Disruptive Behavior Treatment (Child & Adolescent)

The Brief Strategic Family Therapy® (BSFT®) Model uses a structured family-systems approach to treat families with youth (6 to 18 years) who display or are at risk for developing problem behaviors including substance abuse, conduct problems, and delinquency. There are three intervention components:

• Therapists must establish and maintain a viable and effective therapeutic relationship with family members = Joining.
• By eliciting and observing family interactions (Enactments), therapists identify interactional patterns that are associated with problematic youth behavior = Systemic Diagnosis.
• Therapists design and execute a treatment plan. The interventions are designed to be done in the session focusing on the here and now using Highlights, Reframes, and assigning Tasks that elicit more effective and adaptive family interactions = Restructuring

BSFT® is typically delivered in 12 to 16 weekly sessions in community centers, clinics, health agencies, or homes. BSFT® therapists are required to participate in a structured program of training to achieve Competency, and then are required to remain in a course of fidelity monitoring for adherence.

Connect: A Trauma-Informed and Attachment-Based Program for Parents and Caregivers is a structured 10-session manualized program delivered in a group format to parents and caregivers of preteens and teens with serious behavioural and internalizing problems. Connect aims to promote parental reflective function, emotion regulation, sensitive care, and parent-child mutuality and cooperation. Sessions introduce attachment principles that specifically focus on adolescence and parenting and include experiential and emotion-focused role-plays and reflection activities. The program integrates a trauma-informed, strength-based, and collaborative approach to promoting the development of new parenting skills and parent-child attachment security. Connect is designed to be delivered by a range of health and education professionals in hospitals, mental health centers, community agencies, and schools. Connect is available in five languages and via virtual program delivery.

The Coping Power Program is based on an empirical model of risk factors for potential antisocial behavior. For high-risk children, it addresses deficits in social cognition, self-regulation, peer relations, and positive parental involvement. The Coping Power Program, which has both a child and parent intervention component, is designed to be presented in an integrated manner. The Coping Power Child Component consists of 34 group sessions. The Coping Power Parent Component consists of 16 sessions offered during the same time frame. The child component focuses on anger management, social problem solving, and practicing skills to resist peer pressure. The parent component of the program focuses on supporting involvement and consistency in parenting, which also contributes to better adjustment. Improvement in all these areas, particularly around times of change such as going to middle school, can reduce the number of problem behaviors that can arise during these transitional times.

FFT is a family intervention program for dysfunctional youth with disruptive, externalizing problems. FFT has been applied to a wide range of problem youth and their families in various multi-ethnic, multicultural contexts. Target populations range from at-risk pre-adolescents to youth with moderate to severe problems such as conduct disorder, violent acting-out, and substance abuse. While FFT targets youth aged 11-18, younger siblings of referred adolescents often become part of the intervention process. Intervention ranges from, on average, 12 to 14 one-hour sessions. The number of sessions may be as few as 8 sessions for mild cases and up to 30 sessions for more difficult situations. In most programs, sessions are spread over a three-month period. FFT has been conducted both in clinic settings as an outpatient therapy and as a home-based model. The FFT clinical model offers clear identification of specific phases which organizes the intervention in a coherent manner, thereby allowing clinicians to maintain focus in the context of considerable family and individual disruption. Each phase includes specific goals, assessment foci, specific techniques of intervention, and therapist skills necessary for success.

GenerationPMTO was formerly known as Parent Management Training - the Oregon Model (PMTO^®). GenerationPMTO (Individual Delivery Format) is a parent training intervention that can be used in family contexts including two biological parents, single-parent, re-partnered, grandparent-led, reunification, adoptive parents, and other primary caregivers. This behavioral family systems intervention can be used as a preventative program and a treatment program. It can be delivered through individual family treatment in agencies or home-based and via telephone/video conference delivery, books, audiotapes and video recordings. GenerationPMTO interventions have been tailored for specific child/youth clinical problems, such as externalizing and internalizing problems, school problems, antisocial behavior, conduct problems, deviant peer association, theft, delinquency, substance abuse, and child neglect and abuse. For the group version of GenerationPMTO, please see Parenting Through Change (PTC; GenerationPMTO Group).

