco exposure can help encourage moms to abstain. “We need to explain that it can affect how well a baby learns about the world, as well as how well they’re able to behave adaptively in various situations once they start preschool or kindergarten,” she suggested.

Local Resources

The Church Health Center's Hope and Healing Center offers health and wellness programs including weight loss classes and smoking cessation counseling. Their Freedom From Smoking program is eight weeks of group counseling designed to help participants kick the smoking habit. They offer sliding scale membership fees based on income and family size. For more information, please call 901-259-4673.

For more information on the well-being of young children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute website at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Home/.

References

Brauser, D. (2009, November 9). Prenatal tobacco exposure linked to multiple problems. Medscape Medical News.

Tennessee Department of Health, Division of Health Statistics. Personal Communication, November 12, 2009.

Following AAP, the American Dietetic Association Supports Exclusive Breastfeeding For 6 Months

According to a recent policy report released by the American Dietetic Association (ADA), breastfeeding provides health advantages to both mothers and babies; thus, the use of human milk for infant feeding should be advanced and applauded.

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that exclusive breastfeeding provides optimal nutrition and health protection for the first 6 months of life, and breastfeeding with complementary foods from 6 months until at least 12 months of age is the ideal feeding pattern for infants. Breastfeeding is an important public health strategy for improving infant and child morbidity and mortality and improving maternal morbidity and helping to control health care costs,” the ADA stated in a press release.

The recommendations of the ADA mimic the breastfeeding policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months after birth, continuous breastfeeding for at least 12 months after birth, and thereafter as long as mutually desired (AAP, 2005).

The authors of the policy report developed a science-based examination on the framework of breastfeeding customs and health advantages in the United States and in other nations. They determined that human milk supplies superlative nutrient content for very young children and weakens the possibility of developing multiple serious and enduring conditions.

The health advantages for babies include:

- A sound immune system

- Reduced possibility of developing asthma, lower respiratory tract complications and gastroenteritis

- Elevated defense against allergies and sensitivities

- Appropriate growth of teeth and jaw

- Correlation with increased IQ and improved educational achievement

- Decreased risk for SIDS, as well as recurrent illnesses, including weight issues, diabetes, heart problems, elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol and childhood cancer

The ADA suggests that dietetic specialists and registered dietitians maintain a critical role in endorsing and fostering breastfeeding for its health advantages for children and families. Additionally, dietary professionals also have a crucial position in administering pragmatic research on breastfeeding-related matters. The authors suggest that more research on breastfeeding promotion campaigns is of particularly high priority.

For more information on the current Shelby County breastfeeding campaign, please contact Dr. Julie Ware (President of the Shelby County Breastfeeding Coalition) at julieware2@bellsouth.net. The Shelby County Breastfeeding Coalition is a county-wide collaboration that aims to implement national breastfeeding policy recommendations. The collaborative consists of nine organizations and represents a partnership between the public and private sectors, as well as uniting the community with medical, academic, public health, research, and business groups.

For more information on the well-being of young children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Home.

References
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2005). Policy statement: Breastfeeding and the use of human milk. Pediatrics, 115 (2).

Breastfeeding benefits moms and babies: Report. (2009, November 6). Healthday: Yahoo!News.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20091107/hl_hsn/breastfeedingbenefitsmomsandbabiesreport

Flu Vaccination During Pregnancy: An Effective Way to Help Improve the Health of Memphis Babies

With the very real concerns surrounding the flu this winter, many of us are wondering if it is safe for pregnant women to get the flu shot.

Research that was recently presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America meeting found that getting a flu vaccine during pregnancy greatly improves a child’s chances of having healthy birth outcomes. The researchers examined the effect of having a regular flu vaccination and not the H1N1 vaccination. However, the CDC does recommend that all pregnant women receive the swine flu vaccine as well (CDC, 2009, November).

Why does vaccination help? Pregnant women are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases like the flu because their immune systems are depressed in order to protect their developing babies. Additionally, infants cannot be vaccinated against the flu for the first 6 months of life, so they are vulnerable unless they have received the vaccination second hand while they are in utero (Fox, 2009, October 29).

