Like all children, Perry Cunningham, age 4, wants friends. But until recently, he lacked the social skills to reach out to other kids. When Perry tried to make a friend at his In many classrooms, Perry might simply have been regarded as a troublemaker. But Barbara Giangreco, a mental-health therapist who works in child-care centers and preschools, understood that he was just trying to be friendly, and worked with his mother and teacher on helping him use words to reach out to other kids. All the adults involved agree that Perry's social skills have improved significantly. He is making friends, and while he still has conflicts with other kids sometimes, he knows how to apologize and make peace. The idea of assigning mental-health workers to child-care centers and preschools is jarring; I was skeptical when I first heard the idea. Children so small shouldn't need mental-health help, it seems, and having therapists or counselors working in classrooms seems to risk stigmatizing them with labels, or simply interfering with the innocence of childhood. However, a growing body of research shows that the programs are benefiting entire classrooms of children by reducing behavior problems and supporting overburdened teachers. The specialists' purpose isn't to diagnose or treat mental illness in individual children. Instead, they provide targeted, expert help to teachers, and sometimes to parents, on ways to interact with children and reorganize classrooms that improve behavior and the emotional climate. In the process, many researchers believe, the specialists may be helping prevent bigger social problems in kids in the future, such as delinquency. |
|