Early Head Start program pays home visits to families

Melissa Sanchez, 23, and her two sons, Aiden Haro, 4, and Julian Haro, 2, crowded around the kitchen table Thursday afternoon in her Delhi home.

Jenny Espinola, an Early Head Start home visitor, instructed them to form shapes with Play-Doh, sing "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and practice counting.

Espinola said the activities help a child's social, emotional and gross motor skills development, which will eventually prepare children for school.

The Sanchezes are one of 144 families in Merced County receiving home visits from Early Head Start workers. The Merced County Office of Education launched the program in April after it received a $2.6 million federal grant.

As of now, the program is only funded until September 2011, but Regina DeMelo, MCOE's Head Start family support services manager, said she expected Early Head Start to be included in the following year's federal budget.

Early Head Start targets parents who are living at or below the federal poverty level and are either pregnant or have a newborn to 3-year-old child.

Head Start serves children from the same income group aged 4 to 5.

The ultimate goal of the program is to break the poverty cycle, but some of the other side effects include lowering the high school dropout rate, reducing the number of children in at-risk situations and lessening the number of students repeating grades, DeMelo said.

"Our goal is to provide parents with an understanding of how important their role is and how to best support their child's health, nutrition and other developmental needs," DeMelo added.

Without the program, some parents may not learn basic parenting skills, she said.

For example, some parents may think that a television is a worthy babysitter, or they may not engage their children verbally or read to their babies.

If that's the case, a child may not reach his full potential because he wasn't engaged during the first three years of critical brain development.

"The brain grows more actively then, and a brain is better developed when a child is socially engaged," she explained. "We hope children who leave Head Start have an excellent foundation for their emotional growth and cognitive development because of the supportive services we provide in these first three years."

Sanchez is a stay-at-home mom. Her husband, Jaime Haro, works in Merced as a welder. Sanchez said she can't afford all the materials and toys Espinola brings to use with her children.

Through Espinola's instruction, Julian has learned a lot of skills that will prepare him for school, such as holding a pencil, writing and learning his colors, Sanchez said.

"I feel when we take him to Head Start, he's going to be a lot more comfortable," Sanchez said.

Typically a home visit lasts about one-and-a-half hours, Espinola said. She provides families emotional support, takes expectant mothers to doctors' appointments and helps a parent in getting enrolled in college courses.

Some of the pregnant mothers may not go to all of their pre-natal doctors appointments, or maybe they are depressed, and home visitors help with all of those issues, she added.

Some clients may not have access to food or medical car, so Espinola helps connect families to other resources.

Other parents may not get a lot of adult interaction during the day because they may be geographically isolated or they may not have a car or live near any family members.

"Some parents need emotional support, someone to talk to," Espinola said. "For a few of my moms, we set goals and I act as their cheerleader. Maybe they want to go to school, get a job or learn how to drive."

Sanchez said she's hopeful this program will put Julian, and even Aiden, ahead and help them meet her hopes for them.

"I wish they can accomplish anything they hope to do," she said, "and I'll encourage everything they want to do."

She clearly wants to give them a head start.

Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.