The Parentmaking textbook provides a foundation and model for leading and teaching parenting groups. The heart of the 512 page book is extensive, effective material to be taught in parenting classes; ways to lead successful discussions, methods to encourage group problem solving, and techniques for working with difficult group members are also provided. The book was received in the professional community with great enthusiasm and, since its initial publication, 15,000 copies have been sold to parent educators and other family guidance professionals for use in their parenting programs in the United States, Canada, and around the world.
Immediately after the textbook's 1981 publication, parent educators began to ask for an accompanying training program so they could learn and practice firsthand some of the group leadership and group management techniques described in the book. While the textbook covered content very successfully, it became clear that the learning of group leadership and guidance techniques required additional "in person" demonstration, practice, and feedback.
When this workshop was offered as a 36-hour training program at the Child Rearing Program in Palo Alto it was led by four to six faculty members over the course of the program. Most participants said that the workshop is outstanding, and the only workshop that addresses in a very realistic and practical way the full range of issues and skills that parent educators need in order to work effectively with groups of parents whose children are infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Workshop attendees are very enthusiastic about the practices that are a key part of the program, as well as the feedback they receive during the course of the workshop. Participants also say that the training program does not limit them to following any one model of parenting education but rather increases their skills for use with any parenting education model or combination ofmodels. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest rating, participants since 1981 have given the workshop an average rating of 9.5.
Because the training program has received so much positive feedback from participants--both immediately after taking it and months and years later--and because so many requests for on-site programs have been made by parent educators around the country who use the Parentmaking textbook and/or have heard of the Parentmaking Educators Training Program, the Child Rearing staff explored the possibility of preparing the workshop for use by parenting education program coordinators and staffs at their own sites. Grant funding for the project was obtained in 1990 from The Marcy and Seymour Hyman Foundation(1) of the San Francisco Bay Area and at that time the CHC staff began the detailed preparation of the training program for publication. The staff then reviewed, modified, and tested the workshop components once again in the spring of 1991 at their annual Parentmaking Educators Training Program. Final revisions were made, and the workshop in its current form was compiled as this handbook with accompanying videotapes.
The sections of this workshop can be used in several different ways. First, the total workshop can be used as an educational and training program for both new and experienced parent educators. The 24 sections can be taught in the recommended sequence (see the "Parentmaking Educators Training Program Outline and Schedule" on pages 35-39 for the recommended sequence) over a period ranging from one week to several months, or even spread over an entire year. The workshop can be offered to your community, state, or region's parenting educators or to only your own parenting program's staff. Offering it to a group wider than your own program's staff has the multiple advantages of increasing the quality of parent education for many more families, building the reputation of your program as a training facility, enhancing your program's reputation with other community professionals such as pediatricians, and bringing in substantial revenue, which may be very important to your program. However, whichever group you provide the workshop for, you will find that much closeness and camaraderie develops among the participants during the workshop. (If you do offer this workshop to people who need to travel a long distance, try to structure it so that their travel time and costs are minimized. This will probably mean compressing the training into several sequential days.)
A second way to use this program is to offer only a selection of the sections to the community's parent educators. Certain sections are also especially helpful to pediatricians, pediatric nurse practitioners, child care providers, and other family guidance personnel who do not work with groups; these are the content topics "Husband-Wife Relationships," "Temperament," "Separation," "Limit Setting," "Sleep, and "Sibling Relationships" (see Part III) as well as the technique sections "Communication Skills, "Advice Giving 1," "Advice Giving 2," "Problem Solving," and "Making Referrals" (see Part II). These sections could be offered to these family guidance professionals in your area, either together with parent educators or at a separate time.
A third way to use the workshop program is to offer to
your parent education staff as in-service training any of the sections
in which they need practice. Since the total workshop takes 36 hours or
more to teach, it could provide more than one years' worth of in-service
training for a typical parent education staff. The sections could be made
part of regular staff meetings that your parent educators attend.
A final way to use the program is for parent educators
to use it individually in a self-guided learning process.
