Gardstunet Barnehage School in Norway uses Puppets to Engage Children

At the Gardstunet Barnehage School in Norway, Incredible Years implementation is incorporated into children’s daily activities. This includes a teacher whose full time duty is to “be” the Molly puppet used in IY! Molly accompanies the students throughout the day and encourages the different concepts taught in Incredible Years (such as problem solving, coping strategies, social skills, and being gentle). We previously wrote about this school when Dr. Webster-Stratton went for a visit earlier this year.

Here are two videos from a day in the life at the Gardstunet Barnehage school. Watch as Molly helps the children feed horses and play on a swing set. (The videos are in Norwegian, but even if you don’t understand the language, it still clearly shows the children are interacting with Molly and how the teacher facilitates their positive interactions!)

Incredible Years Implementation in Hong Kong

Maureen Kong received her doctorate from the University of Hong Kong in August 2014.

Her dissertation was an evaluation of the Incredible Years BASIC Parenting Program in a community clinic setting in Hong Kong. Parents of 52 preschool children with developmental delays were randomly assigned to either the IY program or waitlist control.

Assessments included self and spouse reports and video coding of parent-child interactions.  

Results indicated significantly more frequent positive parent-child interactions during observed structured play, reports of less parental stress, improvements in parenting practices according to spouses/kin, and fewer child oppositional behaviors by parents and spouses/kin. Parent attendance rate and program and satisfaction was high.  

This paper is currently under review. Once it has been published it will be included in our research library.

Preschool Curriculum Consumer Report Shows Effectiveness of Incredible Years Classroom Program

The National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning (NCQTL) recently released their 2015 Social Emotional Preschool Curriculum Consumer Report. This report serves as a guide for Head Start programs to assist them in selecting a social emotional curriculum for their classrooms. Seven different evidence-based programs were presented and evaluated against NCQTL’s twelve components of an effective social-emotional preschool curriculum. The Incredible Years® Classroom Dinosaur Curriculum is among the programs reviewed in the report, which highlights the positive impact of implementing IY in a classroom setting!

The twelve components used to evaluate each program are thoroughly explained in the full report, which can be found here. Each program is ranked on a scale of “No Evidence,” “Minimal Evidence,” “Some Evidence,” and “Solid, High-Quality Evidence” for each component.

Incredible Years Classroom Dinosaur School was found to have “Some Evidence” or “Solid, High-Quality Evidence” for nearly all of the twelve components! The program ranked particularly high in areas of comprehensiveness, depth for covered social, emotional and learning elements, well-designed learning activities, responsive teaching, and family involvement materials. Download a PDF of the entire Incredible Years report here, or access the full downloadable report online to learn more about the programs evaluated and how Incredible Years can be used to teach social, emotional, and academic skills in a classroom setting.

European Incredible Years® (EIY) Network for Implementation and Research in Incredible Years (Written by Carolyn Webster-Stratton)

Thirty-two people from Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia, England and Wales met late May in Bergen, Norway to discuss new research with IY programs and dissemination principles. I (Carolyn) am delighted to meet these researchers, administrators and IY mentors and to talk with them about grant deadlines, translations, research measures and new studies.

There are many presentations about promising new studies. Brenda Renz, IY parent mentor from Scotland, describes their plan for motivating high risk parents of 4-year old children by providing IY Basic Parent Training. 786 families have been enrolled and pre, post–data shows that 81% of parents had improved behavior problem scores and 62% of children had moved out of the clinical range.

Marija Anderluh, a child psychiatrist from Slovenia, discussed her efforts to bring the Incredible Years parent program to her country. Already 20 groups leaders have been trained and they are offering 10 parent groups!

Frances Gardner from Oxford University presented pooling data from 14 trials across Europe about who benefits the most from IY Parenting programs to reduce disruptive child behavior. She discussed the effects of poverty, joblessness, parent mental health, child comorbid problems, ethnicity and geographical location on outcomes.

Piia Karjalainen presented her doctoral research design to evaluate the IY Parent program for child welfare referred families.

