CHILDREN'S HEALTH, LIVES IMPROVING BUT, A NATIONAL STUDY SAYS, MORE TEENS ARE USING DRUGS.(FRONT) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Byline: ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER

The books that Carla Boykin reads to her 5-year-old son, Paul, are his idea of fun, but they also translate into a good report card.

Not just for Paul, but for the nation at large.

A national report card on children's well-being released Wednesday showed children's lives have improved on several fronts, including more parents reading to their children. Fifty-seven percent of parents read to their children, aged 3 to 5, in 1996, compared to 53 percent in 1993.

Other high points of the report are higher immunization rates of young children - 77 percent of children aged 19 to 35 months had up-to-date immunizations in 1996. Also, infant mortality rates have dropped, along with death rates of teens, and teen birth rates.

One of the most dramatic improvements is the decline in the percentage of children aged 1 to 5 with elevated blood lead levels. That number dropped from 88 percent in the late '70s to 6 percent in the early '90s.

``It shows that cleaning up the environment works,'' said Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He attributed the lower blood levels to environmental legislation banning lead from paint and phasing out lead in gasoline.

Kris Meek, who coordinates screening of blood lead levels for the Norfolk Health Department, said numbers are declining locally as well. ``But we still find cases, and the number is still unacceptable,'' she said. Of 6,432 Norfolk children screened in 1997, 639 cases of elevated lead levels were found.

But the report card was not all good. One of the most glaring strikes against children's well-being was the rise in teen smoking and drinking. The report showed that a quarter of American high school seniors in 1997 reported smoking on a daily basis. The same number used drugs in the 30 days before the survey. A third said they had consumed five drinks or more within a two-week period.

``Those numbers had gone down in the '80s; now they're going up,'' Alexander said. ``It's an alarming pattern, especially in the face of so many campaigns against substance abuse. It shows we have not found a satisfactory solution.''

Cheryl Vandivort, who coordinates adolescent services for the Virginia Beach Community Services' Board substance abuse program, points to many factors in the rising rates: more broken families, more children with mental health issues, more social acceptance of smoking and drinking among peers, and less involvement of parents in children's day-to-day lives.

``If the parents aren't involved, then treatment doesn't work,'' she said.

Another down side in the report shows that poverty remains at 20 percent, with disparities growing between low- and high-income families. The percentage of children living in families with medium income has fallen from 41 percent in 1980 to 34 percent in 1996, while the percentage of families in extreme poverty or with high incomes has risen.

``America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well Being'' is a collection of 23 key indicators, such as immunizations, infant mortality rates and income levels, from many federal agencies. This is the second year the report has been released, in an annual attempt to track national trends, and generate discussion among policy-makers and the public about areas of concern. It's published by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

Alexander said many of the improvements in children's health can be linked to campaigns by advocacy groups and efforts by national, state and local governments to improve children's health.

Boykin, for instance, said it was the Head Start organization that got her started reading to her son, who is now 5. Head Start is a federally funded program that educates children 3 to 5, and provides support for their low-income families.

Boykin said she didn't think to read to her oldest daughter, who is now 9, when she was that young.

``I left it all up to the school, and that backfired on me,'' she said. Boykin said her daughter had a hard time in kindergarten, and continues to struggle in school.

When Paul started Head Start at age 3, the instructors in Norfolk encouraged Boykin to read to him at home.

``At first it seemed like he wasn't paying attention,'' she said. ``But then he was asking for books at the dollar store instead of toys.'' She said when Paul enters kindergarten in the fall, he'll already know his alphabet, and how to write his name. He also often pretends he's reading.

The America's Children report showed that nearly half of the country's children ages 3 to 4 were in preschool, nursery schools and Head Start programs in 1996, up from about 30 percent in 1980.

Like Boykin, Grashaun Ruffin of Suffolk can vouch for public campaigns to improve children's lives. Her 6-month-old daughter got immunizations and rides to the doctor's office because of Healthy Families of South Hampton Roads. The program provides home visits and education for young mothers.

``They really are serious about immunizations,'' Ruffin said. ``And I'm glad. It's important because they prevent diseases.''

Ardythe Morrow, associate professor of pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said a coalition of health agencies - called Consortium for Infant and Child Health - has combined efforts locally to increase immunizations of children, both in Norfolk and across the state. She said the organization has worked not only on raising awareness of parents of the need to immunize children but also with doctors and health agencies to send out reminders to parents.

``Immunization is not a one-shot deal,'' Morrow said. ``It's something we need to raise parent awareness of on a constant, ongoing basis. About 69 percent of 2-year-olds in Eastern Virginia are up-to-date with their immunizations, she said.

Alexander said a host of such organizations and public-private efforts across the nation deserve credit for improvements in children's health.

The same type of organizations need to heed the problem areas, such as teen substance abuse.

``That's one of the purposes for releasing studies like this,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

Color photo

HENNY WONG/The Virginian-Pilot

As more parents read to their children, more children become better students. Paul Boykin came to love books as his mother, Carla, read to him at the behest of Head Start. He was 3 then; now he's 5, and they're reading ``The Three Bears'' on the steps of their home in Norfolk.

Graphics

KEN WRIGHT/The Virginian-Pilot

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE STUDY

SOURCE: ``America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well Being'' report

(For complete graphic, please see microfilm)

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU

Children's health has improved, but trouble can develop when they reach the teen years.

MORE ON PILOT ONLINE

A link to the full America's Children 1998 report is at: (http://www.pilotonline.com)