MISSOURI WATCH: TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE FOR MISSOURI CHILDREN

Apparently no one sees anything unusual about our Governor discussing the importance of early childhood development while at the same time recommending the construction of 10,000 new prison cells. Not long ago, in a conversation with Mel Carnahan, he discussed both subjects without skipping a beat. I know the man is intelligent enough to know there is a connection between the two, but who's paying attention?

Surely the governor is not alone in the Missouri Capitol. It is not difficult to find a legislator who bemoans the expenditure of an additional $300 million of taxpayer money to build enough cells to last the state for the next couple of years. Lawmakers know there is more to the problem than finding available beds for convicted felons, just as the governor does. And just as thoughtful citizens should.

To paraphrase the-shopworn weather observation, every one knows there is a connection between inadequate care and nurturing for children from birth through age three and teenage drug and criminal activity---but no one does anything about it. As a matter of fact, there is some ambiguity about whether the state can do anything about it even after there is recognition that a connection exists.

There should be no doubt about the importance of giving all children the very best start in life they can possibly receive. At the last National Governors' Conference, one of the principal themes was this very subject, and the nation's state leaders previewed an excellent ABC television special entitled "I Am Your Child," directed by Rob Reiner. Newsweek magazine featured the subject in a recent issue, and groups ranging from the American Psychiatric Association to the Carnegie Corporation have been focusing on the importance of early child training and programs to enhance their well-being.

When presenting his film to the governors, Reiner observed, "First and foremost we have to educate people. They must understand the nexus between what happens to a child in the first three years and crime, drug abuse, child abuse, teen pregnancy, welfare and other social ills." Reiner also noted an important study just completed by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, chief of psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital, which reveals that the lion's share of brain development occurs from before birth through age three.

Dr. Brian's study notes, "All experience does not have equal value. The ability of a brain to soak in new information and organize itself in the infant is 10,000 times more powerful than it is in a 50-year-old person." Another NGA speaker, Dr. David A. Hamburg, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, told the nation's chief executives they were in a unique position to mobilize their states around this issue. He called on them to use their position and influence to create partnerships to address the needs of very young children. "Governors can do probably more than anybody to bring us together for our children and thereby for our future," he said.

One would have to look very closely to find much movement in Missouri toward solving the problems attached to early childhood in Missouri. It was only a few months that the executive office discovered the shamefully low rate of Missouri children receiving immunization shots, and with proper recognition and attention to this problem, immediate corrective steps were started. As a result of this one action within the Department of Health, thousands of young boys and girls in Missouri are safer than they were only three years ago.

A correlated problem, the lack of medical insurance for thousands of Missouri families, is far from resolved, leaving the youngest, and most vulnerable, exposed to inadequate medical attention, or worse, no attention at all. Much must be done before these youngest citizens are no longer prime candidates for crippling, even terminal illnesses.

Missouri has made some progress in providing early education programs for pre-school children, but in this area it seems the first priority has been to fund busing and other programs to comply with federal court orders and to correct glaring salary inequities for public school teachers. No one can quarrel with reasonable expenditures for these programs, but it is instructive to note that such essential long-range programs to correct early childhood training inadequacies have languished for lack of recognition and funded initiatives.

Although children are being exposed to drug and alcohol abuse at earlier and earlier years, there seems to be little interest in expanding whatever prevention programs are now in operation. Studies indicate just-say-no efforts are of little benefit in keeping children from experimenting later with all kinds of addictive practices, while clinical drug programs for young children are virtually nonexistent. Indeed the Department of Mental Health offers only minimal service to emotionally disturbed children, and two multi-building campus treatment centers built specifically to treat juveniles who fit this clinical definition are not even in use today.

No one seems to deny the extreme shortage of treatment services for children who experience a wide range of emotional traumas that experts repeatedly warn create at-risk adults who often spend their nonproductive lives either in criminal activity or locked up in prison cells.

Neglected children have a way of becoming negligent adults.

Untreated children have a way of becoming unruly adults.

Indigent children have a way of becoming infamous adults.

Missouri cannot afford neglected, untreated and indigent children nor negligent, unruly and infamous adults. It's time to defuse the time bombs in our society.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News & Editorial Service.