Specifically, the studies have revealed that flu vaccination during pregnancy at the height of the flu season can reduce an infant’s chances of being hospitalized in the first 6 months of life by up to 85%. Pregnant women who were vaccinated against the flu were also 80% less likely to have a premature birth and 70% less likely to have a baby that was small for gestational age. Their babies, on average, were a half pound heavier than those of unvaccinated women (Fox, 2009, October 29).

Sources

Fox, M. (October 29, 2009). When Moms Get Flu Shot, Babies Benefit Too: Study, ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=8951864

Centers for Disease Control. 2009 H1N1 Influenza Shots and Pregnant Women: Questions and Answers for Patients. http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/pregnant_qa.htm

New Study Estimates That 50% Of Our Nation’s Children Will Receive Food Stamps Before Their Eighteen Birthday

Recent estimates from researchers at Washington University in Saint Louis suggest that almost half of our country’s children (and a staggering 9 out of 10 African American children) will receive food-related governmental assistance at some point during the first eighteen years of life. The study, released earlier this week in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, states that repercussions from the recent economic crisis could heighten these numbers dramatically.

Lead investigator and sociologist Mark Rank cautions that this increase is a health issue that the medical community needs to be mindful of given that children on food assistance are at risk for dietary deficiency and other afflictions related to economic deprivation, including insufficient cognitive, social and emotional development. “This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children, “ Rank advised (Tanner, 2009, p. 1).

According to a federal brief released last month from the United States Department of Agriculture, almost 29 million citizens received food stamps in a typical month last year, and about 50% of these recipients were children. Food stamps are a government-run program for low-income families, covering many food items (with the exclusion of prepared hot items and alcohol).

In Shelby County, over 233,000 individuals (26% of the county’s population) were receiving food stamps as of June of this year (TN Department of Human Services, 2009). Approximately 63,000 (27%) of these recipients are under 18 years of age. In other words, about one in four Shelby County children are currently obtaining food-related assistance (CUCP estimate, see footnote). Furthermore, according to recent information released by the Tennessee Department of Education, approximately 86% of students currently enrolled in the Memphis City school system are from families who meet certain income criteria making them eligible to receive free or reduced price lunch (TDOE, 2009).

This research is consistent with other current studies that estimate that upwards of 40 percent of our nation’s children will reside in impoverished or low-income families by their late teenage years, and that one in two will at some point live in a household that is headed by a single parent (Tanner, 2009).

“The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes,” stated Stanford pediatrician Dr. Paul Wise. “I find it terribly sad, but not surprising.”

In the midst of our current dire economic climate, what can the Memphis community do to support the healthy development of our youngest citizens? We welcome your thoughts, comments and suggestions.

For more information on the well-being of children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute website at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org.

References
Tanner, L. (2009, November 3). Half of U.S. kids will get food stamps, study says. The Associated Press.

Tennessee Department of Education, 2009,
http://edu.reportcard.state.tn.us/pls/apex/f?p=200:1:829762500068372

Tennessee Department of Human Services. (2009, September). Tennessee Monthly Food Stamp
Participation. Nashville, TN: Author.

CUCP estimate: Please contact us at cucp@theurbanchildinstitute.org for more information.

Premature Births Lift U.S. Infant Mortality Rate

The Wall Street Journal reported this week on a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that examines the link between prematurity and infant mortality around the world. (The U.S. ranks 30th in the world in terms of infant mortality rates).

The study concludes that premature births, which are often due to poor prenatal care of low-income pregnant women, are the main reason the U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than in most European countries.

About 1 in 8 U.S. births are premature. Early births are much less common across most of Europe; for example, only 1 in 18 babies are premature in Ireland and Finland.

Poor access to prenatal care, maternal obesity and smoking, too-early cesarean sections and induced labor and fertility treatments are among the reasons for preterm births, experts said.