Finally, I am able to introduce Wally’s mother, Carmen Communicator, to present information about the birth of three new Incredible Years® programs – one for day care providers of young children (1-5 years), another for parents with children on the autism spectrum, and a third for preschool teachers working with children with language delays as well as children on the spectrum.

The European IY Network (EIY Network) is comprised of IY implementors, researchers, and IY experts from across Europe. The EIY Network aims to do the following:

• Network with each other to form a supportive IY community throughout Europe to promote IY implementation with fidelity.
• Share idea and experiences with implementation and research in IY series.
• Generate and expand upon new ideas and initiatives, and apply for funding, in order to contribute to future research of IY.
• Share expertise and experiences of IY to inform policies and practice in their own countries.
• Discuss needs and opinions in order to devise common formulations, and bring those to the attention of the Incredible Years® Headquarters in Seattle.

This is an exciting group and I am so pleased to see how they have taken the collaborative process to the next level. The pooled data study Frances presented points the way to how collaborative research can enhance our understanding of how IY programs can help families of all cultures, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds.

Written by Carolyn Webster-Stratton

Magical Visit to Bergen Norway and Fjell Where Children, Teachers and Parents are Supported (Written by Carolyn Webster-Stratton)

Children Singing at Incredible Years Conference

While visiting Norway for the European IY Networking Meeting, Bjorn Brunborg (IY parent mentor) and Marianne Gjerstad (IY Dina teacher and peer coach) took me on a field trip to Fjell to see two Kindergarten Schools. In Norway, kindergarten Schools are available for children ages 1 to 5 years.

Knappskog Barnehage School

This beautiful school opened 7 years ago and is nestled in the side of a mountain. It has an outdoor play area surrounded by rocky hillsides which the children are allowed to explore. The glass fence around the play area has pictures drawn on it by children as well as the Incredible Years logo! This logo originally was drawn by my daughter when she was 4 years old so it is exciting to see her art alongside some Norwegian children’s art. Looking out at the rocky mountain I can almost image trolls waiting to play with the children.

Principal Anette Kaland and Carolyn

At this school there are 57 children and 28 of these are toddlers (ages 1 to 3 years). In the toddler classrooms there are 2 preschool teachers and 2 assistants for 14 children. The children start school as young as one year of age beginning in August and they stay there from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. The principal Anette Kaland had taken the IY Teacher Classroom Management Program many years earlier when her daughter attended this school. The school has a wonderful warm and calming atmosphere and I think that I would like to work here with these children, teachers and trolls.

Gardstunet Barnehage

The next school is located on a farm and is what I imagine Old McDonald’s farm to look like with a large, red barn, many animals and children playing happily. It is surrounded by a beautiful hillside and forests where the children can also explore. Even though the day is cold (freezing temperatures) the children are outside, dressed in their snow suits and playing happily. I see that Willy Problem Solver (managed by teacher Sonja Pedersen) is also dressed in heavy clothes and a warm hat and is playing with the other children. Willy and a group of 5-year-old girls grab me by the hand to take me on a guided tour. I discover that Willy and Molly (managed by teacher Heidi Valen) are constant companions of the school’s children, modeling and encouraging problem solving, communication and emotional regulation. This school has 4 age-groups of children – 10 toddlers (1-3 years of age), 15 children (mixed ages 1-4 years), 12 preschoolers (4-5 years) and 19 early school age children (4-6 years).

