Parenting Support
Being a parent is the most important job in the world. Millions of new mothers and fathers take on the job each year that ranks as one of the most difficult anyone can have; taking an infant, a little person who is almost totally helpless, assuming full responsibility for their physical and psychological health and raising them so that they will become productive, cooperative, and contributing citizens. What more difficult and demanding job is there? (Gordon, 2000)
Head, Heart & Hands is a consultation service that provides assessment, planning and implementation of evidence-based parenting programs and therapeutic interventions to parents of infants, children and adolescents.
Does your child have challenging behaviour?
- Physically aggressive behaviours such as hitting, punching or pushing
- Verbally aggressive behaviours such as yelling, swearing, talking back, arguing, being rude
- Whinging, whining, nagging
- Demanding behaviour, stomping feet, slamming doors etc.
- Sibling rivalry
- Interrupting
- Ignoring instructions or requests
- Unusual eating habits
- Difficulties getting ready for bed, school, child care etc.
- Difficulties getting to sleep
- Temper tantrums
- Threatening others
- Mood swings
- Tidying up or hygiene
- Lying
- Running away
- Stealing
Children may also experience some of the following emotional difficulties:
- Anxiety
- Depressed mood
- Obsessive rituals or routines
- Irritability
- Problems with anger
- Excessive worrying
- Difficulties getting along with others
- Easily frustrated or upset
How we can help
Challenging behaviour in children can be difficult to manage without support. Head, Heart & Hands aims to help parents recognise and understand the reasons behind their child's behaviour. A variety of evidence-based programs are available that meets the needs of all parents and children, of all demographics, from all walks of life. Head, Heart & Hands can advise which approach or program would best suit your family when you make an appointment.
The Circle of Security®
Circle of Security Parenting® is an innovative intervention program designed to alter the developmental pathway of parents and their young children. Glen Cooper, Kent Hoffman, and Bert Powell from Marycliff Institute in Spokane, Washington and Robert Marvin from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia are the originators for this unique, evidence-based program.
The Circle of Security® integrates over fifty years of early childhood attachment research into a video-based intervention to strengthen parents’ ability to observe and improve their caregiving capacity. Attachment theory, through the Circle of Security®, offers clear, individualized pathways for providing a secure relationship between parent and child.
Tuning Into Kids™ - Emotionally Intelligent Parenting
Tuning Into Kids™ is a well-researched program that helps children learn to understand and regulate their emotions. It teaches parents:
• awareness and regulation of their own emotions
• awareness of their children's emotions
• to use children's emotional experiences as an opportunity for closeness
and teaching
• skills in assisting children to verbally label their emotions
• skills in assisting children in problem solving
• to guide children's behaviour with appropriate limits
The research on Tuning Into Kids™ found that when parents learned these parenting skills, this was related to improvements in children's emotional competence, social skills and behaviour. For children with behaviour or anxiety problems this program is particularly effective.
123 Magic and Emotion Coaching
The extremely popular 123 Magic program addresses the difficult task of child discipline in three straightforward steps:
Step 1: Controlling Difficult Behaviour
Step 2: Encouraging Good Behaviour
Step 3: Strengthening Your Relationship
Triple P Positive Parenting Program
Triple P is a system of easy to implement, proven parenting solutions that helps solve current parenting problems and prevents future problems before they arise. Triple P is an intensive parenting and family support strategy that aims to prevent severe behavioural, emotional and developmental problems in children by enhancing the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents.
Topics include -
Positive Parenting
Helping children develop
Encouraging good behaviour
Managing misbehaviour
Planning ahead and family survival tips
Triple P is backed by over 25 years of clinically proven, world wide research.
Family Effectiveness Program
Based upon the famous 'Parent Effectiveness Training' by Thomas Gordon of Gordon Training International, Family Effectiveness Training is a program that teaches the required skills for developing and maintaining close relationships between any persons who call themselves members of a family.
