The programs - one in Covington and one in Hamilton County - put mental health professionals in preschool classrooms as observers and consultants, helping teachers build social and emotional strengths for children. They can also provide more focused attention and sometimes therapy for children dealing with serious emotional and behavior problems…

“We’re helping children develop the social and emotional skills they will need in kindergarten and through school and beyond,” said Starkey. “We’re catching them during a really important window of opportunity.”

The two Resilience programs literally will change the future, said Starkey.

“A good start in kindergarten can affect everything that follows,” she said. “If you intervene and give a child the support and therapy and resources they need, you can remediate problems. If a child has social/emotional problems, it doesn’t get better, it keeps getting worse.”

Children who are not ready to learn fall behind and can get trapped in a spiral of academic failures and behavior problems that can lead to crime, poverty, teen pregnancy and lifelong problems with jobs and relationships…

Source: Cincinnati Post, OH
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