Word: cracking
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Among those who think the damage may be permanent is Kathy Kutschka, a director at the Speech and Language Development Center in Buena Park, Calif. Her department works with 45 crack kids, up to kindergarten age. When she observes them having trouble sitting in a chair or picking up a pencil, she despairs for their future. "Of the children we see," says Kutschka, "none will be able to function in a normal life-style without some kind of sheltered living arrangement...
Doctors at Harlem Hospital studied 70 such toddlers just under age 2 and found that almost all were slow in learning to talk and that more than half had impaired motor and social skills. An inability to distinguish between mothers and strangers is another hallmark of crack-exposed youngsters...
...children reach school age, it becomes more difficult to separate the impact of drugs from the effects of upbringing and other influences. Yet many teachers think they can see the lingering legacy of crack. Beverly Beauzethier, a New York City kindergarten teacher, agonizes over some of her pupils. "They have trouble retaining basic things. They are not sure of colors or shapes or their names." Their behavior is also out of the ordinary. "Some are passive and cry a lot; sometimes they just sit in a heap in the corner," says Beauzethier. Even worse, "they can be very aggressive with...
Doctors and educators are only beginning to design the programs needed to help the crack kids. One notable pilot project is Zuckerman's Women and Infants Clinic at Boston City Hospital, which uses what Zuckerman calls the "one-stop shopping" technique. While pediatricians and child-development experts work with babies, addicted mothers get help in kicking their habits and learn how to care for their children. The first eight babies in the program, tested at age 1, all fell within the normal range on the Bayley scale of infant development; this means they can play pat-a-cake, walk unassisted...
...birth, it is remarkable that so many can be helped so much. The studies suggest that early intervention can give the children a fighting chance of leading reasonably normal lives. Such a payback seems more than enough to justify a far greater investment in treatment and rehabilitation. Today's crack kids may be a troubled generation, but they do not have to be a lost generation -- unless society abandons them...