Implications of Lead Poisoning on Children
9/9/2016
I come from the land called Michigan whose lower peninsula is shaped like a mitten and whose upper peninsula is shaped like a running rabbit. My daughter lives in the "nose" of the rabbit, a dear friend lives in the rabbit's tail, an in-law lives in the thumb, my bestie lives just north of the wrist. The majority of my peeps are spread out all over the downstate region which we all know as south of any knuckle. We are proud of our Vernor's Ginger Ale, which, since 1886 has been the best thing ever for a tummy ache. The state stone is fossilized coral called a Petosky Stone. We search for these stones ceaselessly while walking on any portion of the state's 3,288 miles of coastline. With pride, we hoard the I-96 freeway within the borders of ONLY our state. Michigan is the world headquarters for Ford Motor Company and most state residents have someone in their family who has, at some point, worked for Ford. Michiganders love their Red Wings, their Tigers, their Lions, and the world's largest tire. With 41% of Michigan's surface area being water, the state touches four of the five Great Lakes. Many families own boats and/or cottages on the water "up north" where hunting and fishing reign supreme.
Water. Anyone who grew up around it understands all the fun to be had. Anyone who grew up around water understands the safety concerns it brings. Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows what a disaster Flint, Michigan has been facing with high levels of lead in their water.
Water's life-giving properties has, for this community, become a disaster. Water, for the children of this community, has robbed them of so much.
The literature is clear, unlike the lead-laden water consumed by so many in the world, that this problem is completely curable. Additionally clear, people who are impacted by lead poisoning are known to have significant health issues. Another known: this issue impacts countries all around the world, including our own. More and more cities are facing this danger as we reap the dubious rewards of manufacturing from days gone by, from lead pipes in homes, old paint, and other hazardous reminders of a practice which was once believed to be okay.
As a Special Education Teacher, it is our responsibility to be aware of the implications of lead poisoning. In my experience, parents have been forthright in informing me if they believe their child has been exposed to lead. The educational implications of lead poisoning are many; it is our responsibility to be "in the know" about this issue.
According to the World Health Organization, children can absorb 4 to 5 times more lead than an adult. An adult is less likely to snack on flaky paint peeling off walls, but none of us could necessarily know that our home's pipes are leaching lead, or that our ground water is contaminated because a plant was once on the very land where our home now stands. In their Lead Poisoning and Health Fact Sheet, the W.H.O. (https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health) notes the following as probable implications of lead poisoning in children:
- Developmental delays
- Behavior disorders
- Reduction in IQ
- Visual-spatial skills/fine motor skills
- Processing/acquisition delays
- Anemia
- Hypertension
- Renal impairment
- Immunotoxicity
At this point in their research, the World Health Organization indicates the negative effects to be irreversible.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, slow growth and hearing issues are also negative implications for children with lead poisoning (https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-about-lead-drinking-water).
Because the lead poisoning complicates, delays, or halts the development of the brain in young children, not only are these babies at risk for educational challenges, but also social obstacles because of the reduction in function, discernment, reasoning, impulse control, and irritability will put their peer relationships at risk for failure.
What's a teacher to do?
Well, I don't know about your methodology or practice for tackling big issues faced by little learners, but my approach is pretty basic: assess the need areas, gather the resources as best you can, and get to work making things as fun but as meaningful and rigorous as possible.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has assembled a document of educational implications interventions, intended to provide support for parents and educators. Access this helpful tool at https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/publications/educational_interventions_children_affected_by_lead.pdf where you will discover the following information to support your efforts in planning as you seek to best support your students.
Consider the following:
- As your young ones are learning to read, they may not be able to eventually read to learn. Keep pushing and working with comprehension strategies as a continuous effort.
- Progress monitoring should be frequent.
- Note any need for therapies which can be added to a potential/existing Individualized Education Plan. Your anecdotal notes are important to Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Physical Therapists.
- When children head to middle school, executive functioning becomes more important as students are expected to be more independent in their day. Lead poisoning can significantly impede this ability. Start working with your kids early to develop and maintain routines and procedures. When it's time for their transition to a new school, connect with the teachers in the new building to learn some of their procedures. Consider slowly incorporating these so when they get to their new school, they know what to do from the onset. Conversely, share your procedures with those teachers so they understand from where some of your former student's habits may have come.
- Studies from many states reflect similar conclusions: students with lead poisoning show significantly lower scores in Math/ELA/Reading than their non-affected peers.
- Early intervention programs have been noted to positively impact delays. Equally of note, parental support is shown to produce benefit. Well, duh.
As we are wont to do in the world of education, we could very easily complicate this issue when in reality, the bottom line is pretty clear: these babies need academic interventions and support, and more than likely will have a 504 or an IEP. We will review the goals, work toward achieving the goals, and pushing onward to higher-reaching goals.
Simple? No. Clear? As mud. But if you know kids like I know kids, you know that there is but one thing to do: get to work.
Back to Flint, Michigan's situation. In a town where approximately 15% of the school district's students are already identified as Special Needs students, what will happen in the classrooms-the Ground Zero for making sense of all this? Because of declining enrollment in the city's school district-53% decrease since 2010 (http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/03/15/flint-water-crisis-schools/79830356/) -- there are fewer Special Education Teachers due to lay-offs, fewer dollars because of flight to the suburbs, and fewer students who now have greater needs. Parents will look to the school, as a co-stakeholder in the education of their children, to provide information on how to best support their babies. Teachers will do their best, as teachers always do, to find relevant information while working their hardest to teach the innocents in this chaos who will need as much support as they can possibly be given during their K-12 career.
So, when you decided your major back in college, did you really believe you'd be thinking about how to teach a child who fell victim to an issue which many believe has an easy remedy? One that equally as many believe fellow humans failed to address while knowingly allowing it to carry on? All politics and opinions aside, we, as Special Education Teachers will need to remain vigilant as these issues present themselves to us. We will need to remain steadfast in our commitment to finding creative ways to help children learn in alternative ways. We will need to be willing to advocate for the safety and well being of our food supply, our water supply, and the air we breath. All of these things shouldn't be things about which we have to think, but we do. We have to be informed. It is our responsibility.
Consider a degree in special education.
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