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Ackerman Institute for the Family Center for the Developing Child and Family Overview of Bright Beginnings/Personal Best Programs The Ackerman Institute’s Center for the Developing Child and Family has developed a comprehensive parenting program that promotes parent development, the parent-child relationship, and healthy child outcomes including developmental competencies and school readiness. Center activities span the prenatal to the preschool period and they are based on a number of core beliefs: 1) parents have a significant influence on their developing child; 2) development continues throughout the life span and should be seen as a relational process and the interaction of constitutional, psychosocial and contextual factors that shape behavior; 3) prevention programs should focus on family strengths, be culturally sensitive and take place in naturally occurring contexts such as early childhood programs, family-centered community agencies, homes and schools; 4) parenting interventions should embrace the entire family and include not only parent education and training but also parenting processes, attitudes, and the parent’s personal development in order to create enduring effects on the parent-child relationship and family life; and 5) staff training and capacity building should be relationship-based and incorporate parallel process and reflective dialogue. Description of Programs Bright Beginnings is a theory-driven, longitudinal, preventive intervention designed by Dr. Martha Edwards to help parents promote their children’s social and emotional development and school readiness. The curriculum includes a prenatal component for expectant mothers, a group component for parents and their children from birth to 30 months of age, a home visiting component, a component for fathers, a sibling component, and a couples component. Parent-Child Group Component - The Parent-Child Group is the centerpiece of the curriculum. It consists of five cycles of six-weekly group sessions that parents attend with their infant or toddler. The sessions are carefully structured around a theme and they include in-depth discussion, application of the ideas to parent-child interactive activities, and a Parent Guide with weekly at-home activities to reinforce learning.1 Prenatal Component2 – The prenatal component consists of six sessions of discussion and activities for expectant mothers. The focus is on developing a bond with their unborn child and promoting healthy support systems during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The prenatal component may also include group meetings with couples. 1 Bright Beginnings has been implemented in multiple sites including six NYC Title I elementary schools, three Early Head Start Programs, two programs for substance abusing mothers, and several community based agencies. 2 Elana Katz took the lead on developing the Prenatal Component. 1 Home Visiting Component3 – Home visits are implemented to reinforce Bright Beginnings objectives between cycles and to individualize the program for each family. Home visits take place during the prenatal component and in-between Bright Beginning’s parent-child group cycles. Father’s Component4 – The father’s component is founded on the importance of father involvement and effective co-parenting for good child outcomes. Fathers are encouraged to attend parent-child group sessions with their partners. Other options for father involvement include a nine-session discussion group for fathers only and group sessions for couples to discuss parenting issues and the impact of pregnancy and childrearing on the couple relationship. Sibling Component5 – The sibling component provides supervised, developmentally appropriate childcare for preschool-aged children who accompany their parent(s) and younger sibling to Bright Beginnings. The play experiences are designed to promote social and emotional development and school readiness. The sibling group also provides opportunities for the early identification of children with learning or behavioral problems and appropriate referrals. This component supports the family focus of the Bright Beginnings Program. Couples Component6 - The couples component is a three-session intervention for coparents focusing on developing shared goals and supporting one another in the raising of their children. Bright Beginnings is based on the Parenting Processes Model7 encompassing three domains of parenting processing that influence children’s social and emotional development. These three domains of parent processing are: (1) building the emotional relationship; (2) promoting striving and mastery; and (3) guiding toward interdependence, the foundation of which comes from the theory and philosophy of Adler, Bowlby and Vygotsky. These three domains of parenting also guide the content of the BB sessions, which has been drawn from the work of a broad array of clinicians and researchers e.g., Bornstein, Emde, Eisenberg, Fonagy, Gottman, Kochanska, Pawl, Siegel, Stern, Sroufe, Thompson, Tronick, Zahn-Waxler. Table 1 describes the content of the program divided into the three domains of the parenting model. 3 Christine Reynolds participated in the development of the Home Visiting Component. Sabina Fila took the lead in developing the Fathers Component. 5 Sara Goldsmith took the lead in developing the Siblings Component. 6 Barbara Russek took the lead in developing the Couples Component. 7 Edwards, M., (2002). Attachment, mastery, and interdependence: A model of parenting processes. Family Process, 41, 389-404. 