Incredible Years

The Incredible Years programmes for parents, teachers, and children reduce challenging behaviours in children and increase their social emotional learning and self-control skills.  They have been found to be effective in strengthening teacher and parent management skills, improving children’s social emotional competence, emotion regulation, and school readiness, and reducing behaviour problems.

Evidence shows the programmes have improved behaviours of up to 80 percent of the children of participating parents and teachers. If left unchecked these behaviours would mean those children are at greater risk in adulthood of unemployment, mental health problems, substance abuse, early pregnancy/early fatherhood, criminal offending, multiple arrests and imprisonment, higher rates of domestic violence and shortened life expectancy.

As part of the Incredible Years Programmes:

• Parents and teachers use various strategies to help children regulate their emotions, improve their social skills, and do better academically. It can also mean a more enjoyable family life.
• Parents or teachers meet as a group with two trained facilitators. They are given opportunities to collectively and individually develop new strategies for managing their children and working together in collaborative partnerships.
• Children can also receive training in small groups or classrooms by trained teachers or therapists and learn how to follow rules and cooperate, express emotions, problem-solve, manage anger, and make good friends.

Group aspects include: setting personal goals, role play practices, self reflection, facilitator feedback, and home or classroom activities. Facilitators use video scenes to encourage group discussion, problem-solving and sharing of ideas.  Parents and teachers are given handouts, activities to practice with children, and reminder notes to put on their refrigerator or blackboards. 

  Download Incredible Overview

 Download Incredible Years factsheet