KEY POINTS:
Children as young as 3 are to be screened for signs of antisocial behaviour which could identify whether they are likely to become future criminals.
Youngsters aged between 3 and 7 will be vetted under a new Government initiative which also proposes training courses for both parents and
teachers of up to 5 per cent of the 57,000 5-year-olds who start school each year - up to 3000 children a year.
The Ministry of Education, working in conjunction with the Ministries of Health and Social Development, says screening will start this year to select children for intervention, with basic parenting courses now available in all regions.
Last night the New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman, Michael Bott, expressed concern that the plan would take the state further into private family matters.
"We may be encouraging a climate of fear where the state is looking into the private realm to find problems where there are none," he said.
But a Canterbury University educationalist on the expert advisory group for the scheme, Dr John Church, said trials in Canterbury showed that courses would cost about $4000 for each child involved, and have a success rate of about 80 per cent.
In contrast, leaving intervention until a child was aged 12 or 13 would raise the cost to $16,000 to $17,000 and cut the success rate to below 20 per cent.
"By the time they get to jail, the success rate is close to zero and the annual cost is well over $90,000," he said. "We have fairly comprehensive evidence that if children are very naughty, very disruptive and throw a lot of tantrums, that's a good indicator for a lot of conditions to occur - leaving school early, getting into trouble as adolescents, drug use, illegal driving, minor thefts."
Dr Church developed a screening test in the 1980s to identify antisocial children in primary schools, asking teachers to rate children on a scale between "very frequently" and "never" on 20 antisocial items such as "interrupts others when they are speaking" and 20 pro-social items such as "takes his/her turn when others are waiting".
"This [plan] is a giant step forward. But rolling it out across the country will take 15 years if we get started tomorrow."
A Ministry of Education spokesman said the screening test was still being developed but it was likely to be included in the new "B4 School" health checks for 4-year-olds, due to start nationally next month.
He said piloting in Counties-Manukau and Wanganui had found that 98 per cent of parents said they would recommend the health checks to other parents and only one parent out of more than 800 refused to take part.
The ministry has adopted an American programme called "The Incredible Years" as its "intervention of first choice" for 3- to 8-year-old children identified with challenging behaviour.
The programme, trialled in Tauranga since 2002, runs weekly group sessions for six to 12 parents for 12 to 14 weeks and, if necessary, a further 10 to 12 weeks.
Parenting Council chairwoman Lesley Max said: "We need to get over our squeamishness in the interests of ensuring that life, for both children and their parents, is more positive."
ANTISOCIAL TEST
Children are rated between "very frequently" and "never" on both positive and negative items.
POSITIVE ITEMS
* Complies promptly with teacher instructions.
* Responds appropriately when other children try to interact with him/her.
* Expresses anger without becoming destructive or violent.
NEGATIVE ITEMS
* Disrupts the play or activities of other children.
* Tries to get own way by throwing tantrums, e.g. sulking, shouting, swearing or refusing to co-operate.
* Acts violently towards others, e.g. shoves, hits, pushes other children.
Canterbury Social Development Scale (examples)
ON THE WEB
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