THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 8, 1996 TAG: 9604090030
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
One program gives books to newborns.
Another prepares parents for elementary school.
A third enhances child development in part by encouraging young people not to have children.
All seek the same thing: youngsters trooping into kindergarten with minds developed as fully as possible and ``ready to learn.''
Jamie B. Chapman, organizer of next months Virginia Beach Summit For Children, points to programs like these as models for what he hopes to see spring up throughout the region:
``Catch Them in the Cradle:''
For about 10 years, the Virginia Beach Reading Council has given every new mother at Sentara Bayside Hospital and, more recently, Virginia Beach General Hospital a plastic baggie containing a children's book, information on the importance of reading to infants for the development of their language skills, tips on reading aloud and lists of local libraries. Maternity nurses distribute them when the mothers are discharged.
Members of the National Honor Society at Bayside High School prepare 200 to 250 bags a month for Sentara Bayside, and special-education students from Great Neck Middle School package another 250 books a month for Virginia Beach General, all paid for by donations - sometimes from the parents, years later.
``It is a real simple program, and I think that's the secret to its success: its simplicity,'' says Les A. Fortune, an eighth-grade English teacher at Larkspur Middle School who runs it.
``Our hope is it will foster a lifelong passion for reading.''
``Pipeline to the Community:''
Once a week for two hours, mothers and fathers of 3- and 4-year-olds bring their children to Bettie F. Williams Elementary School. There, in a program paid for by Virginia Natural Gas - hence the program's name - and planned and administered by Virginia Wesleyan College and Virginia Beach Public Schools, the 22 children and 17 parents are separated.
The parents receive information about nutrition, discipline, communicating with their children and preparing them for reading and math.
In the other room, Virginia Wesleyan students and Williams Elementary teachers read to the children, sing songs with them, cook with them and have them practice social skills.
The aim is to get the children ready for learning, get their parents working with them at home by reading and singing with them, and making both groups more comfortable with the school.
The lessons extend beyond the schoolhouse, with field trips to places such as pumpkin farms and fire stations.
``Just to show parents how to interact with their children on a field trip,'' says Kathy W. Poole, a Williams Elementary kindergarten teacher who works with another teacher in the Pipeline program.
``How to stimulate their children on a field trip . . . how you can point out things on the way to a place - you don't have to wait until you get there. You can talk about street lights, about colors, about cars.''
Her principal, Edward P. Gibbs, says there's a need for programs such as Pipeline.
``The big issue is language acquisition and how well the kids are able to use the language early in their life,'' Gibbs says. ``We're finding that kids who come in with lags early are having lots of language problems.''
The program is in its second year in the school system and first year at Williams Elementary, and it has a waiting list. Gibbs says further proof the program is desired came the day the program's bus failed to arrive to pick up the participants.
``They were so excited about the program, they went ahead and drove themselves,'' Gibbs says.
``Hampton Family Resource Project:''
This multifaceted approach by Hampton Social Services - one of nine such programs in Virginia - begins before birth.
``Healthy Start'' investigates the homes of pregnant women, determining the chances the new babies will be physically and emotionally safe. A family-support worker can be assigned to help parents until the children are 5 and ready to enter school.
``Healthy Families,'' a program open to anyone regardless of income, offers parenting classes on nurturing that have long waiting lists, says Walter B. Credle, director of Hampton Social Services.
The program also helps set up ``Young Family Centers'' in all the city's public libraries, which collect in one spot, under one sign, books, videotapes and audiotapes on parenting skills. The checkout rate for these items is three times that of other library material, Credle says.
``What we're finding is, if you put information out where they can find it about how to be better parents, they will use it,'' Credle adds.
New parents can register at their hospital for a free newsletter, ``Healthy Stages,'' that will deliver tips on child development and parenting and appropriate area activities at regular intervals until their children turn 5. A computer spits out the correct newsletter with age-specific tips as the child reaches each age; 1,500 families a month are getting the newsletters, Credle says.
A ``Healthy Teen'' component provides schools with information for their family-life classes and also offers its own classes in the community to show teens the consequences of teen pregnancy - like how a child changes the parents' lives and affects their career opportunities.
Credle says his agency offers all these programs to help compensate for 1990s-style family life, where families move more frequently, often feel isolated and are far less likely to be able to turn to Dad down the street or Aunt Gladys across town when they have parenting questions.
The mission, Credle says, is to have every child born healthy and every child start school ready to learn.
``The idea is, if we do that work right, the school system can take over from 5 to 18,'' Credle says. ``The problem is, we're dumping them on the schoolhouse door'' unprepared.
``The school system can't fix that. They can spend money on it, but they can't fix it,'' he said. by CNB