Certified Preschool Teacher Kristina Bergsvlle and Heidi Iren Vatne, Manager

In the first three younger age groups the teachers who were trained in the IY Teacher Training Program model verbal and nonverbal communication methods, guide children with emotional, social and pre-academic coaching, and provide constant positive attention for positive behaviors. The teachers in the older children’s group also deliver the Dinosaur Curriculum lessons twice a week. These teachers took the first Dinosaur teacher training delivered in Norway in 2007 and are accredited in delivery of the dinosaur program. They have incorporated Dinosaur concepts throughout the day for the children. Every month they focus on one of the Dinosaur program themes. In one classroom I notice how children earn small Wally Problem Solver picture coins for sharing, helping and taking turns. When they get 5 of these coins they can trade them in for a Dinosaur foot. When the class earns 19 dinosaur feet they get to choose a class reward – this class has chosen an ice cream party. Another class has selected a slumber party in the hay for their classroom reward. I also want to work at this school and be a child again! I meet with one of the accredited preschool teachers, Kristina Bergsvile and the administration manager, Heidi Iren Vatne, who show me a video of how the children are teaching Molly to feed the horses hay and later how to jump in the hay and participate in their cooperative play. They tell me all new teachers get IY training and that they participate in teacher booster sessions yearly to keep their motivation high. It is a magical place. (Stay tuned for a new IY YouTube video of this event)

I end the tour at the Town Hall and meet a group of accredited IY teacher peer coaches for the IY parent, teacher and child programs.

Fjell Parent, Teacher and Child Peer Coaches

I am greeted by Steinar Nesse who is the Chief Executive and has energetically supported the roll out of these training programs for at least 13 kindergartens.

They train 3 new kindergarten schools each year and will start another 3 in August. Over 400 kindergarten teachers have been trained in IY teacher and child programs. The peer coaches provide intensive support in the first year of IY training and start the first 2 months delivering the Dina program together with them. Gradually they decrease their time in the classroom letting the teachers deliver the Dina lessons more independently. In the 2^nd year they meet with the teachers twice a semester to provide support.

In this community, all the teachers first receive the 6 monthly IY classroom management training workshops. Peer coaching is provided throughout the year and teachers have booster workshops once a year where they share stories of their experiences and how they have incorporated IY concepts in their daily work.

The community and their teachers have made a real and genuine commitment to helping enhance children’s social and emotional development. How lucky these children are!

Children and Parents Service (CAPS) : “Early Years: Social and Emotional Wellbeing” awarded Best Practice – Congratulations!

As of January 2015, Children and Parents Service (CAPS) in Manchester has been published as a model of best practice for “Early Years: Social and Emotional Wellbeing” by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

CAPS is a citywide, multi-agency early intervention service which delivers effective evidence based interventions including Incredible Years® parent programs to preschool children and their families. The service is a partnership between the NHS, Manchester City Council and voluntary sector Family Action. The service has been delivered across Manchester for over 15 years, employing over 50 people.

Caroline White & Maxine Crawley

Over the past year this partnership has led to successful delivery of 31 Incredible Years® parent courses to 279 parents of 0 to 4 year old children, showing clinical improvements in both child behavior as well as parent depression and stress. The program reached 822 children in high risk families. This innovative outreach model has led to the continued successful engagement of the most vulnerable families, resulting in more parents working full and part-time, studying, and doing voluntary work. This partnership team is to be congratulated on their outstanding work delivering evidence-based programs such as Incredible Years® and Family Partnership model.

South CAPS Team

CAPS was recently published by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a model of best practice for Social and Emotional Wellbeing. NICE are a national organization, set up by government and independent of them, to review all international research on a range of physical and mental health problems with a view to writing guidance about the most effective treatments and interventions and the way in which they should be delivered. Their guidance hugely influences national and local policy, commissioners and strategic leads.

North CAPS Team

CAPS is extremely proud to have been chosen as a model of best practice highlighting the key elements of success, which include the following:

• Delivering interventions to model fidelity
• Use of standardized, valid and reliable measures (those used in the research) to measure child and parent outcomes.
• Ensuring all practitioners achieve accreditation as IY parent group leaders, with all four levels of accreditation in the service (peer coaches, mentors and trainer)
• High commitment to accredited, frequent and regular supervision

Central CAPS Team

CAPS has also recently played a key role in the development of an Early Years pathway for all 0-5 year olds across Greater Manchester (10 local authorities) with a population of 2.7 million. The pathway outlines an entirely new redesign for all services of under five year olds and highlights Incredible Years® as one of only a few evidence based interventions that services should be delivering to families. In practice this is a large scale up and CAPS is leading on the workforce development required for such an ambitious project (even more impressive, all of this has been achieved during a sustained period of unprecedented cuts to public services).

