Preschools help at-risk children adjust

Friday, April 19, 2002 | 2:33 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: April 20, 2002

Three-year-old Glenn would slap his foster mother Brigid Salas for no reason, and when she tried to tell him that he shouldn't hit, he would not make eye contact with her. She knew something was wrong.

Glenn was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a problem characterized by an uncontrollable nature, aggression, impulsive behavior and a lack of concentration.

In another state Salas might have been left to wonder about her foster son's behavior. But in Las Vegas she was able to take advantage of a 25-year-old program that is helping Glenn overcome his condition.

Salas takes Glenn three times a week to a special preschool program run by the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services' Early Childhood Services.

Toys and children's books keep classes of six to eight youngsters busy while staff members trained in dealing with children with emotional problems observe and record their social skills progress: how they play, how they function with others or whether they sat idle and introverted.

Parents are required to stay at least once a week and learn from the staff how to help their children.

The program assists more than 1,000 local children a year -- children from homes with domestic violence, adults with mental problems or substance abuse problems or homes Child Protective Services had investigated. Some of the children are in state or county custody, others live with their parents or other relatives.

The average stay in the program is six months, though some children have received the help they needed in just four classes, while others have been there as long as two years, said Laurel Swetnam, manager of Nevada's Early Childhood Services, noting there is a short waiting list.

"This program is helpful to me because I didn't know (if some of Glenn's problems) were just a boy thing or a developmental thing," Salas said. She and her husband Air Force Tech Sgt. Randy Salas are in the process of adopting Glenn and his 1-year-old brother Austin, who has not been diagnosed with developmental problems. "This program is not difficult to access," she said.

Program recognized

The program, started at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to train students to teach special education, was cited by a National Center for Children in Poverty study as a leader in effectively addressing early childhood mental health services to young children at risk of out-of-home placement.

With so many national studies finding Nevada among the nation's leaders in failing to meet health needs -- smoking deaths, high school dropout rates and teen pregnancies, among others -- local experts say they are pleased with the recognition for the good work. They add, though, that there is a long way to go.

"Everyone in the community has to work together, we need more services to address the problems and we need a system for early identification of developmental problems in children," said Swetnam, who provided National Center for Children in Poverty analyst Jane Knitzer with data from the Nevada program.

Knitzer's two-part study found that more than half of foster care children ages 0-5 suffer from serious health problems or experience development delays.

The study also found that, despite such vulnerability, many foster children do not receive basic care for emotional and behavioral conditions.

"Many young children are not developing the emotional skills they will need to succeed in school and be productive members of society," the study says.

Dr. Margaret Freese, a clinical psychologist for the state Early Childhood Services program, agreed. "It is more important for a child to have good emotional stability than for a child to know his ABCs before starting school," she said.

Freese says to do nothing and hope problems go away make things harder to fix as the child gets older and has difficulty adjusting in preschool, kindergarten and beyond.

National studies support that concern. A 1998 study by RAND, a nonprofit institution that assists with policy-making, found that developmental assistance programs save the government tens of thousands of dollars and "generate additional benefits to society (including) tangible costs of the crimes that would eventually have been committed ... had (children) not participated in the program."

Among the more common developmental problems addressed by the local program are child temperament difficulties -- excessive irritability, poor eating habits, difficulty sleeping -- anxiety, learning disabilities, speech problems, excessive mood swings causing temper tantrums, depression and more serious neurological disorders like autism.

Fast track

The Early Childhood Services program is not the only one of its kind that has had success locally. Children as young as 1 and as old as 10 have gone through the Family Services Fast Track program. The program identifies youths who have little or no chance of being reunited with their natural parents and steers them into a "flexible family" home where foster parents are willing to adopt and raise the youngsters.

"Last year, of the 87 cases we had open, 28 of the children were adopted through Fast Track in 12 months -- that's an exceptional number in such a short period by national standards," said Stuart Fredlund, district office manager for the Division of Child and Family Services.

Fredlund noted that while the national standard for adopting such children is 18-24 months from the time they enter foster care, Fast Track, started eight years ago on the advice of a national consultant who reviewed local foster care, has set the local average at 12-18 months.

"If we get a child permanently placed at the 0- to 2-year-old range, we go a long way toward the bonding process and it helps prevent problems later on," said Ann Coleman, a social worker supervisor who has worked for the state of Nevada for 28 years.

Brigid Salas, who has two older daughters who have had no developmental problems, says Glenn has been in the program six months and today is more sociable with other children, less hyperactive and more focused.

However, he is still somewhat aggressive, striking Austin over the head with a plastic toy while Salas was being interviewed by a Sun reporter. Salas said Glenn does have a way to go, but that does not concern her because she feels he is in good hands.

"I definitely feel fortunate that there are such in-depth programs in Nevada that help Glenn deal now with what will come later in life," she said. "It's better he gets help now than when he is a 14-year-old."