A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity

This refers to programs and methods that take place before a problem occurs in an effort to prevent it. Many of these focus on the early stages of a child’s development to try to prevent negative consequences or to improve the child’s circumstances later in life. This applies even to the prenatal period when the fetus develops in the womb. An example of early intervention is working to ensure that pregnant mothers do not use alcohol or drugs and do not smoke cigarettes. Each has a harmful effect on the development of the baby’s brain that will negatively affect them as children and even adults. Babies born to mothers who abused alcohol, for example, are born with a condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome. They are more likely to have substance abuse problems themselves and “often have trouble with memory, with thinking, with impulse control—and with the criminal justice system” (51). The book emphasizes the importance of early intervention as being more effective and cheaper than programs designed to help people after a problem has already occurred. For example, the authors write that one study estimated the lifetime costs for a single child born with fetal alcohol syndrome to be $800,000.