Incredible Years Framework is Truly Incredible

The Incredible Years Framework is one of the international tools we use in our daily practices at Mary's House. The Incredible Years is a series of interlocking, evidence-based programmes for parents, children, and teachers, supported by over 30 years of research. The goal is to prevent and treat young children's behaviour problems and promote their social, emotional, and academic competence. The programmes are used worldwide in schools and mental health centres, and have been shown to work across cultures and socioeconomic groups.

This behavioural management framework is scaffolded on tools to enhance praise for positive behaviour while attempting to minimise to minimise cases of disruptive behaviour from children. As we know children's behaviour can at times appear chaotic, especially during the toddler years, but by taking proactive steps we can show them the desired behaviour and shape not only our response but the child's to positive engagement and interaction with friends and teachers.

Here are several examples that you can use at home:

How can you develop positive relationships?

• Be proactive in making positive contact with parents – don’t wait for something to go wrong

• Daily greeting – make an intentional effort to acknowledge each student

• Recognise success – share achievements with parents, show the child that they have achieved something to be proud of

• Plan for activities that promote relationships during mat time

• Show students you trust them – giving children responsibilities shows that you trust them

• Allow children to make choices – giving them legitimate choices will move them away from the only choice they have otherwise – to comply or not comply.

• Engage in play with the child – follow their lead

• Be playful – if this doesn’t come naturally, practice!

• Show students you believe in them – communicate your belief that they can succeed

• Help every child in the classroom appreciate others’ special talents and needs

Persistence Coaching

Persistence coaching is a method of talking to children that will help them begin to learn to persist with difficult tasks and continue to try hard despite frustrations, obstacles, and difficulties. With this type of coaching, the teacher helps the child to recognise when he is concentrating, working hard, staying focused, paying attention, and being calm or patient. The teacher intentionally labels the child’s cognitive state.

This kind of coaching helps children to recognise times when they are focused, on task and attentive, and working hard or confidently, and what it feels like to be in that state.  

Social Coaching

It is important to model and prompt social behaviours and enthusiastically describe them through coaching language whenever they occur. Remember that excessive prompting can be overwhelming for a child and can lead to resistance. Try to use 10 times more descriptive comments or coaching statements than prompts.

Emotion Coaching to Encourage Behavioural Self-Regulation

This communication approach helps children begin to develop feelings literacy; that is, a vocabulary for expressing their emotions to teachers and others.

Teachers start this coaching by naming the students’ emotions whenever they see a child is experiencing an emotion such as being happy, confident, calm, surprised, excited, curious, proud, brave, frustrated, sad, lonely, worried, disappointed, tense, or angry.

Labelling the feeling at the time that the child is experiencing it allows the child to associate the feeling word with an internal emotional state. Once children have developed an emotion vocabulary, then they can share their feelings with others. This results in their ability to more easily regulate their emotional and behavioural responses.

Our Thoughts

I believe wholeheartedly that the incredible years framework is not only an excellent tool for parents and educators, but as a leadership framework. These three areas of coaching only scrape the surface of the programme. Feel free to engage with our team for resources on the Incredible Years tools and framework.