For the past 20 years, Dr. Webster-Stratton and her colleagues at the University of Washington's Parenting Clinic have worked to develop and evaluate training programs for parents, teachers, children, and families with children ages 3 to 8 with conduct problems. These programs, which have been adapted for use with children ages 2 to 10, are briefly described in this overview and expanded upon throughout this Bulletin. Table 1 provides an overview of the Incredible Years Parent, Teacher, and Child Training Programs.

Program Designs

The Incredible Years School-Age BASIC Parent Training Program (ages 5-12) is a multicultural program similar to the early childhood program in content but aimed at a somewhat older age group. It gives greater emphasis to strategies for older children, including logical consequences, monitoring, problem solving with children, and family problem solving. Approximately 40 percent of the people featured on the videotapes for this version of the BASIC program are people of color.

The Incredible Years ADVANCE Parent Training Program (ages 4-10) is a 10- to 12-week supplement to the BASIC program that addresses other family risk factors such as depression, marital discord, poor coping skills, poor anger management, and lack of support.

Finally, the Incredible Years EDUCATION Parent Training Program (Supporting Your Child's Education) supplements either the early childhood or school-age BASIC program by focusing on ways to foster children's academic competence. It was designed to teach parents to strengthen their children's reading and academic readiness and promote strong connections between home and school.

All of the Incredible Years parent training programs include videotapes, extensive group leader manuals, books for parents, home activities, and refrigerator notes and are offered in parent group discussions facilitated by trained leaders.

Teacher Training. The Incredible Years Teacher Training Program was designed to train teachers in classroom management skills such as how to encourage and motivate students, strengthen social competence, decrease inappropriate behavior, and teach social skills, anger management, and problem solving in the classroom. Teacher training is offered to groups of teachers and may be delivered in six day-long workshops offered monthly or in 2-hour sessions offered once a week for 24 weeks. Videotaped vignettes of teachers managing common and difficult situations in the classroom are used to stimulate group discussion and problem solving.

Child Training. The Incredible Years Child Training Program, Dina Dinosaur's Social Skills and Problem-Solving Curriculum, was designed to teach groups of children friendship skills, appropriate conflict management strategies, successful classroom behaviors, and empathy skills. In addition, it teaches children cognitive strategies to cope with negative attributions (i.e., hostile thoughts about others' intentions) and situations that incite anger. There are two versions of this curriculum. It can be used as a "pull out" treatment program for small groups of children with conduct problems or as a classroom-based preventive program designed to be delivered to all students two to three times a week in 20- to 30-minute circle time discussions followed by 20-minute practice activities during the day. Videotaped vignettes are used to stimulate children's discussions, demonstrate problem solving, and prompt role-playing and practice activities.

Incredible Years Training Materials Parent Training The Incredible Years parent training materials include: Twelve videotapes for the early childhood BASIC program. Three videotapes for the school-age BASIC program. Six videotapes for the ADVANCE program. Two videotapes for the EDUCATION program. A self-administered manual for the BASIC programs. Comprehensive leader manuals for each program (consisting of more than 500 pages of "how to" information, including leader questions for discussion, home activities, and interpretation of videotapes). Weekly "refrigerator notes" (brief points to remember) for parents. Assignments for parents' home activities. Copies of a book for parents titled The Incredible Years: A Trouble-Shooting Guide for Parents of Children Ages 3-8 (also available on audiotape). Refrigerator magnets that remind parents to do their weekly homework activities and deliver special messages, such as "Build up your bank account with children." (The illustration on the magnet shows "coins" labeled love, play, caring, and support going into a piggybank.) Pyramid posters (see figure). The pyramids show how the programs first build a positive foundation emphasizing relationship skills before beginning to discuss discipline strategies. Teacher Training The Incredible Years teacher training materials include: Twelve videotapes. Comprehensive leader manuals (including leader questions for discussions, classroom activities, suggested readings, and handouts). Self-administered manuals. Teacher blackboard notes (key points to remember for each program). Teacher classroom practice assignments. Copies of the book for teachers entitled How to Promote Social and Emotional Competence in the Classroom. Child Training The Incredible Years child training materials include: Thirteen videotapes. A comprehensive leader manual (including leader questions for discussion, home activities, teacher notes, suggested practice activities, and suggested readings). Weekly cue pictures of key concepts for children. Homework detective activities. Refrigerator magnets for children (reminding them to do their homework). A feeling-wheel game. Thirty-nine laminated cue cards. Six sets of different stickers (reviewing main concepts). Children's books.