Congratulations CAPS!
– The Incredible Years Team

(Blog post contributed to by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, IY Developer, and Caroline White, Head of CAPS Early Intervention and Accredited IY Trainer.)

Positive Outcomes of Incredible Years® Parent/Child Program Implementation in Pennsylvania

The Incredible Years^® (IY) Series is implemented in a wide range of organizations all over the world. One organization in Pennsylvania, EPIS Center, has just released exciting results from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency funded providers of the implementation of the IY Parent and Child programs from 2013-2014.

Parents attended IY Parenting Classes to increase positive parenting practices including play, coaching methods, praise, problem-solving, limit setting, and more.

Additionally, children in one group received Classroom Dinosaur School – a prevention program delivered to a large group of children, teaching them social and emotional skills, academic skills, problem-solving, etc.

A second child group received Small Group Dinosaur School – a treatment program for children with diagnosed behavior or conduct problems – where a more targeted and intensive approach is taken in the program delivery.

EPIS Center is an organization committed to quality, high-fidelity delivery ­– these results show how this commitment pays off!

Summary of results
Basic Parent Outcomes Summary (2013-2014)

Of 463 parents served, 70% attended at least 12 or more “sessions” (weekly parent classes). By the end of the class, those parents completing the groups reported many positive outcomes! 88% reported a decrease in harsh discipline, and 76% reported an increase in positive parenting.

Classroom Dinosaur School Outcome Summary (2013-2014)

526 youth were served in this prevention program targeting children ages 3-8 years old. 86% of the children completed the program. Facilitators filled out pre and post surveys and reported that 48% of the students showed decreased antisocial behavior, 51% showed improved concentration/attention, and 52% showed increased emotional competence.

Small Group Dinosaur School – Treatment Outcome Summary (2013-2014)

Of the 271 children served, 79% completed the program. Parents of the children completed pre and post tests: 76% reported decreased antisocial behavior in their child, 75% reported improved concentration/attention, and 79% reported increased emotional competence.

It is fantastic to see such wonderful results from this model organization.

You can view the full report and learn about other agencies implementing IY with high success and fidelity, here.

A Word From One of Our Parents

This summer we were delighted to hear from a mother and her family whose daily lives were improved by attending an Incredible Years^® parenting course. We received a message from an IY group leader in New Zealand with an article published by a mother in their group. We were excited to read the article and get in contact with this parent. Ashley and her family went through the course not once, not twice, but three times! In her own words, “It might be possible to be addicted!”

This mother wrote a wonderfully kind article about The Incredible Years^® that was published in her local paper, as well as two detailed blog posts (PART 1 & PART 2) dedicated to her experience – which you can find on her parenting blog, The Motherhood Project. Ashley’s blog posts come from an honest and reflective perspective – she discusses her initial hesitance to attend a parenting group and how it eventually helped her family.

“I’ve just finished IYP for the second time! I chose to take the course a second time because it was easy to slip back in to bad habits and I enjoyed the extra support from the group. This time I did it with my partner, which was awesome and well worth the juggle to get time off work, because then we could parent together and support each other. The strategies are simple yet very effective – and they really work! What I love most about The Incredible Years^® is that it is based on a foundation of a respectful relationship with your child. We adopt an attachment parenting approach in our home and The Incredible Years^® builds upon that. Thus, parenting is more positive-focused using these techniques and each day with our children is happier.

Interacting with other like-minded parents is a blessing; a support network we need. The facilitators guide the group to adopt the techniques, one at a time, into home life so the changes are sustainable. We enjoyed each week of our course. I highly recommend it to every family, because there is something there for everyone. Imagine the difference in your home if you don’t have to spend so much time yelling and debating with your children! In particular with kids on the spectrum (we have one), the strategies really worked for him. I really love that all the techniques are life skills so we are setting our children up for success.”

It is so incredible to hear about their experience using the program and the effect it had on their lives as a family. Thank you Ashley for your willingness to share and be open about your experiences. These stories are what keep us going!