MDFT is a family-based treatment for adolescent substance use, delinquency, and other behavioral and emotional problems. Therapists work simultaneously in four interdependent domains: the adolescent, parent, family, and community. Therapy sessions are held alone with the youth, alone with the parents, and with youth and parents together. Once a therapeutic alliance is established and youth and parent motivation is enhanced, the MDFT therapist focuses on facilitating behavioral and interactional change. The final stage of MDFT works to solidify behavioral and relational changes and launch the family successfully so that treatment gains are maintained.

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is an intensive family and community-based treatment for serious juvenile offenders with possible substance abuse issues and their families. The primary goals of MST are to decrease youth criminal behavior and out-of-home placements. Critical features of MST include: (a) integration of empirically based treatment approaches to address a comprehensive range of risk factors across family, peer, school, and community contexts; (b) promotion of behavior change in the youth's natural environment, with the overriding goal of empowering caregivers; and (c) rigorous quality assurance mechanisms that focus on achieving outcomes through maintaining treatment fidelity and developing strategies to overcome barriers to behavior change.

Good Behavior Game®/PAX Good Behavior Game® (PAX GBG) are one and the same. Scientifically, it is the Good Behavior Game®, and commercially and in educational settings it is preferred by Johns Hopkins University staff and users to use the softer, “relational frame” name for use with children, families, and staffs as the PAX Good Behavior Game or “PAX,” which means Peace, Productivity, Health, and Happiness.

The PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) is a universal classroom-based preventive intervention that is designed to create a nurturing environment for all children. The intervention aims to increase on-task behavior, focused attention, and self-regulation in students while decreasing disruptive, withdrawn, and violent behavior. Unlike a curriculum, the intervention is designed to integrate seamlessly into classroom instruction by providing the teacher or after-school professional with ten research-based behavioral health strategies for use in concert with daily instruction.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a dyadic behavioral intervention for children (ages 2.0–7.0 years) and their parents or caregivers that focuses on decreasing externalizing child behavior problems (e.g., defiance, aggression), increasing child social skills and cooperation, and improving the parent-child attachment relationship. It teaches parents traditional play-therapy skills to use as social reinforcers of positive child behavior and traditional behavior management skills to decrease negative child behavior. Parents are taught and practice these skills with their child in a playroom while coached by a therapist. The coaching provides parents with immediate feedback on their use of the new parenting skills, which enables them to apply the skills correctly and master them rapidly. PCIT is time-unlimited; families remain in treatment until parents have demonstrated mastery of the treatment skills and rate their child's behavior as within normal limits on a standardized measure of child behavior. Therefore treatment length varies but averages about 14 weeks, with hour-long weekly sessions.

PSST is aimed at decreasing inappropriate or disruptive behavior in children. The program teaches that problem behaviors arise because children lack constructive ways to deal with thoughts and feelings and instead resort to dysfunctional ones. It is designed to help children learn to slow down, stop and think, and generate multiple solutions to any given problem. The program uses a cognitive-behavioral approach to teach techniques in managing thoughts and feelings, and interacting appropriately with others. Specific techniques include modeling, role-playing, positive reinforcement of appropriate behavior, and teaching alternative behaviors. Children are typically given homework to help them practice implementing these skills. Most sessions are individual, but parents may be brought in to observe and to learn how to assist in reinforcing new skills.

The PATHS® (Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies) Curriculum is a comprehensive social-emotional learning program designed to reduce aggression and behavior problems and to increase emotional and social competencies in preschool and elementary school-aged children. This curriculum is intended to be used by educators and counselors in the classroom to simultaneously target prevention of future emotional and behavioral problems (all children), as well as intervention (e.g., students with poor classroom behavior and performance). In addition to detailed scripted lessons and materials, generalization and academic integration strategies are incorporated in the program to facilitate use of skills throughout the day (e.g., in the "teachable moments") and to promote the integration of social, emotional, and academic learning and development. Although primarily designed for use in the school setting (whole classroom or smaller groups), the program can be adapted for other locations. Information and activities are included for use with parents. An after-care version is also available.

