When Lilbourn, Mo., residents Faith Cole and Lorenzo Hill found out they were having a baby, they were determined to be the best parents they could be, so a few months into Faith’s pregnancy, they enrolled in Early Head Start. It’s the only federal program specifically designed to support healthy prenatal outcomes and improve the early education experiences of low-income babies and toddlers.
Through Early Head Start, each week Faith and Lorenzo met with a home visitor who was trained in prenatal care and child development. They learned how to support the intellectual, social and emotional development of their new baby. When their son Lawson arrived, they felt well-prepared to take on this new chapter in their lives.
Lawson was bright and engaged, and his early well-visits with his pediatrician went smoothly. But just after his four-month checkup, Faith and Lorenzo noticed that Lawson had stopped tracking their movements — a skill he had mastered and one they knew to watch for based on what they learned through Early Head Start. A return visit to the doctor revealed that cataracts had surfaced in Lawson’s eyes.
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Little Lawson required two rounds of surgery over the course of two months. During this time, Early Head Start continued home visits. Two months after his surgery, Lawson was enrolled in an Early Head Start child care program, and Faith was able to return to her job at a local convenience store. Today — one year following his surgery — Lawson has glasses, and no need for further support.
Thanks to the support they received through Early Head Start, Faith and Lorenzo caught the cataracts early, allowing for swift diagnosis and treatment. This put Lawson on a path to reach age-appropriate milestones during a critical time for his development. A baby’s brain produces 1 million new neural connections every second, laying the foundation for all future learning and development. The strength of these neural connections is influenced by a baby’s early experiences.
When these experiences are positive and nurturing, they set the stage for children to grow up healthy — socially, emotionally and physically. When they are negative, they can have lasting and profound impacts ranging from increased school expulsion and dropout rates to poor health and reduced quality of life in the future. Lawson was able to stay on track developmentally, preventing more challenging issues later on. Without the support of Early Head Start, Lawson and his family could have faced higher future health care costs, a need for remedial educational support, and additional issues that can arise from such a serious physical impairment.
Research shows that Early Head Start works, making a positive difference in areas associated with children’s success in school, family self-sufficiency, and parental support of child development. These are key factors that lead to better school readiness and a stronger future for our country. Screening for problems such as Lawson’s is routine, as are connections with early childhood mental health experts, health providers and parenting support.
Now here’s the catch: A lack of funding means that Lawson is one of only about 3,000 infants and toddlers in Missouri and one of only about 150,000 nationwide to receive the Early Head Start services that, for him, were life-changing. That’s out of more than 55,000 eligible Missouri children and 2.3 million eligible nationwide. In fact, about 94 percent of eligible infants and toddlers are left without the benefit of robust, high-quality early developmental services.
Last month, Congress took some big steps toward support for babies like Lawson in the omnibus spending bill, significantly increasing funding for several essential early childhood programs, starting with a historic child care increase, but also including a welcome boost for Early Head Start. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., was a crucial advocate in his role as chair of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for these programs.
Of course, with so few eligible babies across the country receiving Early Head Start services, we still have a long way to go to ensure that all babies have the services they need. Only by expanding and strengthening the programs proven to move the needle for hard-working families like Faith and Lorenzo’s will outcomes like Lawson’s become a reality for everyone — in Missouri and across the country.
Michael Gaffrey is an assistant professor and director of the Early Preventive Intervention Clinic at the Washington University School of Medicine. Matthew Melmed is the executive director of Zero to Three.
