vol. 24, no. 21	April 23, 1999

Head Start Center at School of Public Health Expands to Include Prenatal and Infant Care

BY HANNAH FAIRFIELD

Three-year-old Thonny Morales bangs his bongo drum in unison with his classmates and his teacher, creating a cheerful cacophony in the Head Start Center at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health.

The scene may look like an average nursery school, but in fact it is a unique program that combines childhood health care with medical supervision of the child's developmental well-being. It may be the only Head Start in the country operated jointly by a school of public health and a university medical school. Each child is assigned a primary medical provider and screened for special needs. In addition, families are introduced to nutrition and literacy training.

And now, the program in Washington Heights will expand to include an Early Head Start component for prenatal children through the age of three. The expansion from the usual Head Start age group, three to five, was spurred by a recent grant from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. Through the new grant, which provides the program $420,000 every year for five years, the program will grow from serving 51 to 111 children and their families.

"Parents are usually very motivated to help their children develop the skills they need to be ready for school, but often they are not sure where to begin," said Carmen Rod-riguez, a doctor of psychology and director of the Head Start and Early Head Start program. "We teach parenting skills and literacy for the whole family."

The program has two components each week: an hour-long home visit and a three-hour workshop at the Head Start Program Office, located at 601 West 168th Street. The workshops target the parents and children in separate groups, teaching child development stages and parenting skills to the adults, and teaching the children basic skills, such as sharing and taking turns, that will equip them for the transition to kindergarten. In the Early Head Start Program, the workshops may be shorter because the children are so young. In addition, the early Head Start program is working in collaboration with New York Presbyterian Hospital's Ambulatory Care Network (ACNC) to provide services at ACNC's 135th Street and 180th Street locations.

"Recent research has shown that stimulation-like music, movement and being read to-from infancy is very important for childhood development," said Nicholas Cunningham, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Public Health and director of the Columbia Head Start Sponsoring Board. "An Early Head Start Program teaches mothers and families how to create a learning environment."

Since the Head Start Program began in 1993, medical students at the School of Public Health have organized a concert to raise funds for it. The money is used for innovative projects within the Head Start Program, such as stipends to help support parents who want to pursue training in child development. This year's concert presented Head Start staff and students, faculty and alumni from the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons performing a wide variety of musical numbers, ranging from barbershop to classical. It featured the Ultrasounds, the P & S harmony group. The event took place April 28 in the Physicians and Surgeons Alumni Auditorium.