A lifelong principle fuels Sally Koblinsky's research on the
struggles--and triumphs--of low-income and homeless families.
When Sally Koblinsky, professor and chair of the Department of Family
Studies, was growing up in San Diego, Calif., she often accompanied her
family on road trips to Mexico to distribute clothes and toys to
orphanages.
Sally Koblinsky
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"Even as a child, I was aware of the privileges I enjoyed that were not
shared by many other families," she says. "And my mother always taught
me to 'do well by doing good.'"
This philosophy followed her through her undergraduate days at the
University of California, Los Angeles, where she tutored low-income
children in the turbulent Watts neighborhoods; and at University of
California, Davis, where she worked with migrant Mexican families in the
Sacramento area. "Because I was in the field of developmental
psychology," she says, "I was interested in the factors that supported
and strengthened these families, and the areas where I could intervene
to improve the well-being of both the children and the parents." She
soon found direct opportunities for intervention through Head Start, a
comprehensive program that provides individualized services in
education, early childhood development, parental involvement and
physical and mental health to low-income families.
Koblinsky has been involved with Head Start for 30 years. Her research
on Head Start programs for homeless and low-income families in violent
neighborhoods has resulted in new legislation, progressive Head Start
curricula and greater hope for struggling families.
Currently, Koblinsky is collaborating with Suzanne Randolph, associate
professor of family studies, to examine the roles of parents and schools
in promoting positive outcomes for preschool-aged children in violent
neighborhoods. The project, now in its fourth year of funding from the
U.S. Department of Education, has three goals: to observe the effects of
violence on young children's cognitive, motor and socioemotional
development; to understand the roles of families and schools in helping
children deal with violence-related stress; and to develop intervention
programs for Head Start staff and parents to help the children cope with
violence.
Koblinsky, Randolph and their students began by identifying
neighborhoods in suburban Maryland and Washington, D.C., with high
levels of violent activity. They reviewed police statistics and
conducted environmental scans of selected areas, looking for evidence of
trouble: graffiti, playgrounds with rusted equipment or schools with
bulletproof glass in the windows. Once a neighborhood is chosen, the
researchers form a partnership with the community's Head Start program.
"We make arrangements to interview the mothers individually about their
children's socioemotional health, so we can assess their cognitive
development through activities and games," says Koblinsky.
Regarding the children's mental health, Koblinsky says, "There are a
variety of problems. Some children respond to violence with fear,
anxiety and withdrawal or cling to their teachers. Some are afraid to
play outdoors because their parents restrict them to their homes.
There's also an expectation in these neighborhoods for the children to
be tough and stand up for themselves, so we see higher incidents of
aggressive behavior." Koblinsky finds that the situation is
understandably daunting for the parents, most of whom are single
mothers. Many feel that they must supervise their children at all times,
especially when they are playing outside. These mothers also tend to be
socially isolated from their community; fear of violence even hinders
participation in church-related activities, such as choir practice or
Bible study.
"When we collect data on the families, we try to look at factors that
may predict positive development in children," says Koblinsky. "We want
to know if the mother is working, if her mental health is sound, if she
attends church regularly and gets support in raising her child from
teachers, doctors, social services, family or friends. We focus on areas
where we can intervene." She and Randolph want community organizations
to form links with the neighborhoods, and are trying to encourage
churches and schools to sponsor support groups for the mothers to share
their mutual concerns. "This is a community issue," says Koblinsky, "and
we can't just expect the parents to solve the whole problem."
The researchers have already created a successful intervention program
for Head Start teachers, many of whom felt poorly prepared to address
issues of violence and loss with their students. "They didn't know how
to handle it when a child would raise his hand and announce that his
father was shot the night before," says Koblinsky. During the six-week
intervention, teachers became more familiar with the histories of their
communities and learned how to help both children and parents cope with
behavioral problems and the impact of community violence. This
particular Head Start curriculum was also designed to be culturally
sensitive in order to meet the needs of the predominantly African
American community: African proverbs and principles, such as
communalism, ujima (collective work and responsibility) and nia
(purpose) were incorporated into each session.
