ABSTRACT
The Incredible YearsⓇ (IY) Series developer reviews the rationale and theories underlying the framework structure, content, methods, processes, and rationale for the development of the Incredible Years Parent, Teacher and Child Programs. She discusses her early personal and professional experiences leading to her passion to develop, evaluate, and refine cost-effective, group-based video-based parent intervention programs first developed in the late 70’s. These programs were designed to support parents of young children in proven parenting strategies that are designed to prevent child neglect and abuse as well as to strengthen their children’s social, emotional, language and academic development and to prevent and treat child conduct problems. Based on the first decade of her research and experiential lessons learned from working with parents, she took this learning further to develop and evaluate new video-based programs for training teachers and children to expand the impact and breadth of outcomes to a variety of populations such as children with conduct and internalizing problems, ADHD, developmental delays, and autism as well as higher risk populations due to poverty and new immigrant status. Once the evidence base for these parent, teacher, and child programs had been established, she then explored a parallel training process of using group-based video modeling, role play practice, experiential learning, supportive and collaborative methods for training and certifying IY clinicians, coaches, and mentors and ensuring that the programs are delivered with fidelity.
