Australian Broadcasting Corporation


LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s744811.htm

Broadcast: 10/12/2002

Brisbane suburb trials early intervention program

Reporter: Petria Wallace

MAXINE McKEW: There is now compelling evidence that the first four years of life establishes the blueprint for adulthood.

Children from deprived backgrounds are more likely to end up unemployed, abused, or in juvenile detention.

But there's equally compelling evidence that early intervention programs can go a long way towards reversing the inevitability of such trends.

Billion-dollar well-established programs in Canada and in the UK are pointing the way.

But here in Australia, similar programs are in their infancy.

An ambitious start has been made with private support in Brisbane.

It's called Pathways to Prevention.

Petria Wallace reports.

PETRIA WALLACE: Raylene Heartland and her four children have done it tough.

Years in a destructive relationship left her unable to cope with her children.

RAYLENE HEARTLAND: Screamed my head off, walked around the house slamming doors, not coping with them at all.

PETRIA WALLACE: A new start with partner Steven Lockwood was marred by the money worries of life without a job.

STEVEN LOCKWOOD: I'd be frustrated.

I'd be angry.

And I'd just have to go for a walk to cool off.

And the kids, at times, they would suffer a little bit.

I'd holler at 'em or just basically, yes, just really not have the patience I should have with them.

RAYLENE HEARTLAND: I'd get upset because he's upset and the kids are upset.

And just one great big circle.

PETRIA WALLACE: It's a vicious circle they've just begun to find their way out of, with the help of a unique early intervention program.

The family lives near the Brisbane suburb of Inala, an area with serious social problems.

Criminologist Ross Homel is running the new program there with Mission Australia.

PROFESSOR ROSS HOMEL, CRIMINOLOGY, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY: The area we're working in unfortunately tends to have a very high rate of involvement in juvenile crime.

Lots and lots of kids from that area end up being charged with criminal offences in juvenile court.

PETRIA WALLACE: There's growing awareness among international experts that the first four years are crucial to the path a life will take.

Overseas studies show children have to be helped onto the right track before the age of six.

PROFESSOR ROSS HOMEL: Facilitating that transfer to school, that transition to school, which we know is so problematic for kids, particularly from non-English speaking backgrounds and from very poor backgrounds.

PETRIA WALLACE: Why is that transition to school such a crucial turning point for disadvantaged children?

PROFESSOR ROSS HOMEL: If you're not well-equipped to cope with this strange environment where you're learning to read, write and do arithmetic.

If you haven't learned what it takes to survive in a classroom environment and to achieve minimally, you can very quickly become a behaviour problem, you can start to not attend, you can be truanting, and of course your performance then gets worse and worse and worse.

So it's a vicious cycle.

PETRIA WALLACE: These teachers are helping vulnerable preschoolers cope in the strange new environment of school.

To do it, they rely on the parents as much as specialist communication teachers like Heather Jenson.

HEATHER JENSON, COMMUNICATIONS TEACHER: A lot of book talk does encourage those higher level language skills.

So, yes, the way you talk about a book can help very much prepare a child for school and school language.

PETRIA WALLACE: Here, these Tongan mothers are the teachers.

Research shows if children are fluent in the language of their home, they'll make an easier transition to speaking English later.

This program is also helping mothers who barely speak English escape their social isolation.

PHUONG LE HUGELY, COMMUNITY WORKER: Very isolated with the language, with our transport.

They're very isolated.

PETRIA WALLACE: It costs $600,000 a year to help 300 children in the Inala program.

As the UK and Canada pour billions into national early intervention programs, supporters here are watching with envy.

PROFESSOR FIONA STANLEY, AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN: And the early child development program in Great Britain has gone up from something like 10 million pounds to about, well over 1 billion pounds.

And it is run out of Treasury.

It's run out of Treasury because they realise that the economic future of Britain is dependent upon providing more nurturing environments for children and enabling them to have better education, to be better educated and to be a competent work force in the future.

PETRIA WALLACE: Now John Howard is being asked to do the same.


It needs to be well resourced and we know from the overseas experience, and also our day-to-day experience, that we get results.

LARRY ANTHONY, MINISTER FOR CHILDREN & YOUTH: There are certainly some elements of what they're doing in the UK which are exciting.

There are certain elements within Canada that are exciting.

But by the same token we have a number of very good programs that are operating here.

PETRIA WALLACE: Australia's first minister for children points to his portfolio's very existence as proof a national agenda for children is a priority.

But observers are waiting to see if he can convert the economic hard heads in Canberra before they'll be convinced.

PROFESSOR ROSS HOMEL: There is where it's going to really count in a few years time if we put the money in now.

LARRY ANTHONY: And I think we have to ensure that any type of program, if there was to be a national roll-out, that it's got a proven track record.

Because if you get it wrong in those early years, you'll only compound the problem.

PETRIA WALLACE: Back in the Inala area, things are looking up for Raylene Heartland.

Her partner, Steven Lockwood, has a job.

So they'll be celebrating this Christmas.

They're both confident the parenting course they did with Mission Australia is still getting results.

RAYLENE HEARTLAND: I've learnt how to become more patient with the kids instead of letting it get to me.

PETRIA WALLACE: And what gave you that patience?

RAYLENE HEARTLAND: Having the support, having someone show me how I can deal with it instead of having to try to deal with it on my own.

PETRIA WALLACE: And they know many other parents would benefit from the help they've been lucky enough to receive.

RAYLENE HEARTLAND: There is a lot of families out there that are struggling that don't know where to turn.