KIDS Crack

MY ACCOUNT SIGN IN SIGN OUT- SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE. Politics World Business Tech Health TIME Health Entertainment Science Newsfeed Living Sports History The TIME Vault Magazine Ideas TIME Labs. As part of her research, Dr. Howard compared preemies born to crack users with other (noncrack) preemies. Even at the age of 18 months, after receiving good medical care and educational therapy, the crack kids were in bad shape. They tended to hit their toys or throw them around the room, without apparent motive or provocation. Jul 29, 2019 Crack or crack cocaine is a form of cocaine. It has not been neutralized by an acid to make cocaine hydrochloride, the pure form of the chemical. Crack comes in a rock crystal form that can be heated and inhaled or smoked. It is called 'crack' in reference to the cracking sound it makes when it is heated. Crack cocaine is a highly addictive. It didn't take long for my kids to lose themselves in learning, deciphering and creating their own secret codes. We started out with mouse I mean morse code because my 7 year old had read about it in a Horrible HIstories book (affiliate link). Morse code uses dots, dashes and spaces to represent letters numbers and symbols.

SECTION: LIFE/STYLE; Family; Pg. 62

LENGTH: 1407 words

HEADLINE: The Crack Children

BYLINE: BARBARA KANTROWITZ with PAT WINGERT in Washington, NONNYDE LA PENA in Houston, JEANNE GORDON in Los Angeles and TIM PADGETT inChicago

HIGHLIGHT:
Their troubles don't end in infancy. As cocaine babies grow up, healthand social workers are discovering a whole new set of drug-related problems.

BODY:
Arthur was already 3 days old when his aunt found himin the Houston garage where his crack-addicted mother had abandoned him.Arthur's aunt adopted him, but at 13 months, he was so wild that his auntcalled him 'possessed. ' She brought him to a special program for infantssponsored by Houston's Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority.There, he would not let his teacher, Geynill Agee, come closer than eightfeet before he began hurling toys at her. Two years later Agee thinks shehas made a little progress with the boy; he can now walk calmly down thehall holding his aunt's hand -- something he could never do before.

Christina, another 3-year-old in the Houston program, does not liketo be touched. Her teacher tried gently rubbing the child's skin with softtoys. Most made Christina shrink away. Finally, Christina became interestedin puzzles, but rather than pick up the pieces herself, she would gingerlyhold her teacher's wrist while the woman put the pieces together.

Arthur and Christina (not their real names) are among the oldest ofa generation of children across the country who share a terrible heritage-- their mothers all smoked crack while they were pregnant. A few yearsago crack-exposed babies made headlines when they began showing up in intensive-carenurseries. Then, the struggle was just to get them out of the hospital.Now, experts say, their problems appear to be long-term -- and far moredifficult to solve.

The first wave of crack babies is just approaching school age, and educatorsare frustrated and bewildered by their behavior. 'They operate only onan instinctual level, ' says Agee of her students. 'They eat and sleep,eat and sleep. Something has been left out. ' Sometimes withdrawn, thesechildren may have trouble playing or even talking with other kids. Somehave tremors or periods when they seem to tune out the world. No one yetknows how to undo the damage caused by a pregnant woman's drug use. Someteachers predict that special-education programs like the one in Houstonwill soon be swamped with crack children. 'We need experts to deal withthem immediately, ' says a spokesperson for the city's mental- health authority.'But who will be the experts? We are all having to learn about this onetogether. '

There's no question that the need is tremendous. According to a majornational study of the problem, about 11 percent of all newborns -- 375,000babies annually -- have been exposed to drugs in utero. Crack cocaine isthe primary addiction of pregnant women, although many use other drugsas well. The doctor who conducted that 1988 study, Ira Chasnoff, presidentof the National Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and Education,thinks his results probably understate the problem because a mother's druguse can be hard to detect. Drug screening is not routine in many hospitals,and even with testing, crack use is not always obvious.

Without reliable testing, doctors must look for other clues. For example,pregnant crack addicts may not visit a doctor until they actually go intolabor and are ready to deliver -- and sometimes not even then. 'When apatient comes in with no history of prenatal care, we automatically startwondering if there's been drug abuse, ' says Dr. Ezra Davidson of King-DrewMedical Center in Los Angeles. Davidson, who is also president of the AmericanCollege of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, estimates that a quarter ofthe babies coming into his hospital's intensive-care nursery have drug-relatedproblems.

Many of these babies start their lives with serious handicaps. Theyare likely to be born prematurely, says Dr. Gordon B. Avery of Children'sNational Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and may weigh as little astwo pounds. 'They get hit with everything other premature babies do --plus, ' Avery says. Compared with other preemies, they're more likelyto have hydrocephaly (water on the brain), poor brain growth, kidney problemsand apnea (when babies suddenly stop breathing). They are also more likelyto have suffered an infarct of the brain -- similar to a stroke.

Birth defects: And that's only the beginning. Doctors who have followedthe progress of crack babies now believe their drug-related birth defectsmay contribute to major developmental difficulties. Dr. Judy Howard ofthe UCLA School of Medicine, who has studied hundreds of crack children,says that they are hard to care for almost from the moment of birth. Theymay be either extremely irritable or very lethargic, have poor suckingabilities that hamper feeding and irregular sleep patterns. As they growolder, they may be hyperactive, slow in learning to talk and have troublerelating to other people -- just like Arthur and Christina, the youngstersin the Houston program.

