Protect at Risk Children From Thesis

In order to formulate effective early childhood development interventions, though, it is important to determine what risk factors are involved and what coping skills young children possess. In this regard, Pati and her associates add that, "Identifying critical risk and resilience factors is the first step in developing interventions to promote early school success" (p. 5). These recommendations, though, will not magically produce the resources needed to eradicate poverty, but they do emphasize the need to determine what specific factors must be addressed in order to develop effective interventions to address them. These recommendations also make it clear that all children and their families are unique and some may require more assistance than others in certain areas. This recommendation is congruent with Pati et al.'s observations that, "From a treatment perspective, separating patients into different service intensity levels is also commonplace in clinical practice" (p. 13).

No matter what other risk factors might be involved, Pati et al.'s recommendations are highly congruent with the problems facing the families living in Shelby County in general and Memphis in particular. For instance, Cate et al. (2009) emphasize that, "More than half of the children born in Shelby County every year are raised in families lacking access to resources that children need for healthy development" (p. BP1). In this regard, Pati et al. point to the need to ensure that young children are provided with the services they need to remain healthy during early childhood development initiatives. For example, Pati and her colleagues emphasize that, "Health supervision is the bedrock of early childhood preventive care" (p. 5). Such health supervision consists of counseling concerning health and normative developmental changes that is age appropriate, ensuring that young people receive the recommended regimen of vaccinations, the provision of support and counseling services to families concerning the rigors of raising a child in a challenging environment, and teaching both children and their families how to make informed healthy choices (Pati et al., 2009).In addition, Pati and her associates cite the need to promote literacy initiatives for the parents of at-risk children, the use of developmental screenings with standardized instruments to identify at-risk children that can provide the opportunity to implement intervention services in a more timely fashion, referral of family members to the resources that are available in their communities, and an increased frequency of health monitoring services in the home as well as at school.

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