April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month as well as the 
National Month of the Young Child. Both serve to focus public 
attention on the needs of children and their families, 
particularly the need for quality parenting education.

Lack of parenting skills and the frustration that comes from not 
knowing how to deal with and manage a child's behavior 
significantly increases the risk of child abuse. Parents often 
feel controlled by their children's misbehaviors because they do 
not know how to set limits effectively. They may pay so much 
attention when their children misbehave that they forget to 
notice the cooperative and peaceful times.

The Center for the Improvement of Child Caring's Confident 
Parenting Program teaches parents how to pay attention to and how 
to increase the times when their children's behavior is good. It 
also teaches effective limit-setting skills so that parents will 
not feel victimized by their children's misbehavior.

The program provides parents effective skills to manage such 
child behaviors as:

1. Disruptiveness
2. Fears
3. Shyness
4. Tantrums
5. Bedwetting
6. Restlessness
7. Disobedience
8. Laziness
9. Aggressiveness


The Confident Parenting Program has been used for over two 
decades within community mental health agencies, and it was 
selected to represent the social learning or behavioral approach 
to parent training as part of the continuing education program 
sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Recently the program was updated and three new sections have been 
added. These include Corporal Punishment, Modeling and Family 
Rules.

The Confident Parenting Program's versatility and utility is 
reflected in the fact that in addition to being used to prevent 
child abuse, it has also been used extensively in regular and 
special education settings, Head Start agencies, private 
practices and in churches and temples. Its value-free application 
of child management skills has allowed for its successful use 
with a wide variety of ethnic minority groups.

The program is usually conducted for small groups of parents in 
ten two-hour sessions. Its specific skills, such as effective 
praising, can be the focus of one-session parent meetings. There 
is also a one-day seminar version available.

Research studies demonstrate that CICC's Confident Parenting 
Program reduces the need for additional family or child services, 
significantly diminishes a variety of child behavior problems, 
improves overall family relations and provides useful 
alternatives to corporal punishment.

Thus, it can provide a community with an intervention to promote 
child mental health and prevent child abuse and school failure. 
By so doing, the program also aids in preventing drug abuse, 
delinquency and gang involvement.

Parents and others can learn about and use the program's 
parenting skills and strategies by purchasing the parent handbook 
which is available on the CICC Website 
(http://www.ciccparenting.org/catalogitem.asp?ci=51&cid=&c=2 ).

CICC can arrange to have a professional instructor come to a 
community, school or business and deliver a one-day parenting 
seminar, on the program. 
(http://ciccparenting.org/NewsLetters/OneDaySeminar_ColleagueHome
.htm )

Individuals can also enroll in an Instructor Training Workshop, 
where they can become a certified parenting instructor and 
conduct the program themselves. 
(http://www.ciccparenting.org/cicc_InstrWrkShps_314.asp )

Parenting educators or group leaders can also purchase and use 
the materials in the workshop to run the program on their own. 
(http://ciccparenting.org/CatalogItemList.asp?c=29&cid= )

A detailed description of the Confident Parenting Program's 
content, history and evaluation research studies is available 
on the CICC Web site.
(http://www.ciccparenting.org/ConfidentParentingDesc.aspx )

For more information about CICC's Confident Parenting Program e-
mail cicc@flash.net or call toll-free 1(800) 325-CICC (2422).
 

Kerby T. Alvy, Ph.D. is a nationally and internationally 
respected authority on parenting and parent training. He 
is the executive director and founder of the Center for the 
Improvement of Child Caring in Studio City, CA. The center has a 
variety of parenting books, videos and other products available 
on its Web site http://www.ciccparenting.org  On his blog, 
http://www.EducatedParenting.com, Dr. Alvy addresses a variety of 
parenting topics, issues, and trends. Dr. Alvy is available as a 
consultant, speaker, and media guest. For more information, go to
http://www.DrAlvy.com  To sign-up for Dr. Alvy's  free Effective 
Parenting Newsletter, go to http://www.ciccparenting.org  and 
click on "Add Me".