In this training program, just as in parenting classes, it is very useful to make sure that every participant is acknowledged by at least one faculty member in some individual way every day he or she(3) takes part in the workshop. This acknowledgement, which can be a short chat, a comment, or simply saying hello or goodbye using the participant's name, is important in helping each person feel that his or her presence was noticed that it meant something.
The workshop is taught at two levels, and it is useful to mention this to participants early on in the program. The first and more obvious level is informational-material is taught for participants to learn as parent educators. The second level may be less obvious but is just as important--as material is taught, faculty members model for the parent educaters how to act toward individuals and groups much as the parent educators need to do in their own parenting classes. For example, while leading the workshop, faculty members need to handle workshop participants who are judgmental, "monopolizers", quiet or silent, or who have philosophical disagreements with the faculty, and so on, just as participants may need to handle parents with this range of styles in their own classes. You may want to take time during the workshop to point out what you're doing at each of the two teaching levels, since this can enhance the participants' awareness and sometimes create moments of fun and humor for both participants and faculty members.
At the very start of the training program, participants are told that they may be feeling the way parents do at the beginning of a parenting class series (for example, excited, wary, lonely, skeptical, needy). It's also important for participants to know that during the course of the workshop, they, like parents in their groups, may feel somewhat incompetent, and that this is natural when learning or enhancing the learning of any complex skill. You may want to allow some time for the whole group or small groups of parent educator participants to discuss this point. Remember to let participants know as you lead this training program that what is being taught to them does make for excellent parenting groups, but is actually the "ideal." This can help the participants feel a little less incompetent and somewhat more supported.
It is also helpful for participants to understand that there are many skills they need in their role as parent educators, and that the workshop's sections are presented in an order that breaks these skills down into manageable elements, making it easier for participants to practice individual skills. Then the training program's design enables them to build and practice several skills together, until all the skills start to come together for the participants toward the end of the workshop.
Each workshop day is seven hours--from 8:30 to 3:30--which keeps participants from being exhausted and overwhelmed as they might be with a longer day. It also gives them some time with their own families and friends on workshop weekends and/or time to keep up with at least some of their other responsibilities. The full month between workshop weekends gives participants time to practice with their own parenting groups as well as time for additional reading, review, and integration of new material.
During the course of each workshop day, a 15 minute break is given mid-morning and a "stretch" break is given halfway through the afternoon program; the on-site lunch break is 45 minutes long. The morning break and the lunch period ensure that the workshop experience is well paced and allow participants time to talk with each other, have a few quiet moments, take a walk, and so on. Snacks and a wide variety of beverages are available all day; lunches are also provided on Fridays, but not Saturdays. Bathrooms, phones, a refrigerator and stove, quiet rooms, outdoor spaces, tables to display pertinent materials, and a blackboard for information participants want to share with each other are also made available. (Lists of local hotels, maps, parking details, and emergency phone numbers are provided by mail prior to the workshop.)
Since many practices are done in small groups, it's important to have enough workshop faculty members on hand to consult with each group during each practice. It's also important that workshop faculty members allow enough time in their workshop planning for the groups to walk back and forth from the small-group rooms to the main workshop room and to get set up for practices. (The accompanying videotapes are especially useful for faculty to review in preparation for leading the group practices.)
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1. The Children's Health Council gratefully acknowledges
the generous support and encouragement provided by The Marcy and Seymour
Hyman Foundation during the preparation of this Parentmaking Educators
Training Program manual and videotapes.
2. In addition to participating in this training program, parent educators should be advised before beginning to teach on their own that they should observe a parenting class series taught by a more experienced colleague and then if possible, co-lead a parenting series.
3. Throughout this training manual, the phrase "he or
she" has been used whenever possible when referring to a parent or a child;
when using this phrase was awkward, however, either the pronoun "he" or
the pronoun "she" was used. Because participants in this type of training
program are most often women, the pronoun "she" has generally been used
to refer to participants.