The Incredible Years Series is a set of three comprehensive, multifaceted, and developmentally based curriculums for parents, teachers, and children, designed to promote emotional and social competence and to prevent, reduce, and treat behavioral and emotional problems in young children.
The program targets children, ages 2 to 8, at risk for and/or presenting with conduct problems (defined as high rates of aggression, defiance, and oppositional and impulsive behaviors). The programs have been evaluated as “selected” prevention programs for promoting the social adjustment of high-risk children in preschool (Head Start) and elementary grades (up to Grade 3) and as “indicated” interventions for children exhibiting the early onset of conduct problems.
This series of programs addresses multiple risk factors across settings known to be related to the development of conduct disorders in children. In all three training programs, trained facilitators use videotape scenes to encourage group discussion, problem solving, and sharing of ideas. The BASIC parent series is “core” and a necessary component of the prevention program delivery. The other parent training, teacher, and child components are strongly recommended with particular populations that are detailed in this document.
Incredible Years Training for Parents—The Incredible Years parenting series includes three programs targeting parents of high-risk children and/or those displaying behavior problems. The BASIC program emphasizes parenting skills known to promote children’s social competence and reduce behavior problems, such as how to play with children, helping children learn, effective praise and use of incentives, effective limit setting, and strategies to handle misbehavior. The ADVANCE program emphasizes parent interpersonal skills, such as effective communication skills, anger management, problem solving between adults, and ways to give and get support. The SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD’S EDUCATION program (known as SCHOOL) emphasizes parenting approaches designed to promote children’s academic skills, such as reading skills, parental involvement in setting up predictable homework routines, and building collaborative relationships with teachers.
Incredible Years Training for Teachers—This series emphasizes effective classroom management skills, such as the effective use of teacher attention, praise, and encouragement; the use of incentives for difficult behavior problems; proactive teaching strategies; how to manage inappropriate classroom behaviors; the importance of building positive relationships with students; and how to teach empathy, social skills, and problem solving in the classroom.
Incredible Years Training for Children—The Dinosaur curriculum emphasizes training children in skills such as emotional literacy, empathy or perspective taking, friendship skills, anger management, interpersonal problem solving, school rules, and how to be successful at school. It is designed for use as a “pull-out” treatment program for small groups of children exhibiting conduct problems.
Six randomized control-group evaluations of the parenting series indicated significant:
Two randomized control-group evaluations of the teacher training series indicated significant:
Two randomized control-group evaluations of the child training series indicated significant:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Model program
OJJDP Blueprints Project: Model program
Carolyn Webster-Stratton, Ph.D.
Incredible Years
1411 Eighth Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119
Phone: (206) 285-7565
Fax: (206) 285-7565
E-mail: incredibleyears@incredibleyears.com
Web site: www.incredibleyears.com
Ms. Lisa St. George
Administrative Director
Incredible Years
Phone: (888) 506-3562
Webster-Stratton, C. (2000). “The Incredible Years Training Series.” Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Webster-Stratton, C.; Mihalic, S.; Fagan, A.; Arnold, D.; Taylor, T.; and Tingley, C. (2001). Blueprints for Violence Prevention, Book Eleven: The Incredible Years: Parent, Teacher, and Children Training Series. Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.