TV REVIEW : ABC’s ‘Children First’ Proves Valuable Viewing for Parents

Despite some too-obvious self-congratulatory plugs promoting the “American Agenda” segments on ABC’s “World News Tonight,” the hourlong “Children First: Real Kids, Real Solutions” is valuable viewing for any adult with child-raising concerns.

Hosted by Peter Jennings and reported by “American Agenda” correspondents, with commentary from educators and such child development experts as T. Berry Brazelton, the documentary spotlights good parenting and several community- and parent-generated programs that are helping children and parents avoid or recover from the pitfalls that lead to dysfunction and a cycle of failure.

Healthy Start, a program in Hawaii, begins the day a child is born by identifying high-risk factors for child abuse. It’s underfunded and unable to expand, but it is said to have reduced one community’s child abuse rate by 50%.

The grass-roots Character Counts school program has children focus on six words: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, caring, fairness and citizenship. Although more parent involvement is wished by educators, it has helped one small New Mexico town measurably combat discipline problems.

It isn’t only programs like these that make a difference. One single mother’s success in raising her four children under difficult circumstances proves experts’ emphasis on giving children of all ages--teen-agers too--daily loving attention and real communication. And Brazelton points to research showing that children do better in every way when fathers are a caring presence in their lives.

* “Children First: Real Kids, Real Solutions” airs at 8 tonight on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42).