Family Effectiveness Training provides the proven skills that can be used immediately to:
1. Resolve family conflicts peacefully
2. Set rules that family members follow
3. Influence others to respect your needs
4. Prevent arguments
5. Eliminate the need for punishment
6. Reduce lasting resentments
7. Handle values differences
This program helps parents develop skills that will strengthen and enrich all relationships outside the family as well. Family Effectiveness Training teaches unique learnable skills and procedures that will enable family members to find their own solutions to their own problems. It empowers parents and other family members to become effective problem-solvers.
Engaging Adolescents
Engaging Adolescents is a program for parents of teenagers based on the work of Dr Thomas Phelan (Founder of 123 Magic) and Michael Hawton (Australian Psychologist and Director of Parentshop). This program covers:
- Some common ground shared by parents in Australia and some reasonable expectations to hold about adolescents
- New understandings of adolescence: a time of redeveloping social landscapes, brain snaps and body make-overs.
- A four-option model for decision-making:
- How to avoid over reacting or becoming angry too often with your teenager.
- Social coaching, for living at home, and in life
- Making the best of the 'non-crisis conversations' you have with teenagers
- Tough conversations for handling those problems you just can’t ignore
- How to figure out the problem, how to prepare for engaging your teenager in a tough conversation, and how to set-up agreements.
Guiding Children's Behaviour
Based on the work by Dr Louise Porter (Australian Child Psychologist, author and consultant), Guiding Children's Behaviour presents the differences between guidance and the use of controls, offering alternatives to rewards and presents methods for guiding children when their behaviour is disruptive.
Guiding Children's Behaviour teaches parents how adults can prevent most behavioural disruptions in children by meeting the children’s practical and emotional needs and, in the event of thoughtless behaviour, can deflect emotional outbursts. This program describes ways to teach young children how to behave considerately, using both preventive and interventive means. As well as offering general principles for meeting children’s emotional needs and teaching considerate behaviour, these concepts are applied to particular difficulties - such as independence issues, social problems, atypical development, and helping children cope with family challenges.
Specialist Areas
Other programs and theoretical approaches we consider and include in our delivery of service include:
Attachment
Attachment is the lasting psychological connectedness between a parent and their child. The earliest bonds formed by children with their parents have a tremendous impact on their wellbeing that continues throughout life. Head, Heart & Hands specialises in applying attachment-focused research to specific parenting strategies and techniques. Head, Heart & Hands teaches parents how to set limits, provide guidance, and manage the responsibilities and difficulties of daily life with their child, while at the same time communicating safety, playfulness, joy and love to their child.
Emotional Development
Head, Heart & Hands provides parents with new skills and creative ideas to support their children emotionally. Parents will learn ways to encourage their children to express strong emotions such as sadness, anger and frustration in appropriate and healthy ways. Research has shown that children need to first learn how to identify emotion, then track their emotion in order to manage their emotions effectively. Emotional intelligence can be nurtured through attuned, responsive and empathic parenting and Head, Heart & Hands aims to provide parents with the knowledge and skills to support their children in this important area of their development.
Diet
Present research into the connection between diet and children's behaviour is showing that food can sometimes explain the irritable, restless or defiant behaviours we commonly see in a large number of children. Research indicates that certain food additives and natural food chemicals or a food intolerance can cause:
- Irritability and restlessness
- Oppositional defiance
- Anxiety and depressed moods
- Migraines and headaches
- Lack of energy
- Loss of memory and concentration
- Eczema
- Irritable bowel symptoms
- Asthma
- Arthritis
- Sleep disorders
Head, Heart & Hands provides parents with current information about children's diets that may be contributing to behavioural or emotional problems. Parents are supported to explore dietary factors that may be having an impact on their children's behaviour or health and to make any necessary changes to their children's diet.
More information ...
- Read about our qualifications on the About page
- See the Helpful Links page for research material, and links to more information on parenting support
