Outline of Incredible Years Parenting Group Programme made by Sandra Rotenberg, Parenting Consultant, Accredited Incredible Years Group Leader, BA and MA in Psychology (Hons).

The Incredible Years parenting program is designed to strengthen parenting skills and prevent behaviour problems in children aged 3 to 10 years. It is based on well established behavioural/ social learning principles that describe how behaviours are learned and how they can be changed. The emphasis is placed on helping parents’ interactions with their children become more positive and on changing parents’ responses to specific child behaviour. Research shows that parents who have completed the course are able to significantly reduce children’s behavioural problems.

The course is run over 10 sessions, but generally, the first half of the course builds the child’s social competence and co-operative beahiours and the second half focuses on reducing those inappropriate behaviours parents would like to see less of.

The first 2 sessions focus on play, i.e. how to play with the child in a way that promotes self-esteem and encourages co – operation, and promotes thinking skills. Sessions 3 and 4 look at effective ways to praise and encourage so that parents are able to bring out the best in their child. Session 5 will also incorporate the use of reward programmes to teach the child new behaviours. This theme is continued in session 6 focusing on the use of tangible rewards.

Sessions 6 and 7 moves onto effective limit setting and ignoring as a means to decrease annoying misbehaviours. The focus of session 8 and 19 is the use of time out as a discipline strategy for disobedience, aggression or destructive behaviours. Session 10 looks at other consequences for misbehaviour and problem solving whilst the final session brings the course content together.

Aims of the Parenting Group:

• Observe an improvement in the quality and quantity of parental engagement
• Empower parents (Dawe, 2000) promote their self – confidence and competence in utilising positive parent management strategies
• Enhance children’s prosocial skills
• Improve parental limit-setting techniques by means of non – violent discipline
• Improves communication skills between Parents & Children

Messages from the Parenting Group

“This course should be offered to all families”

“It made the relationships with my children more positive, and now I actually enjoy spending time with them”

“It was nice to be in the group of people in the same situation, and share our experiences”

“It was nice to leave my children with people I felt I could trust”

Parenting groups’ outcomes

Results from Webster – Stratton’s research indicates that the Incredible Years Programme enhances prosocial behaviour, reduces child behavioural problems, and enhances parental confidence in their ability to parent and in more than two thirds of cases families display significant long term improvement (Long et al., 1994; Webster – Stratton, 19981, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996).