Homelessness is the subject of another project, a collaboration between
Koblinsky and colleague Elaine Anderson that examines the impact of
homelessness on children's emotional development and ability to learn.
"Our project is unique because the children are in the Head Start
program," says Koblinsky. "We want to see how preschool makes a
difference in the lives of the children." As a result of this study and
other research on the homeless, Congress has passed a Head Start
re-authorization bill that ensures permanent resources for model Head
Start programs serving homeless families.
For this project, the researchers not only sought to shed light on the
struggles of homeless parents and children, but also to focus on their
strengths as well. "Many homeless mothers have remarkable survival and
daily problem-solving skills," says Koblinsky. She recalls one mother
who, despite sharing cramped quarters in a D.C. shelter with her five
children, proudly displayed her children's drawings and photographs on a
wall and circled daily job and housing listings in the newspaper
classifieds. Several years later, Koblinsky rediscovered the woman as a
teacher at a Head Start program. "She had demonstrated amazing
resourcefulness, motivation and creativity in surviving a crisis that
would have overwhelmed most of us. She and other homeless mothers
literally 'make a way out of no way.'"
Success stories like these are reward enough for Koblinsky. However, the
university's President's Commission on Women's Issues did pay formal
tribute to her in March with its Outstanding Woman of the Year Award,
which she calls "a shock and an honor." The award capped a stellar year
for Koblinsky and the Department of Family Studies, which received its
first independent Ph.D program this spring. For Koblinsky, an active
mentor of both undergraduate and graduate students, it couldn't have
come at a better time.
"I feel strongly committed to training the next generation," she says.
"There is definitely a need for more competent, culturally sensitive
researchers." It takes one to know--and train--one. --BM
Hoo Is Listening to the Barn Owl?
Despite the powerful impact of technology on modern research, Mother
Nature still retains valuable secrets for scientists to explore. A case
in point: the acute auditory skills of the common barn owl. A multi-disciplinary
research team based in the Clark School of Engineering's
Institute for Systems Research is trying to better understand and
digitally reproduce the owl's amazing locator system.
"The barn owl has long been recognized as the premier nocturnal
predator," says Catherine Carr, professor of biology, in referring to
the owl's uncanny ability to locate prey in total darkness, based solely
on sound. Carr has done extensive research on the barn owl's central
nervous system. Her research measures spatial differences in sine
(sound) waves reaching each ear of the barn owl, then follows how the
owl's brain processes these separate audio signals. A slight delay
between the time it takes for sound to reach each ear--measured in
milliseconds--lets the owl rapidly develop a map in its brain that
pinpoints the sound's location. Pity the poor mouse rustling leaves or
straw 20 or 30 yards away in the darkness.
Electrical engineers at Maryland are interested in developing
mathematical models that replicate the auditory skills of the barn owl
and similar mammals. By refining these algorithms, the engineers are
developing computer programs that allow sophisticated robots to interact
and operate in acoustically complex environments.
Two years ago, P. S. Krishnaprasad, professor of electrical engineering,
put together a research team that includes faculty, postdoctoral and
graduate students from electrical and computer engineering, biology and
the program in neuroscience and cognitive science. Funded by the
National Science Foundation, the project also includes a neurobiologist
from the University of Oregon.
To date, the team has equipped two mobile robots with software based on
biological data supplied by Carr and other animal biologists. "We find
that the zoologists and neurobiologists have their own way of looking at
the research data," Krishnaprasad says, "and as engineers, we take the
same data and try to put it into strictly mathematical terms. This
cross-collaboration between the disciplines is invigorating."
The two robots are connected by wireless transmitters to computers in
the laboratory and also to the Internet.
A major goal of the research, Krishnaprasad says, is to develop new
technologies for multiple robots to communicate with each other. "A
robot that interacts well with other robots and its environment has many
useful possibilities," he says. These include improvements in guiding
automated vehicles in factories and hospitals as well as greatly
advancing current capabilities in teleconferencing. Robots with advanced
auditory capabilities can also be sent into dangerous areas, lending
themselves to industrial and military applications. --TV
