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EARLY HEAD START SHOWS SIGNIFICANT RESULTS FOR
LOW INCOME CHILDREN AND PARENTS
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EARLY HEAD START SHOWS SIGNIFICANT RESULTS FOR
LOW INCOME CHILDREN AND PARENTS
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| HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today released a preliminary evaluation of
Early Head Start showing that children in the new child development program
performed significantly better in cognitive, language and social-emotional
development compared to children not participating in the program. Parents in
Early Head Start also showed more positive parenting behavior, reported less
physical punishment of their children and provided more help for their
children to learn at home.
Early Head Start provides high quality child and family development services
to pregnant women and infants and toddlers, from birth to age 3, a time
considered one of the most important in a child's cognitive and social
development. It was started in 1995 as a new component of the Head Start
program that serves children age 3 to 4.
"Early Head Start is about giving our youngest and most disadvantaged children
a chance to grow up healthy, to learn and to prepare for school," said
Secretary Shalala. "Everyone who helped create the program, the providers who
teach the children, and the parents who are taking part can be very proud of
what we've accomplished in a very short time."
Major findings of the preliminary evaluation of 2-year-old children in the
program include higher scores in standardized tests of infant and toddler
development and reports of larger vocabularies and the ability to speak in
more complex sentences. One-third of Early Head Start children were found to
be at risk of slower developmental learning compared to 40 percent of the
non-Early Head Start children. This indicates that Early Head Start children
may also be less at risk of needing special learning intervention services in
later years.
The results pertaining to parents present further evidence of Early Head
Start's ability to promote learning in the home, to better prepare children
for school, and to reduce family stress. The preliminary study reports that
Early Head Start parents were more supportive of promoting learning, language
and literacy at home by reading more to their children and engaging in more
structured play activity than parents not in the program. Early Head Start
parents also set more regular bedtimes and read to children before sleep.
They spanked their children less and were more likely to resolve problems by
using distraction, explanation or mild responses rather than physical
punishment. Early Head Start parents also reported lower levels of family
conflict and stress related to parenting. These findings indicate that the
program is equipping parents with strategies to cope with conflict and to help
break a cycle of parental stress and potential harm to children.
"This study is enormously important for the future of Early Head Start and all
early childhood programs by showing that a large national program that is
well-implemented, maintains quality, and focuses on specific child development
goals for children and parents can succeed," said Olivia A. Golden, HHS
assistant secretary for children and families. "There will be more to learn,
but we now know that the Early Head Start blueprint of an early, intensive
program can yield significant results and brighter outcomes for children."
Early Head Start provides its full range of services in home-based,
center-based and mixed settings. The evaluation found that the child
development services provided directly by Early Head Start programs were
generally of high quality. Though there were differences in results for
children and parents among the three program formats, overall findings
regarding improvements in children's cognitive development and parental
behavior were broad and substantial. Findings were strongest in programs that
fully implemented the Head Start performance standards. The preliminary
report covered children up to the age of 2. The study will continue to assess
their progress for another year.
Early Head Start was launched in 1995 based on recommendations from the
bipartisan Advisory Committee on Head Start appointed by Secretary Shalala.
There are currently 635 Early Head Start programs serving 45,000 low-income
children and their families. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and Columbia
University's Center for Children and Families, in collaboration with the Early
Head Start Research Consortium, prepared the national evaluation, which was
begun in 1995. The evaluation studied approximately 3,000 children and
families in 17 sites across the country during the first two years of the
children's lives.
The final report following children through age three will be out next year.
A copy of the preliminary study is available on the ACF web site at
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news.
# # #
Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are
available at www.hhs.gov/news.
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Source:
HHS Agencies
www.hhs.gov
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