The Incredible Years Series
Prof. Webster-Stratton, at the University of Washington in Seattle, developed the Incredible Years (IY) Series over the last 40 years. The series comprises three linked programmes for children, teachers and parents. All of these programmes have been rigorously researched over the last 20 years using randomised control trial studies with positive results replicated by independent researchers. The accumulated research evidence has demonstrated the effectiveness of these programmes in both preventing and treating conduct problems among children aged 2-8 years and increasing their social competence. Other programmes target parents of babies, toddlers and parents whose children are about to start school.
Parents:
There are six parent-focused programmes. The first to be developed was the group BASIC Parenting Programme (Webster-Stratton, 1981) which consists of 14-18 weekly sessions, which emphasise the importance of play, ways to help children learn, effective praise, use of incentives, limit setting and ways to deal effectively with misbehaviour. There is also an Advanced programme which focuses on adult communication skills and problem solving. This programme was developed to address other family risk factors such as depression, marital distress, poor coping skills and lack of support (Webster-Stratton & Hancock, 1998). The School-Aged programme was developed to address risk factors associated with childrens lack of academic readiness and poor home-school connections (Webster-Stratton & Hancock, 1998). This programme promotes home school links and helps parents to encourage childrens academic skills.
The Newly Developed Infant and Toddler Parenting Programme; Prof. Webster-Stratton has recently developed a new Infant and Toddler Parenting Programme, to support parents and teach then parenting skills. The Infant Parenting Programme designed for parents and their infants in the first year of life consists of 8 weekly sessions. This programme emphasises the importance of getting to know your baby, babies as intelligent learners, providing physical, tactile and visual stimulation, parents learning to read babies' minds, gaining support and babies' emerging sense of self.
The Toddler Parenting Programme designed for parents of children aged between 1-3 years consists of 12 weekly sessions. This programme focuses on strengthening positive and nurturing parenting skills; including child-directed play promotes positive relationships, promoting toddlers' language with child-directed coaching, social and emotion coaching, the art of praise and encouragement, spontaneous incentives for toddlers, handling separations and reunions, positive discipline-effective limit setting and positive discipline-handling misbehavior.
Children:
The Dina Dinosaur Social Skills and Problem Solving Curriculum (Webster-Stratton & Reid 2002) promotes social and emotional competence in children. Topics include; appropriate classroom behaviours, friendship skills, anger management, and problem solving skills, school rules and success at school. This can be delivered in a small group (6 children, Therapeutic) or whole class format.
Teachers:
The Teacher Classroom Managment Programme (Webster-Stratton, 1981) promotes effective classroom management skills including; use of teacher attention, praise, encouragement and use of incentives, building positive relationships with children and how to manage difficult or inappropriate classroom behaviour.
If you wish to discover more about the Incredible Years Series please visit www.incredibleyears.com to view information about the series in Seattle or visit its progress in Wales at www.incredibleyearswales.co.uk