Premature babies born before 37 weeks tend to be more fragile and have under-developed lungs, said the lead author of the new report, Marian MacDorman of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Premature births are the chief reason the U.S. has an infant mortality rate more than twice as high as infant mortality rates in Sweden, Japan, Finland, Norway and the Czech Republic.

If U.S. infants were as mature as Sweden's are at birth, nearly 8,000 infant deaths could be avoided and the U.S. infant mortality rate would be about one-third lower than it is, according to a calculation by Ms. MacDorman and others at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

Why so many more premature infants here? Experts offered several possible explanations:

■Fertility treatments and other forms of assisted reproduction probably play a role because they often lead to twins, triplets or other multiple births. Those children tend to be delivered early.
■The U.S. health care system doesn't guarantees prenatal care to pregnant women, particularly the uninsured, said Alan R. Fleischman, medical director for the March of Dimes.
■Maternal obesity and smoking have been linked to premature births and may also be a factor.
■Health officials are also concerned that doctors increasingly are inducing labor or performing C-sections before the 37th week. However, Fleischman said most infant deaths do not occur in babies just shy of 37 weeks gestation, but rather in those much younger,
Labor was induced in nearly 16% of premature births in 2006, up from about 8% in 1991. Cesarean sections were done in 36% of preterm births, up from 25% in 1991, Ms. MacDorman said.


The report also found that while the U.S. more commonly saw premature births, survival rates for infants at that gestational age were as good or better than most European countries.

"So, once the baby is born too early, we do a good job of saving it. What we have trouble with is preventing the preterm birth in the first place," Ms. MacDorman said.

Improving Infant and Toddler Care: Considerations from the National Center for Children In Poverty

Careful research shows that better prepared family care providers offer our youngest children higher-quality care. In order to improve the cognitive, social and emotional development of infants and toddlers, policy leaders have instituted training and education qualifications for licensed providers and designed multiple initiatives to prepare and inform early care staff.

So what works? What types of education are most effective in advancing the quality of family child care homes and centers? Researchers from the National Center for Children in Poverty (2005) reviewed a wide body of literature on training methods for early care providers and provide the following summaries for professionals and policy-makers:

- Coursework that provides higher education credits and is supplemented with technical support seems to enhance quality in the early care setting, particularly for family care providers. Caregivers receiving technical assistance demonstrated higher quality scores in language/reasoning and basic/personal care.

- Noncredit training has a greater impact on caregivers who have no affiliation with a professional organization (such as the National Association for the Education for Young Children) than on affiliated providers. Prior to training, affiliated providers typically have higher observed levels of quality than unaffiliated providers.

- Scholarships providing enrollment in community college-level coursework in child development appear to increase overall quality ratings in center-based providers.

- Long-term, personalized coaching for caregivers can improve early care quality. Infant caregivers involved in mentoring programs have demonstrated improved quality in discipline techniques, sensitivity and learning activities.

More research needs to be done on infant and toddler caregiver training and education. What we do know is that training methods need to match the particular types of providers, and trainers need to be ready to make adjustments as the research advances.

For more information on the well-being of children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org.

References

Kreader, J., Ferguson, D., & Lawrence, S. (2005, August). Impact of training and education for caregivers of infants and toddlers (Research-To-Policy No. 3). National Center for Children In Poverty.

Revised WIC Guidelines Provide Incentives To Breastfeeding Families

As of October 1, the federally-funded Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) has altered subsidy provisions in order to provide improved nutritional support to low-income families. In addition to including more food items that will reduce the amount of saturated fats and increase healthy fiber in the intake of WIC participants, the revised food packages better encourage and endorse sustained breastfeeding and reinforce WIC’s breastfeeding promotion endeavors.

The adjusted nutritional package provides mothers who solely breastfeed with the opportunity to receive more choices and increased quantities of approved foods, including a monthly $10.00 voucher which can be redeemed for fresh fruits and vegetables. Babies who are solely breastfeed receive increased quantities and a more mixed selection of baby food at 6 months of age. Breastfeeding mothers can also receive breast pumps and other breastfeeding aids to help support the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding.

