Anyone who watches TV’s “The Nanny” knows that in some American families, children are out of control and parents need significant parenting advice. An example is the Colorado parents who became virtual prisoners in their own home for two years; their two preschool-aged sons threw such tantrums that the parents were afraid to take them anywhere for fear of embarrassment.
Across the state, similar out-of-control youngsters are showing up in Head Start, preschool and kindergarten programs. In the words of Jennifer Atler, executive director of the nonprofit Invest in Kids, “Teachers have been telling us that kids’ behaviors are getting worse each and every year. They are desperate for something that will help.”
Recognition of that desperation – and a strong focus on prevention – led Invest in Kids to launch The Incredible Years, a program designed to reduce children’s behavior problems and improve school performance. A series of scientific studies involving low-income families found that The Incredible Years resulted in a 76 percent reduction in children’s aggression and a 91 percent “significant reduction” in behavior problems at school. Sixty-nine percent of children went from poor to normal social skills in one school year, and 80 percent continued to show improved conduct a year after the program ended.
Atler says the program has three components: one for children, one for parents and one for teachers.
A “Dinosaur School” curriculum uses large puppets to help children solve problems, manage anger, understand their own feelings and learn empathy for others. They are taught to “take three deep breaths,” or “be like a turtle” who goes into his shell when upset and angry so that he can calm down. Atler tells of a preschooler whose teacher gave him a small plastic turtle to help him remember this lesson. He carried the turtle for weeks, but came to school one day saying he didn’t need it anymore. He had given it to his father, he said, because he also needed to learn about managing anger.
A second component of the program is for parents, who are invited to weekly dinner-and-training sessions. “Many of these parents are at their wits’ end,” Atler says. For 12 weeks, the parents practice giving praise and positive attention to their children. According to Atler, they begin to see results after just one or two sessions.
The third component is skill-building for teachers, who receive special training to learn to “catch children being good.” “When kids learn that bad behavior doesn’t get attention, they respond positively,” Atler says.
Early childhood educators have been quick to embrace The Incredible Years. Since 2002, 30 sites across Colorado have implemented the program in child-care settings, preschools and kindergartens serving more than 2,000 children and 500 parents in 12 counties and on two Indian reservations. In the metro area, Longmont is expanding the program from one to four preschools. Douglas County schools are starting the program in four sites serving low-income families. All 20 preschool classrooms in Adams County’s Mapleton school district have adopted the program, it has been implemented in three public preschools in Denver, and Littleton’s Village Preschool will begin the program in the fall.
The nonprofit Creative Years Children’s Center, serving mostly low-income children in Longmont and Frederick, has used the program for three years. Executive Director Trish Boyle says The Incredible Years results in improvements in children’s confidence, social skills, emotional development, and their ability to problem-solve. “There’s so much emphasis now on school readiness,” she says, “that sometimes social-emotional development gets overlooked. But it’s fundamental to the rest of a child’s learning.” The Incredible Years, she says, helps 3- to 5-year- olds “learn the ABCs of life in addition to the ABCs of the alphabet.”
Keep an eye on Invest in Kids, a nonprofit that looks for proven programs, then involves local communities in intensive planning to implement and sustain them financially over time. The future of far too many at-risk Colorado children hinges on their efforts.
