Effective Parenting of Difficult Children
8 weeks, for parents & caregivers of children with all types of challenges
This PRESENTATION / DISCUSSION style workshop is ideal nearly all parents, but particularly for those who are looking to enhance their skills and strategies in managing difficult child behaviours. The 8-week workshop starts with an overview of clinical conditions (different behavioural, emotional, and cognitive patterns underlying behaviour), then teaches and integrates several skill sets vital to effective parenting. Discussion is encouraged throughout to help refine understanding and to tailor skills to each family’s specific circumstances.
Topics include:
- Clinical Conditions: Why your child is doing what he/she is doing
- Understanding parental reactions to behaviours and overview of effective emotional coping for parents (Healthy parent = Healthy parenting)
- Strategies based on Context: Using the setting to change behaviour (How to build competency in children; how to harness the environment for success; how to build “situationally maintained” Self-Discipline)
- Strategies based on Attachment: How relationships change behaviour (How to “listen” to feelings; How to shape/build resilient relationships; How to manage disagreement and conflict)
- Strategies based on Learning: “Teaching” children to behave (Instructional Control; How to Reinforce behaviour; How to train Pivotal Response Skills)
- Building resiliency; enhancing self-esteem; shaping sibling relationships
This group runs with a minimum of 5 and maximum of 10 parents, and meets from 7 till 8:30 for eight consecutive weeks.
Exclusion criteria include parents struggling with significant drug or alcohol addiction, or those who are not capable of attending to discussions or to other parent’s experiences in a group setting. Parents who are too emotionally triggered by the challenges of raising their children should consider attending our course on Effective Emotional Coping for Parents of Difficult Children BEFORE taking this class. This might include parents who often cry when talking about children or parenting, those who feel a strong need to talk about their experiences, or those who simply feel that addressing their emotional experience BEFORE learning parenting strategies fits their needs better.
Cost: $400 per person ($700 per parenting couple)