Head Start is in a unique position to assist in healthy brain development.
- Through services to pregnant women, expectant mothers can be helped to receive pre-natal care, get adequate nutrition, and be educated about the dangerous effects that drugs and alcohol have on the developing fetus. During pregnancy, families can be helped to identify areas of stress and provided with the necessary emotional support and assistance.
- Parents need to be educated about the child's need for appropriate stimulation. As caregivers learn to read the child's cues, undue stress can be avoided. Parents need to understand the importance of talking and reading to the child, holding a child during feedings, making eye contact, singing, and playing games that provide novelty and fun.
- Parents also need to be supported in maintaining their own mental health. Untreated depression and anxiety interferes with the parent/child bond and interrupts a parent's ability to be fully aware of the child's needs.
- Abuse, neglect, and family violence must be prevented. The population at large needs to be aware of the devastating impact these things have on growing children.
Beverly Gould was a 2000-2001 Head Start Fellow
See also:
Stress
and the Developing Brain