As part of her research, Dr. Howard compared preemies born to crackusers with other (noncrack) preemies. Even at the age of 18 months, afterreceiving good medical care and educational therapy, the crack kids werein bad shape. They tended to hit their toys or throw them around the room,without apparent motive or provocation. 'Their facial expressions appearedflat and joyless and their body language did not demonstrate enthusiasm,' says Howard, who points out that children who can't or won't play withtoys are missing an important avenue of development. 'The kids have animpairment that makes them disorganized in everything they do, ' she says.Doctors haven't been able to pinpoint the exact reason for these problems,but they suspect neurological damage. Howard says it's as if the part ofthe brain that 'makes us human beings, capable of discussion or reflection,' has been 'wiped out. '

Early intervention: So far, there are only a handful of programs dedicatedto helping crack children. At the Salvin Special Education School in LosAngeles, teacher Carol Coles says her two-year-old program is still experimental;every day she and he colleagues try to figure out new ways to help thekids. Early intervention and individual attention seem to be crucial. Thereare no more than eight 3- and 4-year-olds in each class with as many asthree teachers. Much of the day is taken up with regular preschool activities-- songs, games, art projects. But the school also has a pediatrician,psychologists, social workers and speech and language specialists. They'reall ready to help with the problems caused not only by the mother's crackuse, but also by the youngsters' often chaotic home lives. In some of theirfamilies, drug use is still a factor. That puts these kids at high riskfor abuse and neglect. Doctors also suspect that the children may be seriouslyinjured just by breathing the crack-filled smoke in their homes. Cole saysthat the continuity and routine at school help the kids feel secure. Theyalso get lots of opportunities to talk about things that may be botheringthem. 'We acknowledge what exists, ' says Cole. 'We talk about the specificsof their lives. And they feel safe when they know we know. '

Lost generation: As America's crack problem worsens, health and socialworkes are left with only two options: get mothers into treatment programsin time to protect their babies, or prepare to deal with a steady streamof troubled children. Unfortunately, many drug facilities exclude pregnantwomen; in one recent study of programs in New York City, 54 percent wouldn'tlet these mothers in. And once children are born to crack mothers, theproblems become even more daunting. 'We simply can't take all these babiesaway from their mothers, ' says Dr. Loretta Finnegan of Jefferson MedicalCollege in Philadelphia, who has worked with pregnant addicts for manyyears. 'Where are we going to put them? ' In addition to stepping up --and paying for -- drug enforcement and drug treatment, the country nowmust confront a whole new facet of the crack epidemic: an entire generationthat may never be free of the scourge.
Damage Done
* At least 375,000 babies are born annually to mothers who use drugs.
* One survey estimates that the number of drug-exposed infants hasmore than tripled since 1985.
* Cocaine cuts the flow of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus, causingdeformities and growth impairment.

* Drug-exposed 2-year- olds have trouble concentrating, interactingwith groups and coping with structured environments.

GRAPHIC: Picture, Tragic start: Pregnant crack user, EUGENE RICHARDS-- MAGNUM, Photos 1 and 2, Doing what they can: Teachers with crack kidsat the Salvin School, LESTER SLOAN -- NEWSWEEK

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

'What's mouse code?' my seven year old asked.

It took me a little while to figure out that he meant ‘morse code' rather than ‘mouse code', but from that moment on he was in love with everything about secret codes!

The idea of being able to read and write in a secret code, or better yet, create your own secret code that no one else knows, is magical! Imagine being able to write notes to each other that no one else can read!

It didn't take long for my kids to lose themselves in learning, deciphering and creating their own secret codes.

Morse Code

We started out with mouse… I mean morse code because my 7 year old had read about it in a Horrible HIstories book (affiliate link).

Morse code uses dots, dashes and spaces to represent letters numbers and symbols. You can write morse code, or send it with flashes of light or sounds. Once a prisoner of war even sent a message in morse code by blinking his eyes!

We made a ‘cheat sheet' and wrote some morse code messages. We even had a go at using a flashlight to send morse code but that was pretty tricky!

You can download the free printable Morse code sheet here.

The Pigpen Cipher

The Pigpen cipher is a really old code that is really fun to write. I left my boys a secret message in pigpen for them to decode when they woke up one morning!

After that first message I suddenly started to get little notes written in Pigpen, so I had to keep my decoder sheet handy so I could work out what they said!

You can download the free printable pigpen secret code sheet here.

Make Your Own Secret Codes

Now that we had the hang of this cool secret code thing, it was time for us to try making our own!

Kids Crack The Code

We learned that it is important to make the symbols and drawings we used to represent each letter quite simple, and easy to reproduce accurately. If you make them too complicated it will be impossible to write a coded message that someone else can decipher!

I made up a simple sheet with letters, numbers a couple of punctuation marks and a few blank spaces so we could create as many new secret codes as we wanted!

You can download the free printable ‘make your own secret code' sheet here.

This printable is an A4 sized pdf file, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open it. If you are printing on US ‘letter sized' paper be sure to select ‘fit' or ‘shrink to fit' from your printer options.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.

More Cool Secret Code for Kids

Kids Cracking Up

Using secret code is so fun, and there are lots more super cool secret code activities you can do.

Kids Crack

Here are a few more secret code ideas and activities to try.

Feinwerkbau sport 124 owners manual. Make maths fun with this Number line secret code

Try one of these secret message activities – our favourites are the folded ones!

Make a secret code from Legos!

Learn the ASCII binary alphabet with Lego.

Print this secret decoder pinwheel.

Have a go at decoding these Star Wars quotes.

Try one of these middle grade books about puzzles and codes:

Do you need more fun activities for school aged kids?

What Happens When Kids Crack Their Knuckles

Try one of these…

Kids Crack On Side Of Mouth