By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Many parents don't think twice about borrowing $40,000 or more to finance their child's college education.

But would those same parents consider taking a $40,000 loan for their child's first three years of learning -- the ones that occur from the delivery room to age 3?

Child development experts will tell you it would be money well spent.

This holds especially true, they would add, if that money were spent to ensure that the child could learn in a loving, stable environment with the correct balance of stimulation and quiet time.

Most of brain development, an estimated 85 percent, occurs in the first three years of life, child development experts say.

Winslow pediatrician John Salvato is among many in his profession who say those initial three years are key to shaping what a person becomes.

"All of us are affected by how we were raised as children," Salvato wrote in one of his many writings on the subject. "The human brain undergoes most of its growth and development in the first three years of life. Our behavior, emotions, social and intellectual skills can all be traced back to these formative years."

Given that situation, Salvato is a big booster of doing anything possible to support the early learning of children.

"I think if you can put the lion's share of resources into children's first year of life, the outcome for those children would be substantially better," he said.

Yet the reality is relative to higher education, the resources dedicated to the primary brain development years is meager, and the status of those counted on to do the teaching is considerably lower than a college professor's.

Those early-years teachers used to be parents primarily. But now, in an age when nearly 70 percent of parents work outside the home, child-care providers are increasingly filling that role.

But they often aren't treated like educators.

Cindy Manson will attest to that.

Manson, director of The Children's Place, a child-care center at the Maine Children's Home in Waterville, says the term "day care" points to the lack of respect given her profession.

Day care, Manson argues, is not what The Children's Place is about. Instead, she uses the term "comprehensive early care and education facility" in her literature about the center.

"My lead preschool teacher has a four-year degree and 22 year's experience," Manson said. "She wanted to teach young children. Lucky for us."

Lucky is right. Manson realizes that her lead teacher could earn significantly more if she taught children of public school age.

Yet she also knows what a vital role a teacher plays in the intellectual, social and psychological development of a preschool child, especially one in the first three years of life.

Manson and others involved with child development point to the proliferation of literature and growing awareness regarding brain development.

This is the period when children essentially are hard-wired for life, child development experts say.

State Attorney General Steven Rowe shares that view. He has toured the state preaching the message that investing in high-quality early care and education should be a priority and that doing so has clear social and economic benefits.

He stresses that such an investment produces children -- and ultimately adults -- who are more likely to be well adjusted, healthy, productive citizens.

More pointedly, he argues that failure to help with such care leads to a whole slate of social ills, including the following:

n Increased child abuse and neglect

n Increased juvenile delinquency

n Increased substance abuse

n Increased domestic violence

"I believe a lot of the problems occur because kids don't enter kindergarten with healthy brains," he said. "One of the things that has been a barrier here is that some people believe what we are talking about is government wanting to interfere or displace parents. That is not what we are talking about. This is about supporting families."

A HARD SELL

The reality of the child-care industry, though, is that slots for infants and toddlers are the hardest and most expensive to find.

Nearly half the 5,640 children on a waiting list for child-care slots in Maine last year were infants and toddlers.

Julie DellaMattera, a professor of early childhood development and education at the University of Maine, views it as a huge problem.

Ironically, she said, regulations aimed at increasing quality for such care discourage providers from offering it in the first place.

The trouble, she said, is that providers have a hard time turning a profit when they can serve only four children per teacher -- the mandated ratio for children newborn to 3.

And even when such care is offered, maintaining the staff can be a challenge.

"These people are not highly paid," DellaMattera said, "so they don't hang around long either. I mean, you can make more at Starbucks than you can in child care."

Cathy Jacobs, a social worker from Ellsworth, help found a group in 1998 -- called the Zero to Three Coalition -- dedicated to spreading awareness of early brain development.

Jacobs said her four-person coalition has given presentations to anybody willing to listen, including high school students, Rotary Clubs and other community groups.

Yet despite these efforts, Jacobs said, she is under no delusion: America society, she said, has yet to embrace the importance of early brain development.

"In the United States we don't see young children as a priority," she said, "and that, of course, is what Steve Rowe is talking about. Fortunately, he gets it."

Pediatrician Salvato, too, bemoans that lack of attention give to brain development in young children.

"I think people are less attuned to it," he said. "I have been getting more discouraged as time goes on."

Salvato, medical director of the Edmund Ervin Pediatric Center at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Waterville, help found an indoor playground more than a decade ago to help parents foster that early brain development in their young children.

Yet Salvato is quick to acknowledge that the playground has struggled financially since its inception.

CHANGING ATTITUDES

DellaMattera has been an educator on both ends of the spectrum: She started her career as a first-grade teacher and then changed course to become a college professor.

Her status, she said, increased significantly when she became a professor.

DellaMattera recalls a conversation she had back in her days as a first-grade teacher. As soon as she mentioned the grade level she taught, she said, the other person dismissed her.

"He immediately started talking to somebody else," she said, "like what I did didn't matter. It seems like the younger the child is, the less respect you get."

Manson has encountered the same attitude in her more than two decades in the child-care profession.

But she argues that attitudes are beginning to change.

"I think because we are putting school readiness into more focus nationally and state to state," she said, "that I'm feeling a lot more respected now when I tell people what I do than I did 20 years ago. Before people said 'You just play all day.' "

At the same time, she said, the respect, especially in monetary terms, still has a long way to go.

"Now we now how important it is to impact children when they are very young," Manson said. "We've seen that evolution happen. It is just not happening fast enough and it is just now becoming a focus."

There is debate, too, about the proper place for that brain development.

Salvato argues that it should take place in the home with the parent the chief caregiver and teacher.

"I think the first two years of human life are extremely important," he said, "and that being separated from your parents, particularly your biological mother, is an adjustment and an experience loss that a child has to deal with that can be difficult. Even a good child-care situation does not necessarily protect you from the stresses that come from being raised in a child-care center."

DellaMattera said that in Sweden the government provides ample financial support for families with young children so that a parent can stay home in those early years.

She said Sweden even rewards mothers who choose to breast-feed their babies.

DellaMattera would love to see that model adopted in this country but realizes a major obstacle stands in the way.

"I don't know where the money would come from," she said.

Manson has heard the arguments for keeping children at home those first few years of life. But she also knows that most parents cannot afford to be without two incomes and that a full-time job is a necessity for most single parents as well.

"It is a luxury these days to stay home with your children," she said, "and good for you as parents if you can. But the parents who go to work want the best for their children, too."

And for those parents, that means having quality child care available at an affordable price.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.coms