PATHS® is a registered trademark of PATHS Program LLC, the distributor of The PATHS® Curriculum.

TFCO-A (previously referred to as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care - Adolescents) provides foster care treatment for children 12-17 years old with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and/or severe delinquency. TFCO-A aims to create opportunities for youths to successfully live in families rather than in group or institutional settings, and to simultaneously prepare their parents (or other long-term placement) to provide them with effective parenting. Four key elements of treatment are (1) providing youths with a consistent reinforcing environment where they are mentored and encouraged to develop academic and positive living skills, (2) providing daily structure with clear expectations and limits, with well-specified consequences delivered in a teaching-oriented manner, (3) providing close supervision of youths' whereabouts, and (4) helping youth to avoid deviant peer associations while providing them with the support and assistance needed to establish pro-social peer relationships. TFCO also has versions for preschoolers and children. Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers (TFCO-P) is rated separately on this website. Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Children (TFCO-C) has not been tested separately, but has the same elements as TFCO-A except it includes materials more developmentally appropriate for younger children.

Level 4 Triple P is one of the five levels of the Triple P - Positive Parenting Program® System which is also highlighted on the CEBC. Level 4 Triple P helps parents learn strategies that promote social competence and self-regulation in children as well as decrease problem behavior. Parents are encouraged to develop a parenting plan that makes use of a variety of Level 4 Triple P strategies and tools. Parents are then asked to practice their parenting plan with their children. During the course of the program, parents are encouraged to keep track of their children's behavior, as well as their own behavior, and to reflect on what is working with their parenting plan and what is not working so well. They then work with their practitioner to fine tune their plan. Level 4 Triple P practitioners are trained to work with parents' strengths and to provide a supportive, nonjudgmental environment where a parent can continually improve their parenting skills. Level 4 Triple P is offered in several different formats (e.g., individual, group, self-directed, and online). The CEBC evaluated the standard version of Level 4 Triple P as described above and not any other variations (including early teen versions or those for children with developmental delays).

CPS is a treatment model that is designed to help parents/caregivers and children learn to collaboratively and proactively solve the problems that contribute to the children’s challenging behaviors, with the goal of improving family communication, cohesion, and relationships. It is made up of four modules that teach parents: (a) to identify lagging skills and unsolved problems that contribute to oppositional episodes; (b) to prioritize which unsolved problems to focus on first; (c) about the Plans framework—the three potential responses to solving problems: Plan A (solving a problem unilaterally, by imposing the adult will), Plan B (solving a problem collaboratively and proactively), and Plan C (setting aside the problem for now); and (d) how to implement Plan B with their child by gathering information from the child to get a clear understanding of their concern or perspective, defining the adult concern on the same unsolved problem, and finally having the child and adult brainstorm solutions to arrive at a plan of action that is both realistic and mutually satisfactory. The clinician actively guides the initial problem-solving process, however, the goal of treatment is to help the child and parents become independent in solving problems together. In general, parent(s) and child are in attendance at all of the sessions, although there are times when a clinician may feel that it would be beneficial to discuss certain issues with the child or parent(s) individually.

PLL combines group therapy and family therapy to treat children and adolescents aged 10-18 who have severe emotional and behavioral problems (e.g., conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and frequently co-occurring problems such as depression, alcohol or drug use, chronic truancy, destruction of property, domestic violence, or suicidal ideation. The program also has been used with teenagers with less extreme behaviors. PLL is also used to serve as an alternative to a residential placement for youth as well as with youth returning back from residential placement such as commitment programs, halfway houses, group homes, or foster homes. PLL teaches families how to reestablish adult authority through consistent limits while reclaiming a loving relationship.

PLL must consist of both of the following:

• Six multifamily sessions, conducted by one clinician and one co-facilitator, that employ group discussions, videotapes, age-specific breakout sessions, and role-play.
• Six to eight individual family intensive 1- to 2-hour therapy sessions in an outpatient or home-based setting to practice the skills learned in the group setting. The number of sessions can be increased up to 20 for youth with more severe problems such as involvement with the juvenile or criminal justice system. PLL's integration of group sessions and family therapy is designed to help families apply skills and concepts to real-life situations and prevent relapse.

