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And from Bill, these NYT items on toxic stress and effective intervention. -gw
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One successful example of early intervention is home visitation by childcare experts, like those from the Nurse-Family Partnership. This organization sends nurses to visit poor, vulnerable women who are pregnant for the first time. The nurse warns against smoking and alcohol and drug abuse, and later encourages breast-feeding and good nutrition, while coaxing mothers to cuddle their children and read to them. This program continues until the child is 2.
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At age 6, studies have found, these children are only one-third as likely to have behavioral or intellectual problems as others who weren’t enrolled. At age 15, the children are less than half as likely to have been arrested.
Changing that social structure is going to require many kinds of changes, but the point of this latest research is that we have to start early. By the time a child reaches kindergarten, it’s not exactly too late. But it’s certainly harder.
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