– The Incredible Years^®  Team

Stephen Scott Receives Order of the British Empire & Publishes New Long-Term Follow Up Research

Professor Stephen Basil Cuthbert Scott, MD, is the Director at the National Academy for Parenting Research. in London, England. The aim of this research program is to help practitioners deliver evidence-based parenting programs with fidelity and to test innovative approaches to the way services are delivered to families and children.

Stephen with his award

Earlier this year, Professor Scott was awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent, Order of the British Empire, for services to families. Congratulations Stephen!  (Learn more about this award, here.)

Stephen shaking hands with Prince William

Stephen has published numerous studies on various evidence-based programs, including a long-term  follow up of two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the effectiveness of treatment for children with antisocial personality traits. In the original trials, parents of the children participated in The Incredible Years® Parenting Program. This new research looks at the long-term results from this previous study.

This exciting publication is a 7-10 year follow-up of two RCTs that Stephen did with an indicated sample (children with severe antisocial behavior) and a selective sample (children labeled at high risk) when they were 3-7 years old. Results of the indicated sample were significantly improved for the parents who received the Incredible Years® (IY) Basic Parent Program at follow-up compared to parents who were in the usual psychotherapy treatment control condition. In the IY treatment condition group, parents noted their child’s emotion was warmer and supervision of adolescents was closer. Surprisingly, reading ability in the IY condition group was also improved compared with the usual treatment control condition. These results are important because of indications that early intervention for severely antisocial children may prevent the development of antisocial personality in adolescence and improved academic performance. It is also important because it is the first study to provide a long term follow-up evaluation of parents who received the IY intervention compared with families who received “usual treatment” in mental health centers.

In contrast, follow-up of the “selected high risk” sample who received the IY program in combination with a reading intervention did not show sustained effects compared with the control group families, despite having had good results in the short term. Possible reasons that these families did not show as much long-term improvement could be due to the fact that they had lower program dosage (did not receive as many parenting class sessions) as the indicated sample (families with children with severe antisocial behaviors). Additionally, this sample of families was not provided with ongoing support and booster sessions, which is particularly helpful for high-risk populations.

Scott, S., Briskman, J., & O’Connor, T. G. (2014) Early Prevention of Antisocial Personality: Long-term Follow-Up of Two Randomized Controlled Trials Comparing Indicated and Selected Approaches. American Journal of Psychiatry. Read the article here.

Be sure to look at Stephen’s other studies on our web site in the research library. Stay tuned for more research outcomes by this author, coming out soon.

Guest Post: How to Create Fun Incentive Bags for Parents

Guest post by Certified IY Group Leader: Bernadette (Bernie) Donaghy

Gina Biggerstaff and myself (Bernie Donaghy) delivered the Incredible Years® Basic Parent Programme in St Kieran’s Primary School in Colin, Northern Ireland, from March to June 2014. The Incredible Years® places strong emphasis on building positive relationships with children, and play time serves an important role in this.

Carolyn Webster-Stratton and Bernie Donaghy

“Play benefits children in many ways by providing opportunities for them to learn who they are, what they can do and how to relate to the world around them.” (The Incredible Years: A Trouble-Shooting Guide for Parents of Children Aged 2-8 Years, by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, Ph.D.)

After discussing the importance of play time with children in our parenting class, we wanted to provide parents with something tangible to bring home for this special time spent with their children. We decided to give parents the opportunity to work with a range of art activities and resources, to enable them to fully engage with their children during their play time.

Gina and I used every opportunity to pick up different art resources as we were out and about (beg and borrow). We collected chalk, paper, paint, and more.  We asked local Nursery Schools, Primary Schools, Play Groups and Community Organisations for any unwanted or unused art materials or books. This also gave us the opportunity to publicise and spread the word about our Incredible Years® classes!

The bags were used as an incentive each week and on completion of the IY Parent Programme we added a toothbrush and toothpaste, a book and a blank jig-saw. The parents loved their resource art bag and they reported that their children really enjoyed their play time together.

To learn more about The Incredible Years® implementation in Northern Ireland, see the recent blog post about this!