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The Incredible Years® Parent, Child, and Teacher Programs

Incredible Years®

The Incredible Years® Series is designed to promote emotional, social, and academic competence and to prevent, reduce, and treat behavioural and emotional problems in children.

Overview

Alignment with Be You Domains

  • Family Partnerships

  • Learning Resilience

  • Early Support

Alignment with Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)

  • Children are confident and involved learners
  • Children are connected with and contribute to their world
  • Children are effective communicators
  • Children have a strong sense of identity
  • Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Alignment with Australian Curriculum

  • Not applicable

Target audience

  • Early learning
  • Primary school

Target groups

  • Small group
  • Whole class

Aims

The Incredible Years® Parent, Child, and Teacher Programs explore a range of topics for different audiences. These include social and emotional regulation and treatment of behavioural issues for children aged 0-12, parent-child and parent-teacher relationships, and classroom management skills.

Program theory

The programs are based on cognitive social learning theory, particularly Patterson’s coercion hypothesis of negative reinforcement developing and maintaining deviant behaviour, Bandura’s notions of modelling and self‐efficacy, and Piaget’s developmental interactive learning methods. They explore cognitive strategies for challenging negative self-talk and improving confidence in parenting.

Topics

Programs available for different audiences: - Incredible Years Training for Parents (of children aged 0-12, program content varies depending on child’s developmental age). Topics include how to bond with your child, use of effective praise and incentives, establishing predictable routines, rules and promoting responsibility, effective limit-setting, strategies to manage behaviour and teaching children to problem-solve. - The Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) program emphasises classroom management skills (while teaching children aged 3-8 years), such as praise and encouragement, use of incentives for behavioural issues, the importance of building positive relationships with students and parents, and how to teach empathy, social skills and problem-solving in the classroom. - The Incredible Beginnings (IB) program is for day care providers and preschool teachers of children ages 1-5 years and focuses on managing separation anxiety and behaviour, along with promoting language, social and emotional development. - Incredible Years Training for Children (for children ages 3-8) emphasises training children in skills such as emotional literacy, empathy, friendship skills, anger management, interpersonal problem-solving, following school rules, and how to be successful at school. There are two versions of this program, one is a treatment program for groups of 4 to 6 children presenting with conduct problems. The other is a classroom-based preventive program.

Cost

Costs include initial training for group leaders/teachers delivering the program and the curriculum. Ongoing consultation and accreditation are recommended. Costs depend on the number of teachers trained, the size of school and the overall implementation plan. All prices listed are in US$. The pricelist for training materials can be found here: https://incredibleyears.com/order/ Training costs can be found here: https://incredibleyears.com/workshop-info/hosting-workshop/

Program structure

All programs are designed to be delivered in a group format. The parent program can also be delivered in a one-on-one format. - Parent programs: 14 to18 weekly groups sessions. Each session is 2 to 2.5 hours long. Groups are led by 2 group leaders with 10 to 14 parent participants. Parents are given home assignments to practice new skills. - Child small group program (for high-risk children): 18 weekly 2-hour group sessions. Groups are led by 2 group leaders with 5 to 6 children per group. - Child classroom program (for all children): 45 to 60 lessons delivered twice a week throughout the school year. These are usually delivered by the classroom teacher (or by school psychologist or counsellor) to the whole class. Lessons are 15 to 20 minute circle time lessons followed by a structured small group activity. - Teacher programs (TCM and IB): Delivered in 6 full-day sessions spaced 3 to 4 weeks apart. Delivered to groups of 10 to 15 teachers by 2 trained group leaders. Classroom observations are done between sessions and teachers practice skills in their classroom and develop behavior plans for children.

Instructor

  • External facilitator

Instructor training

All training is delivered by IY accredited trainers or mentors. Parent and child programs train group leaders to deliver the program directly with parents and children. The teacher training is a train the trainer model. IY trains on-site group leaders to deliver the 6-day teacher classroom management programs to the teachers. There are separate trainings for parent, teacher, and child programs. Each training is 3 full days (in person) OR 5-6 sessions, 3.25 hours each, (on-line). Initial training should be followed up by monthly supervision calls. These can be set up in small groups or for pairs of co-leaders.

Supporting resources or materials available with program

  • Workbook

Other materials

Group leaders receive handouts to refer to during the training. Participants must have access to a curriculum set for the program that they are learning. These are purchased separately and are also required to be able to deliver the program.

Ongoing support

It is recommended that agencies have ongoing consultation (costs are involved) and group leaders pursue accreditation in the program(s) they lead.

Parent involvement

  • Attend information sessions
  • Follow-up information provided after program
  • Homework
  • Written information provided to parents
  • Parent handbook
  • Online resources

Origin of program

International

Incredible Years®

Program authors

Carolyn Webster-Stratton MS MPH PhD

Address
1411 8th Ave W.,Seattle 98105 United States of America (USA)
Phone
+1 2062 857 565
Email
incredibleyears@incredibleyears.com
website
Visit website

Ratings

4/4 Evidence
3/4 Implementation

Summary of evidence factors

This is a summary of the evaluation or research study characteristics that contribute to the program’s evidence rating.

Positive impact on at least one outcome for children and/or young people? Yes
Link between program description and theory of change Comprehensive
Study design Randomised control trial
Independence Semi

Summary of implementation factors

This is a summary of the program’s characteristics that contribute to its implementation rating.

Feedback sought from participants Yes
Feedback sought from instructors No
Groups program is not suitable for Not assessed
Training provided during study Face to face, all instructors, in person
Ongoing instructor support provided during study Yes

Context

This is a summary of the context in which the evidence for the program was established.

Study Participants

Early learning

Primary school
Country of Study/s

International
Evaluation of program in culturally and linguistically diverse populations Yes
Evaluation of program in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people No
Evaluation of program in low socioeconomic groups Yes
Developmental based adaptations to program design and delivery Yes
Evaluation of program in children and young people with disability and/or learning difference Yes

Last updated: 15 December 2021