4 2 Table 1: The Bright Beginnings Session Content Parenting Model Component Conceptual Content of Sessions (Translated into everyday language and activities) Building the Emotional Relationship Attunement and misattunement Interactive repair Parental sensitivity and responsiveness Reflective function Accepting and remaining calm in the face of child’s negative emotions Temperament Sensory sensitivities and sensory “diet” Under-stimulation and over-stimulation Emotion coaching Promoting Striving and Mastery Providing a safe and stimulating environment Scaffolding Self efficacy: the “I can do it!” feeling Stimulating curiosity Developing specific skills, e.g., expressive and receptive language Tolerating the tension in the struggle Guiding toward Interdependence Using routines to regulate the child’s states Reinforcement of positive and negative behaviors Modeling Fostering empathy Encouraging cooperation and contribution Setting limits Using consequences The Bright Beginnings Manual provides a detailed guide for each group session, specifying: (1) learning objectives and rationale to enhance the facilitator’s understanding of the session; (2) review of the previous session and the at-home activities for the week; (3) script for guiding the discussions with sample questions to stimulate dialogue; (4) parent-child interactive play, singing, and reading activities to apply and practice what was discussed; (5) and suggested at-home activities that could be done during the week to continue what was discussed in the session. Each group session is focused on a particular theme, e.g., “Exploring the World Through the Senses,” and, when developmentally appropriate, themes are repeated across the cycles, e.g., “Learning to Communicate,” “The ‘I Can do it!’ Feeling,” “Playing is Learning,” “Routines that 3 Relax,” and “Guiding Your Child.” Theoretical constructs (e.g., attunement, scaffolding) are translated into concrete discussions and activities that are enjoyable for both parent and child. Personal Best is a preventive intervention that was developed to meet the mental health needs of mothers with young children, supporting a two-generation approach to service delivery that focuses on adult development in addition to child development and the parent-child relationship. The intervention was designed by Dr. Judy Grossman based on her research on family stress and developmental and behavioral outcomes in Head Start8 children as well as her studies with clinic populations9 and children needing early intervention services.10 The Personal Best curriculum is a 16-week group experience that was developed to promote maternal mental health, social support and perceived self-efficacy in order to improve a mother’s adaptive coping skills and role performance in multiple domains.11 A core feature is the process of building resilience through graded mastery experiences and mutual support. The emphasis on role competence draws from a number of different theories: (1) adult development and family life cycle, (2) women’s development which places high value on mutuality and interconnectedness, (3) stress, support and coping paradigms, (4) role theory, (5) individual and family resilience, and (6) adult education. The group objectives address significant maternal risk variables identified through the clinical and research literature. These include, but are not limited to: difficult child temperament and sensory processing problems causing stress in the parent-child relationship; maternal depression; lack of role satisfaction and sense of mastery; dissatisfaction with social support; and insecure adult attachment strategies. The curriculum is divided into modules that promote adaptive functioning and personal efficacy in different roles (parent, partner, family member, friend, worker/student, homemaker, community member). During each session the group facilitators integrate education, support, relational and activity-based approaches. For example, during the first few weeks the women identify their sources of stress, stress signals, and healthy and unhealthy coping responses. By the end of the module they have also identified and begun to works towards a realistic, measurable and attainable personal or parenting goal. These individualized outcomes promote skill development, sense of self-efficacy and personal growth. After the first four weeks, the subsequent modules apply the stress-support-coping paradigm to different areas of role functioning (Parent, Relationships & Productive Activity). The Personal Best curriculum is described in Table 2. Table 2: Personal Best Curriculum MODULE WEEKLY TOPIC WEEKLY ACTIVITY 8 New York University-Head Start Partnership Grant Yale School of Medicine, Pregnant & Parenting Substance Abusers & Their Children. 10 Special Education Studies for New York State Education Department, MAGI Educational Services, Inc. 11 Grossman, J. (2005). Promoting family resilience in Head Start programs: Maternal role competence. NHSA Dialog, 8, 56-71. 9 4 Role Strain Multiple Roles Stress-O-Meter Stress Triggers Personal Goal Setting Sources of Stress Parenting Relationships Warning Signs of Stress Unhealthy Coping Responses Healthy Coping Responses Stress Signals The Good Enough Parent Group Mural Personal Style: Temperament & Sensory Processing Parenting Beliefs Parenting Practices Personal Style & Child Observation Report Conversations: My Family Beliefs Parenting Goals Stress and Social Support Circle of Support Family History The Family Interview Co-Parenting & Communication Skills Emotions Game & Self-Expression My Communication Style Personal Goal Setting Work/Homemaker Stress Resume & Personal Strengths Role Play – Job Interview Interpersonal Problem-Solving Productive Activity / Work Stress in the Workplace Getting a Job /Future Plans Keeping a Job Managing a Budget Work and Family Life Managing Your Time Card Sort: How Do I Cope with Stress? The Budget Worksheet Daily Activity Log Personal Goal Setting For best outcomes, Personal Best should be offered in combination with the Bright Beginnings Program to provide opportunities for parent-child interactive activities. Personal Best has also been implemented with fathers or as a stand-alone curriculum for mothers with children birth to five. 5