By Anne Williams of The Register-Guard
At 5 years old, some of these children already have experienced a lifetime’s worth of chaos.
As wards of the state, their fledgling worldview may include domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug addiction, hunger, alcoholism, homelessness, neglect, bereavement or any combination of the above. At the very least, they have been uprooted — in some cases multiple times.
And now they’re getting ready for kindergarten — a big leap for many children, even those who arrive at the schoolhouse door with every possible advantage.
But researchers at Eugene’s Oregon Social Learning Center might have developed a program that gives foster children a better chance at success in school — and perhaps beyond.
Now in its third year, the Kids in Transition to School Foster Care Project gives foster children a boost in what research scientist Katherine Pears, the project’s principal investigator, calls “the three biggies”: early literacy, social skills and self-management.
And it comes at the time they need it most. Beginning in early July, children attend two-hour, twice-weekly play groups at the center’s downtown Eugene center; once school starts, they attend once a week through October.
“This is intensive practice — like teaching to the test,” said co-investigator Phil Fisher, another Oregon Social Learning Center scientist who has conducted earlier research on children in foster care. “These are exactly the skills they’re going to need to get them through the school year.”
Researchers monitor brainwave activity before and after the sessions and measure cortisol, the primary stress hormone, through saliva samples. They’ll track the children’s progress at least through the end of second grade, Pears said, by observing them at school and interviewing teachers and parents.
During the same period the children are in the play groups, their foster parents attend weekly meetings at the center, where they discuss their children’s progress in the play groups and learn ways to monitor behavior and complement the curriculum at home.
Including this year’s crop, 132 children and their parents in Lane and Marion counties have participated in the project, approximately half involved in the play group and the remainder in a control group. Both groups continue to receive other community services, such as programs offered through the state Department of Human Services and Head Start, the federally funded preschool for children from low-income families.
Oregon Social Learning Center researchers hope to reach 200 children through the four-year project, funded by a $3.08 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Child Health and Development. (Recently, OSLC received a second, $3 million grant to expand the project to children receiving services from Eugene-based EC CARES, which provides early intervention and early childhood special education services to children from infancy through age 5.)
Fisher and Pears emphasized that children in foster care run the gamut. Some have enjoyed relative stability and, for that or other reasons, are well-adjusted and on track for kindergarten. Many, though, are ill-prepared, often due to maltreatment or neglect.
“We give (the program) to all comers, without selecting out,” said Pears, explaining that research should reveal which children benefit the most — and it might not turn out to be those who seem at highest risk.
The play-group children — there are nine in the Eugene group, four girls and five boys — gather in a windowless but cheerily appointed room at the center for two hours Monday and Wednesday mornings. Researchers can observe on a video monitor from the room next door.
Monday’s agenda was typical, with free play with puzzles and books as children trickled in; a circle-time lesson on making friends, with role-playing by two of the three teachers; an art activity in which the children made animal masks from paper plates; a snack of apple juice, Goldfish crackers and fruit snacks; and “rhyme time,” when the children took turns circling the letter “I” in “Fiddle Dee Dee,” written on the white board.
Play groups have a weekly theme (this week’s was “safari”) and offer children a highly structured, positive environment. Between every activity, or any time the classroom grows too noisy or chaotic, teachers briefly turn off the lights, a cue for everyone to be quiet and place hands on heads.
On a recent Monday morning, several children had a bad case of the wiggles, now and then leaving the group to scurry under tables.
But two boys were especially disruptive. One couldn’t stay still and complained repeatedly about being hungry. He roamed the room, bickered with another boy, rummaged through supply closets and scanned the floor under a table, picking up stray Goldfish and popping them into his mouth.
“If he goes into kindergarten like this, you can imagine what the outcome is going to be,” said Pears, who watched the video monitor with play group coordinator Cynthia Heywood.
Another boy threw occasional mini-tantrums and also wandered around the room.
The only negative consequence for the boys was missing out on some of the rewards (stickers and high fives) and briefly having to leave the room once or twice with teachers or Heywood, known as “Principal Cynthia.” The teachers, all of them trained in the curriculum, seize on any possible opportunity to praise the children — especially the ones making the most trouble. Both boys got high fives and verbal praise repeatedly, even for small victories such as sitting quietly for more than a few seconds.
“You’re still doing the right thing; you’re still sitting in your chair,” teaching assistant Erica Musser told one of the boys in response to his whining.
This was week three of the play groups, and the children — some of them initially reticent — were plainly feeling comfortable with the room, their teachers and one another.
“As their anxiety comes down, we start seeing more of their repertoire,” Heywood said.
Pears said Mondays can be especially tricky, as researchers and teachers don’t know what may have occurred over the weekend. Visits with biological parents, for instance, can unravel a child.
While it’s far too soon to declare the program “evidence-based,” preliminary results — based on very small numbers — show promise, Pears said.
Over the first two summers, children who had been in the play groups showed gains as much as four times greater than children who were not in the play groups in their understanding of concepts about reading (for example, that one reads from left to right) and identifying the initial sounds of words.
Children in the play groups also showed greater increases in their ability to control impulses, as measured through a simple computer game.
If the program proves effective, Pears said she’d like to see it replicated nationally.
“Our hope would be to be able to integrate it into the organizations that are working with these kids,” she said.
According to the state Department of Human Services’ Child Welfare Program, there was an average of 6,020 children in foster care on any given day in May. In Lane County, in the week ending July 4, there were 833, of whom 264 were placed with relatives. Those numbers don’t include children in correctional or treatment facilities.
As a group, the trajectory for children in foster care is not a happy one, Fisher said. Compared with the general population, foster children post significantly higher rates of incarceration, poor mental health, drug abuse and even early mortality.
“That’s why the early intervention feels so important,” Pears said. “If we can get them early, maybe we can drive them in a different direction.”
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2008, The Register Guard