Mental-Health Experts Tackle
Preschool Behavior Issues
Chicago Tribune - May 03, 2006
CHICAGO--Isela Baez?s son once served a one-day suspension--from preschool. But his tantrums and disruptive behavior continued, and Baez was as frustrated and upset as the administrators who kept calling to tell her she had to do something about it.
In stepped Margarita Paredes, part of a new but growing group of professionals known as early childhood mental health consultants. Observing child-care centers and training teachers across the state, they help identify and address the social and emotional needs of young children in an effort to reverse a disturbing trend: the alarming number of preschoolers kicked out of programs, mostly because of disruptive behavior.
Paredes met with Baez and school officials--a neutral voice offering support and a plan to people who were so upset they could barely speak to each other.
At Paredes? suggestion, the boy?s father got more involved in his son?s life and started driving him to school. She advised the boy?s teachers on how to narrow in on his needs as well. Baez said they were suddenly more patient, communicated better and gave the boy small rewards for good behavior.
The tantrums subsided, and Baez said both she and school leaders have relaxed.
"They know Margarita is going to observe him and help him socialize, and he?s doing so much better," she said. "A little effort means a lot."
Paredes? work is part of a burgeoning national effort to address children?s emotional health. Illinois recently expanded its three-year-old mental health consultant pilot program from eight regions to 12, led by early research showing its success.
While many consultants are trained psychologists or social workers, they usually don?t provide direct therapy. Instead, they meet with child-care providers and parents and draft a plan to address behavior problems, sometimes preventing the child from being expelled.
In many cases, Paredes said, the first goal is getting the parents and child-care providers to stop blaming each other for a child?s problem and instead work together to address it.
"For most of the kids I see, it?s a complicated presentation that requires all the grown-ups to be on the same page," Paredes said. "We spend so much time in preschool trying to get the kids to play nice. I see a lot of grown-ups who need to learn that skill too."
While many child-care leaders have been concerned for years by the number of troubled children thrown out of programs, the issue gained new attention last year when Yale University released the first national study on the problem.
The study found that prekindergartners were expelled at more than three times the rate of older children in K-12 classes. Advocates said a key contributor to the problem is that most states aren?t legally required to provide prekindergarten to all children.
Walter Gilliam, the report?s author and a Yale assistant professor of child psychiatry and psychology, said the tragedy is that many of the expelled children get passed on to a number of programs, sometimes becoming educational failures by kindergarten.
But Gilliam points to mental health consultants--a new role that has taken off nationally in the last several years--as one promising way to combat the problem.
Illinois? effort is in its infancy, with only a few dozen mental health consultants fanned out across the state in various state-funded, private and local school programs, said John Roope, the project leader for the state?s pilot program.
Roope supervises the 12 mental health consultants across Illinois, including Paredes, who works in the Berwyn and Cicero area.
Each consultant serves a region of schools. Child-care providers get training from the consultants and easy access to a professional who can visit their buildings, observe children and offer practical advice.
After the first year of the pilot project, Roope surveyed child-care providers served by his consultants. Eighty-five percent said they had improved their competence in working with children?s social and emotional needs because of the consultants? work.