Although WIC promotes breastfeeding as the preferred method for feeding infants, WIC has historically faced numerous challenges in increasing the prevalence of breastfeeding among participants. Through nutrition knowledge and breastfeeding promotion efforts, WIC employees encourage and support mothers in the breastfeeding process; however, the time that staff has to counsel and educate pregnant women on breastfeeding is restricted. Furthermore, a mother’s choice to breastfeed may be determined by other variables beyond the WIC staff’s control, such as opinions of partners and friends, her doctor, and community acceptance.

Although more research is needed to determine the most effective breastfeeding promotion and support measures needed to increase breastfeeding among WIC participants, we applaud the efforts of the WIC system in altering food packages in order to provide incentives to breastfeeding mothers. By recognizing and supporting the breastfeeding guidelines suggested by the American Academy of Pediatrics[1] (AAP), the WIC program is making positive progress in achieving optimal infant and child health, growth and development in vulnerable, low-income families.

WIC is a federal program designed to provide supplemental food to low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, infants and children until the age of five. For more information on the Tennessee WIC program, please call the Shelby County Health Department at 901.544.7583.

For more information on the well-being of children in Memphis and Shelby County, visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/.

References

Oliveira, V. (2003, July). WIC and breastfeeding rates: Food assistance research brief. United States Department of Agriculture (Report Number 34-2).

Tennessee WIC brings more to the table. (2009, October 19). Tennessee Department of Health. The Daily Times.


[1] The AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding for approximately the first 6 months after birth, continuous breastfeeding for 12 months after birth, and thereafter as long as mutually desired.

Recession’s Toll On Very Young Children: How Can Parents Promote Optimal Development During Times of Financial Strain?

Counselors, educational analysts and school therapists report seeing an increasing number of children dealing with strain and pressure as a result of their parents’ recession-related monetary issues. A perception of disaster can create profound unhappiness or worry, particularly if families unleash their distress or exasperation, argue about finances, or change housing arrangements and/or school districts (Brody, 2009).

Three out of four parents state that the economic downturn has increased tension in their household, and a third report that their children have demonstrated apprehension or agitation about the economy, according to a current U.S. study by Wakefield Research. Approximately twenty percent of children will develop a mental health issue at some point during the lifespan, and financial hardship could provoke a concealed anxiety issue.

“We’re living in very difficult times,” said Rosalind Dorlen, the American Psychological Association’s New Jersey public education coordinator. “It would be naïve to assume kids going through this would be unaffected. Is this going to be the ‘Worried Generation’?”

Experts at the Carsey Institute suggest that children of all ages experience the ramifications of financial distress, but our youngest citizens are particularly susceptible. For children less than age six, the demands of economic deficiency include insufficient health, decreased access to high-quality educational programs, inferior cognitive and social and emotional development, and heightened parental pressure. Evidence also suggests that financial hardship is linked with a lower quality home setting and inadequate parenting methods (Poiter, 2009).

How can parents assist and help prevent the development of unneeded stress and anxiety in their youngest family members? According to Jane Burdsall of the New Jersey Association of School Psychologists, a primary step is to remember to speak calmly and without frustration to all members of the household. Young children need to feel secure, and it is crucial that parents’ remember children’s ages and developmental stages when sharing and discussing economic information. Although young children are resilient, it is important for parents to reassure infants and toddlers in order decrease tension levels and promote a secure environment.

What else can parents to do encourage optimal cognitive, social and emotional development in our youngest children during this tough economic time? We welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

For more information on the well-being of children in Memphis and Shelby County, please visit The Urban Child Institute at http://www.theurbanchildinstitute.org/Home.

References

Brody, L. (2009, October 13). Recession’s toll on children: Parents aren’t the only only ones who
suffer when jobs are lost and money is tight. McClatchy/Tribune News.

Poiter, B. (2009, September 30). Recession’s impact on young child poverty uneven throughout
nation. UNH Campus Journal.