For Children, a Better Beginning

In family life, more parents limited television watching with three or more rules about programs or hours in front of the screen. For children ages 3 to 5, the percentage climbed from 54 percent in 1994 to 70 percent in 2006. For children ages 6 to 11, the numbers rose from 60.3 in 1994 to 73.2 in 2006.

To a lesser extent, more parents read to their young children. The percentages of children who were read to by a relative every day in the previous week rose from 57 percent in 1994 to 59.8 percent in 2006.

Parents are more engaged than in previous generations, said Takanishi, but "they can't do the job alone, and government policies can't do the job alone," she said. "It takes both."

At school, more children attended full-day kindergarten -- with 70 percent enrolled in 2006, up from 48.6 percent in 1994. And among 9-year-olds, National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in reading and math increased by what Land called a significant amounts. Scores remained flat in science.

Several experts suggested that some of the good news was the result of a blend of research, policy changes and public health campaigns, as in cases of smoking during pregnancy and exposure to lead-based paint.

With lead, the study reported a striking decline in the percentage of children younger than 6 with elevated levels of lead in their blood, which can have damaging health and neurological effects. In 1997, 7.6 percent of children tested positive for elevated levels; the percentage fell to 1.2 in 2006, marking an 84 percent decline, according to the report.

Takanishi said she was "blown away" by the change. "For all of us who have been working in these areas for a number of decades, it gives us some hope that change is possible," she said.

Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-director of its Center on Children and Families, said the forces behind some of the trends were less clear. "This sounds like good news, but it's hard to say what produced it," Sawhill said. On any given topic, she said, there are multiple "crosscurrents" to consider.

She and others expressed great concern about some trends.

The prevalence of low-birth-weight babies increased in the 12 years. In 1994, 7.3 percent of live births were low-weight. By 2006, it was 8.4 percent, representing a 15 percent uptick. Such births often are accompanied by health complications and developmental delay.

The increase is at least partly the result of better technology to keep struggling infants alive, said Ramey of Georgetown. Other factors cited in the report were delays in childbearing and fertility drugs that lead to multiple births.

Obesity, the report noted, ranked as one of the most adverse health trends for the age group.

The report points out that obese children accounted for 12.7 percent of 6-to-11-year-olds in 1994, and an estimated 20.6 percent in 2006. For children ages 2 to 5, the figure climbed from 8.4 percent to 15.8 percent in the same period.

Said Cherlin, of Hopkins: "I think we now need to do for obesity what we did for smoking."