Right from the Start

Right From the Start:

Parenting can be challenging.  Are you unsure or anxious about your parenting skills?  Do you want to feel more comfortable with your baby? Then Right From the Start is right for you and your child 12 months or younger.  A healthy parent-child relationship promotes infant attachment security, mental development, and well-being.  In Right From the Start, parents work together on solutions to parenting challenges, share ideas, and explore the many faces of parenting

A FREE 8-session parenting skills course

 

 

New parenting class in English

 

South Orange County Family Resource Center:

23832 Rockfield Blvd., Ste.270, Lake Forest, CA 92701

Every Thursday October 7, 2010 to December 2, 2010

From 1 pm to 3 pm

 

Child Care will NOT Be Provided, but if parents choose to bring their child we ask that they be under the age of 12 months and are able to sit quietly to minimize class interruptions

 

For more information regarding upcoming class schedules or to enroll please call:

Laura Ramirez at (949) 824-4449

 

Right From The Start is an 8-session course that uses attachment theory as a framework to enhance caregiver skills in reading infant cues and responding sensitively (Niccols et al. 2000).

The goal of Right From the Start is to improve parent-child interaction in order to foster infant attachment security. 

 

SESSION 1:  Attachment Security – “What is it & why is it important”

  • Participants focus on the importance of infant attachment security and the importance of sensitive, responsive parent-child interaction to fostering attachment as well as benefits of participating in the course.

 

SESSION 2: Parent-child Interaction –“How do you show me you love me”

  • Parents answer the question, “How do you and your baby become ‘attached’?”  Parents learn to consider how babies communicate without words, interpret the meaning of different types of infant behavior, and to formulate strategies for sensitive response to infant cues.

                                             

SESSION 3:  Child and Parent Personality – “I am unique and so are you.”

  • Focuses on the role of temperament, how this concept applies to infants and their parents, the potential impact on parent-child interactions, and short- and long-term implications.  Parents are asked to identify characteristics in themselves and their infant that make parenting challenging, to proactively plan strategies to improve the interaction, practice these strategies and evaluate the results.

 

SESSION 4:  Disengage Cues – “I don’t like what you’re doing right now.”

  • Parents learn skills in observing and responding to their infants’ disengage cues.  Parents will learn to identify behaviors indicating when their infants “need some space” or do not like something about their current interaction

 

SESSION 5:  Engage/Approach Cues – “I like what you’re doing right now.  I need you.”

  • Parents learn how to observe and respond to approach/engage cues, especially as they relate to comforting an infant in distress.  Parents learn to identify potential cues that indicate when infants want to be attended to or approached, or when they like something about the current interaction.

 

SESSION 6:  Following Your Child’s Lead – “This is what I’m interested in right now.”

  • Parents learn how to follow their baby’s lead in play, why it is important, the impact on the relationship, when to use this approach to interact, and how it differs from directive or disciplinary interactions.  Through exercises parents look at cues that indicate the child is alert and interested and other strategies that help parents connect with their children.

 

SESSION 7:  Building a Healthy Relationship – “I like being with you.”

  • Parents identify strategies to encourage interaction that would help foster parent-child attachment, as well as infant communication and play skills, and the impact of a healthy parent-child relationship on the child, parents and the family.

 

SESSION 8:  Wrap Up

  • The concepts and skills necessary for sensitive, responsive parent-child interaction and fostering infant attachment security are reviewed.  Parents share their thoughts and feelings about the group process and on their experience.  Parents attending 5 or more classes will receive a “diploma” for completion.