This may be the most effective anti-poverty program In America, By Jonathan Cohn, April 21, 2015, Huffington Post: “Luisa Cintron, 25, is sitting up as straight as she can, perched on the edge of the neatly made bed that doubles as a couch inside her dimly lit apartment. She is wearing a sweater and slacks, talking about the government program that she says changed her life, and trying — without much success — not to get distracted by the 4-year-old talking loudly about Batman in the next room. The 4-year-old is Luisa’s son, Maliek. And not so long ago, Luisa explains, Maliek wouldn’t have been talking about superheroes — or anything else for that matter. At 18 months, well past the time that babies usually start forming words, Maliek was still ‘non-verbal’ and communicating almost exclusively through gestures. ‘It was always pointing at this, crying at that,’ Luisa says. Delayed speech wasn’t Maliek’s only problem. He also had a severe case of eczema that caused him to bleed into his clothing and sleep fitfully, if at all. It further impaired his ability to learn, and made for yet more tension at home…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty