Incredible Years Parenting Program  Series

The Incredible Years parent training intervention is a series of programs focused on strengthening parenting competencies (monitoring, positive discipline, confidence) and fostering parents' involvement in children's school experiences in order to promote children's academic, social  and emotional competencies and reduce conduct problems. The Parent programs are grouped according to age. Babies & Toddlers (0-3 years), BASIC Early Childhood (3-6 years), BASIC School-Age (6-12 years) and ADVANCED (6-12 years). Descriptions of these programs are on this page below.

Video previews of the parenting programs on YouTube

The Leader's manuals for these programs include questions commonly asked by parents, brainstorm and values exercises, role play practice suggestions, home activities and handouts. These manuals can be used when the program is being self-administered by a parent or teacher either at home or in a clinic or school. These manuals may be purchased separately.

The parenting programs are recommended by the American Psychological Association Task Force as meeting the stringent "Chambless criteria" for empirically supported mental health intervention for children with conduct problems.

Parents: Babies & Toddlers Programs (Ages 0-3 Years)

Parents and Babies Program

Ages 0-12 months. The Incredible Years Parents and Babies program supports parents and their babies. The Parents & Babies program consists of a 6-part program focused on helping parents learn to observe and read their babies' cues and learning ways to provide nurturing and responsive care including physical, tactile, and visual stimulation as well as verbal communication.

The series includes:

Part 1 - Getting to Know Your Baby (0-3 months)

Part 2 - Babies as Intelligent Learners (3-6 months)

Part 3 - Providing Physical, Tactile and Visual Stimulation

Part 4 - Parents Learning to Read Babies' Minds

Part 5 - Gaining Support

Part 6 - Babies' Emerging Sense of Self (6-12 months)

Parents and Toddlers Program

Ages 1-3. The Incredible Years Parents and Toddlers Program supports parents and builds optimal parenting skills. The Parents & Toddlers program consists of an 8-part program focused on strengthening positive and nurturing parenting skills. Each program builds on the previous.

The series includes:

Part 1 - Child-Directed Play Promotes Positive Relationships

Part 2 - Promoting Toddler's Language with Child-Directed Coaching

Part 3 - Social and Emotion Coaching

Part 4 - The Art of Praise and Encouragement

Part 5 - Spontaneous Incentives for Toddlers

Part 6 - Handling Separations and Reunions

Part 7 - Positive Discipline-Effective Limit Setting

Part 8 - Positive Discipline-Handling Misbehavior

Toddler Pyramid (PDF)

 Preschool/Early Childhood BASIC Series (Ages 3-6 Years)

This training is comprised of Programs 1 - 4. The program focuses on strengthening parenting skills and consists of components which build upon one another.

This program is also available in a Spanish/English combo package.

The series includes:

Program 1 - Strengthening Children's Social Skills, Emotional Regulation and School Readiness Skills

Program 2 - Using Praise and Incentives to Encourage Cooperative Behavior

Program 3 - Positive Discipline - Rules, Routines and Effective Limit Setting

Program 4 - Positive Discipline - Handling Misbehavior

Preschool Home Visiting - Coaches and Parents Manual -
This one-on-one parent-coach model is an option for use if parents cannot attend parent groups because of schedule conflicts or if a group program is not available in the time needed to start an intervention with a family.

Parenting Pyramid (PDF)
(Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian)

 School Age BASIC Series (Ages 6-12 Years)

This series focuses on the importance of promoting positive behaviors, interpersonal issues such as building social skills, and effective praise.

This program is also available in a Spanish/English combo package.

The series includes:

Program 9 - Promoting Positive Behaviors in School Age Children

Program 10 - Reducing Inappropriate Behaviors in School Age Children

Program 8 - Supporting Your Child's Education

ADVANCED Series (Ages 4-12 Years)

This series builds on the BASIC School Age Parent Training Program by focusing on parent interpersonal issues such as effective communication and problem solving skills, anger management and ways to give and get support.

The program comprise the following components:

Program 5 - How to Communicate Effectively with Adults and Children

Program 6 - Problem Solving for Parents-Adults

Program 7 - Teaching Children to Problem Solve

Advanced Parenting Pyramid (PDF)

New! Attentive Parenting Program

The new Attentive Parenting program is a brief, 6-session, "universal" parenting group-based program that can be offered to ALL parents to promote their children’s social and emotional competence, self-regulation skills, problem solving, reading and academic readiness. There is a training protocol for delivery to parents of children ages 2-4 years and another protocol for 5-6 year olds. This is not a program for children with significant behavior or developmental problems or family mental health difficulties (e.g., abuse, neglect, depression).
Full program description (PDF)
Program objectives (PDF)

This program may be offered by accredited Incredible Years parent group leaders who have received supplemental training to deliver this program. The program may be offered to parents in schools, day care centers, churches, doctor’s offices, business organizations or community health centers. Delivering the Attentive Parenting Program (PDF)

The program topics include:

Attentive child-directed play promotes positive relationships and children's confidence

Attentive academic and persistence coaching promote children's language and school readiness

Attentive emotion coaching strengthens children's emotional literacy and empathy

Attentive social coaching promotes children's cooperative friendships

Attentive, imaginative parenting promotes children's emotional regulation skills

Attentive, creative play promotes children's problem solving and empathy

View the program materials

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