PPC is a peer-helping model designed to improve social competence and cultivate strengths in youth. Care and concern for others is the defining element of PPC. Rather than demanding obedience to authority or peers, PPC demands responsibility, empowering youth to discover their greatness. Caring is made fashionable and any hurting behavior totally unacceptable. PPC assumes that as group members learn to trust, respect, and take responsibility for the actions of others, norms can be established. These norms not only extinguish antisocial conduct, but more importantly reinforce prosocial attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Positive values and behavioral change are achieved through the peer-helping process. Helping others increases self-worth. As individuals become more committed to caring for others, they abandon hurtful behaviors.

The 4 Rs and 2 Ss for Strengthening Families Program is a program where families who have children with behavioral difficulties can participate in a group treatment to help improve family communication, family relationships, and satisfaction with services. Participating families have a child between 7-11 years old with behavioral difficulties and at least one primary caregiver who will participate in the group with the child.

The group topics focus on Rules, Relationships, Respectful Communication, and Responsibilities (4 Rs) and Stress and Social Support (2 Ss). Each session follows a similar format and focuses on the R or S of the day. There are discussions and activities to help caregivers, and their child learn how to use each R or S. Each week, there is also “Roadwork” (i.e., some activities to try at home).

The 4 Rs and 2 Ss has been adapted to be used with individual families, but that version has not been reviewed by the CEBC.

TFCO-P (previously referred to as Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers) is a foster care treatment model specifically tailored to the needs of 3 to 6-year-old foster children. TFCO-P is designed to promote secure attachments in foster care and facilitate successful permanent placements. TFCO-P is delivered through a treatment team approach in which treatment foster parents receive training and ongoing consultation and support. Children receive individual skills training and participate in a therapeutic playgroup, and family of origin (or other permanent placement caregivers) receive family therapy. TFCO-P emphasizes the use of concrete encouragement for prosocial behavior; consistent, nonabusive limit-setting to address disruptive behavior; and close supervision of the child. In addition, the TFCO-P intervention employs a developmental framework in which the challenges of foster preschoolers are viewed from the perspective of delayed maturation.

Tuning in to Kids (TIK) is a parenting program that focuses on emotions and is designed to assist parents to establish better relationships with their children. The program teaches parents simple emotion coaching skills - that is how to recognize, understand, and manage their own and their children's emotions. When their children are emotional, parents: notice the emotion, name it, show empathy and then wait for the emotion to subside (often by comforting the child) before trying to talk about the situation leading to the emotional experience and or what to do about it. The program aims to prevent problems developing in children, promote emotional competence in parents and children, and when present, reduce and treat problems with children's emotional and behavioral functioning. Delivery options range from a 6-session program with the general community through to a 10-session program for clinical/high need participants.

Adlerian Play Therapy (AdPT) is a therapeutic approach designed for children ages 3-10, drawing from the principles of Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology. This approach helps children explore their emotions, beliefs, and social dynamics through play, a natural medium for self-expression. The therapy unfolds in four phases: establishing a trusting relationship, understanding the child’s lifestyle, gaining insight into their perceptions of self and others, and guiding them toward positive goals and constructive behaviors. Through these phases, AdPT is designed to support children in developing self-esteem, social interest, and problem-solving abilities. By providing a supportive and safe environment, the approach encourages children to navigate and make sense of their feelings, fostering personal growth, and helping them develop skills to interact in socially appropriate ways. The therapy aims to empower children with a sense of belonging and significance as they learn to understand and manage their relationships and emotions more effectively.

Aggression Replacement Training® is a cognitive-behavioral intervention that targets aggressive and violent adolescent behavior. The program consists of three components: Social Skills Training; Anger Control Training; and Moral Reasoning. The components are specifically matched across each week and integrated for content and process. Each week builds upon the week before. Clients attend a one-hour session in each of these components (meeting the same time and same day each week).

