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New centre aims to tackle children's problem behaviour

Children as young as two are to be taught how to recognise other people's emotions and to deal with social situations at a centre in Wales that aims to limit anti-social behaviour in future by improving children's emotional and social competence. The Welsh Centre for Promoting the Incredible Years Programme replaces the Child Behaviour project at the School of Psychology at the University of Wales in Bangor. It will research and promote Incredible Years programmes for children, parents and teachers, which have been developed over the past 30 years by Professor Carolyn Webster-Stratton at the University of Washington. It is the only such centre outside Washington State in the US.
Children as young as two are to be taught how to recognise other people's emotions and to deal with social situations at a centre in Wales that aims to limit anti-social behaviour in future by improving children's emotional and social competence.

The Welsh Centre for Promoting the Incredible Years Programme replaces the Child Behaviour project at the School of Psychology at the University of Wales in Bangor. It will research and promote Incredible Years programmes for children, parents and teachers, which have been developed over the past 30 years by Professor Carolyn Webster-Stratton at the University of Washington. It is the only such centre outside Washington State in the US.

Dr Judy Hutchings, who has helped introduce the programmes into Welsh schools, Sure Start centres, parent groups and mental health groups, said she hoped to extend them to encompass NHS trust staff, health visitors and other community workers.

She added, 'They are the most comprehensive and evidence-based programmes in the world. One of the ways of helping either to prevent or reduce conduct problems is by ensuring that all the environments that children find themselves in are using such programmes.'

The Incredible Years programme comprises three linked strands - the teacher training programme, which promotes effective classroom management skills and the management of difficult or inappro- priate behaviour; the group parenting programme, which consists of 12 to 14 weekly sessions focusing on the importance of play, ways to help children learn, effective praise, use of incentives, limit setting and methods of dealing with misbehaviour; and the Dina Dinosaur programme, which shows young children how to manage their own behaviour, build friendships and consider other people's emotions through interaction with large colourful puppet characters.

Several North Wales Sure Start centres are offering the parenting programmes, while the education authority in Gwynedd is using the dinosaur programme in eight infant schools.

Dr Hutchings, who runs all three programmes in a secondary treatment service in north-west Wales, said they were highly effective in encouraging children's 'pro-social behaviours'. She added, 'There has been a significant rise in the numbers of children with behavioural problems in recent decades. There is a serious risk of these children carrying these behavioural problems into adulthood, with far more serious consequences to themselves and to society.'