Series Goals

The purpose of the series is to prevent delinquency, drug abuse, and violence. The short-term goals of the series are to:

• Reduce conduct problems in children:
  • Decrease negative behaviors and noncompliance with parents at home.
  • Decrease peer aggression and disruptive behaviors in the classroom.

• Promote social, emotional, and academic competence in children:
  • Increase children's social skills.
  • Increase children's understanding of feelings.
  • Increase children's conflict management skills and decrease negative attributions.
  • Increase academic engagement, school readiness, and cooperation with teachers.

• Promote parental competence and strengthen families:
  • Increase parents' positive communication skills, such as the use of praise and positive feedback to children, and reduce the use of criticism and unnecessary commands.
  • Improve parents' limit-setting skills by replacing spanking and other negative physical behaviors with nonviolent discipline techniques and by promoting positive strategies such as ignoring the child's behavior, allowing for logical consequences, providing redirection, and developing problem-solving and empathy skills.
  • Improve parents' problem-solving skills and anger management.
  • Increase family support networks and school involvement.

• Promote teacher competence and strengthen school-home connections:
  • Strengthen teachers' classroom management strategies by using proactive and positive teaching approaches (e.g., clearly delineated classroom rules and use of strategies such as redirection, nonverbal warning signs, proximity praise, etc.).
  • Increase teachers' collaborative efforts in promoting parents' school involvement and developing plans for behavior modification that connect home and school environments.
  • Increase teachers' ability to offer social skills and problem-solving training in the classroom.

Parents of Children Ages 2 to 10 Without Conduct Problems. The parenting series can be used to teach parents of children without conduct problems to foster positive social behaviors in their children and to give parents effective discipline techniques for dealing with common behavior problems. Used as a prevention program, this series can help prevent child abuse and help parents avoid the development of serious child behavior problems through early intervention.

The series is effective with parents of all educational and socioeconomic levels (Webster-Stratton, 1998, 1990a). The videotaped vignettes show mothers and fathers of African American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic backgrounds. The series is available in English and Spanish, and some parts are available in Vietnamese.

Parents of Children Ages 3 to 10 Who Have Conduct Problems. The research for the series involved more than 800 families with children having conduct problems, which are not usually evident until the age of 3. After completing the BASIC and ADVANCE programs, the parents in these families helped their children improve their behavior significantly. The children in the studies displayed conduct problems that included aggressive behaviors such as hitting and kicking; destructive acts; negative and defiant attitudes; whining, yelling, talking back, and interrupting; and noncompliance with parental requests. Although the research did not include developmentally delayed, psychotic, or autistic children, the series could be adapted for parents of such children.

Parents at Risk for Abusing or Neglecting Their Children. Additional research for the parenting series was based on two studies with more than 600 families enrolled in 14 Head Start centers. These families were randomly assigned to the BASIC parent training program or to the usual Head Start center services. The BASIC program was well received, with more than 85 percent of parents attending more than two-thirds of the sessions. Some of these parents were at risk for abusing or neglecting their children because of their own childhood experiences of abuse or because of a lack of social and economic support. The BASIC program is also appropriate for parents who have been reported for child abuse. Parents of highly aggressive and noncompliant children have an increased risk of abusive behavior or feeling "out of control" when they discipline their children and thus have a higher risk of becoming involved with child protective services. Head Start parents who participated in the BASIC program were significantly less likely to verbally attack or criticize their children or to use physical punishment such as spanking and hitting, compared with Head Start parents from centers that did not offer the parenting program (Webster-Stratton, 1998).

Teenagers Taking Babysitting Classes or Family Life Courses. Sections of the parenting series could be used to teach adolescents how to play with and read to children and how to discipline them appropriately. The series could also serve as an educational resource for teenagers studying the normal growth and development of preschool and early school-age children.

Child Service and Childcare Providers and Teachers. The teacher training series has been used to teach classroom management strategies to childcare workers, teachers, therapists, and other professionals working with children (e.g., nurses, social workers). The parenting series has also been used to illustrate play therapy skills, behavior management principles, and cognitive problem-solving strategies in early childhood programs for teachers, nurses, and psychology students.

Children Ages 4 to 8 With Diagnosed Conduct Problems. The treatment version of the child training series can be used by therapists to work with small groups of children (six children per group) exhibiting high rates of aggression and noncompliance. It has been proven effective in decreasing peer aggression and promoting appropriate conflict management skills, inducing more cooperative behavior, and increasing children's self-confidence.

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The Incredible Years Training Series	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • June 2000