Incredible years parenting course

[whoops]

I have been refered for one of these parenting courses for me to learn to deal with ds's behaviour
Has anyone been on one of these? was it helpful and worthwhile?

I did a parenting course run by my local childcare centre also to help my ds.

It lasted for 8 weeks, and it was run by a very knowledgeable teacher, she does all sorts of things such as giving advice to childcare professionals (she's a psychologist), and has 3 teenagers herself.

I found the course helpful and there were many suggestions on how to deal with difficult behaviour such as ignoring unwanted behaviour and distracting, etc. There were also opportunities to describe our children's behaviour and suggestions on how to deal with it.

What are his behaviors? I've been on similar - mostly good and a few very crap. Not heard of this one though, sounds interesting.

I have recently done one, chose to go myself as have particularly challenging DS aged 4.5 with SN.

I guess, like most things, it depends what your course leader is like - ours was amazing, I wish she was my big sister although I realise that makes me sound like a scary stalker! I thought the course was great - a real insight into better parenting (for me).

There were 10 parents on our group, they were all very pleasant interesting folk - one dad, a few single parents a good mix.

We have since met up for a drink and will be trying to do so monthly.

I shout less and am much less stressed, DS has learnt that he gets to choose between doing as asked and getting praised or getting a time out for not complying or for being unkind.

It is a 'babysteps' course, first you do all about play, get homework on this etc, then you learn about types of praise, each week doing the play homework and then the praise. You get to 'house rules' around week 6, you eventually build up to time out (naughty step) by about week 8 or something.

How old is your DS?

I wish I could do the course again, I would love it if they ran a refresher course once a year.

Sorry to be clear, I did 'The Incredible Years' rather than a general parenting course.

THanks,

ds is 7 and doesn't tend to do what he is told by me! I get worn out by him running off and not doing what he is told and not staying with me, he can also get angry quite quickly too.

he is being seen by a psychologly/counseling agency which is who has refered me for the course. And we are about to implement the marble jar reward system! Just started and it has made bedtime easier but is still early days so am hoping it works!

I hope you had better luck then I did. We were the only people to fail the incredible years course that my area ran. And we failed it BIG style. There were a number of people who had much better success then us so I wish you luck.

Oh to be clear, when I say failed i mean the behaviour actually got much worse

its a brilliant course. you need to commit to "homework" but if your willing to try it and stick to it you will see the results.

you'll get a book that acompanies teh course. try not to read ahead of yourself though. its best to take it a steo at a time. it can be temoting ti try and run before you walk, take it slowly and and reap the rewards.