CCPT is a developmentally responsive, play-based mental health intervention for young children ages 3 to 10 who are experiencing social, emotional, behavioral and relational disorders. CCPT utilizes play, the natural language of children, and therapeutic relationship to provide a safe, consistent therapeutic environment in which a child can experience full acceptance, empathy, and understanding from the counselor and process inner experiences and feelings through play and symbols. In CCPT, a child's experience within the counseling relationship is the factor that is most healing and meaningful in creating lasting, positive change. Based on person-centered principles, overarching goal of CCPT is to unleash the child's potential to move toward integration and self-enhancing ways of being. Child outcomes following CCPT include decreased symptomatic behaviors and improvement in overall functioning.

Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) is a play therapy-based treatment program for young children presenting with behavioral, emotional, social, and attachment disorders. CPRT is a systemic intervention grounded in Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) theory, attachment principles, and interpersonal neurobiology. CPRT is based on the premise that a secure parent-child relationship is the essential factor for a child's well-being. In a supportive group environment, parents learn skills to respond more effectively to their children's emotional and behavioral needs. In turn, children learn that they can count on their parents to reliably and consistently meet their needs for love, acceptance, safety, and security. In CPRT, parents are taught specific skills grounded in the principles and procedures of CCPT that focus on establishing or enhancing a secure attachment with their child and helping parents attune to and respond to their child's underlying needs rather than focus on symptoms. Parents learn to limit their children's problem behavior, while demonstrating empathy and respect for their children.

Collaborative Problem Solving® (CPS) is an approach to understanding and helping children with behavioral challenges who may carry a variety of psychiatric diagnoses, including oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, mood disorders, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, etc. CPS uses a structured problem solving process to help adults pursue their expectations while reducing challenging behavior and building helping relationships and thinking skills. Specifically, the CPS approach focuses on teaching the neurocognitive skills that challenging kids lack related to problem solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance. Unlike traditional models of discipline, this approach avoids the use of power, control, and motivational procedures and instead focuses on teaching at-risk kids the skills they need to succeed. CPS provides a common philosophy, language and process with clear guideposts that can be used across settings. In addition, CPS operationalizes principles of trauma-informed care.

CIFFTA is a 12–24-week outpatient treatment for adolescents 11 to 18 years old and their family/caregivers. CIFFTA incorporates content relevant to diverse adolescents (e.g., race, ethnicity, LGBTQ) and is designed to engage marginalized communities, reduce symptoms of behavioral and mental disorders and substance use, and to improve family functioning (e.g., increase parental involvement and cohesion and reduce conflict). CIFFTA uses an adaptive and flexible modular design to tailor treatment to unique clinical and cultural characteristics. CIFFTA includes individual adolescent treatment, family treatment, and psychoeducational components. Its Social Ecological and Human Development foundation means it focuses on 1) sharing information, building skills, and increasing motivation at the individual child level; 2) creating more adaptive and healthy interactions in the family; 3) empowering parents to work more effectively with school, health, welfare and juvenile justice systems; and 4) buffering destructive societal messages and forces. Materials are available in Spanish and English.

Defiant Children: A Clinician's Manual for Assessment and Parent Training provides clinicians with a scientifically based behavioral paradigm and set of methods in which to train parents in the management of defiant/ oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) children. The program involves training parents in 10 steps through weekly sessions that have proven effectiveness in reducing defiance and ODD symptoms in children ages 4-12 years. The manual also provides information on the assessment of these children prior to intervention and with rating scales to use to monitor changes that occur during treatment. The manual further provides the parent handouts that are to be given by the therapist at each step. Therapists are granted limited permission to photocopy the assessment tools and rating scales as well as the parent handouts for use with families undergoing treatment in their practice.

The Families First program utilizes the Risk, Need, and Responsivity Model for intervention with at-risk youth and families through 3-4 home visits per week totaling 6-10 hours per week, typically lasting 10-12 weeks. Individual responsivity factors are assessed so the worker can tailor the intervention to the youth and family. While the youth's specific risk factors are targeted, the risk factors related to the home environment (e.g., parental relationships, supervision, structure, discipline, etc.) and the social environment (e.g., peer associations, community involvement, relationships, etc.) are also targeted.

The specific implementation of the Families First program is carried out using a 6-phase model within the framework of the Teaching-Family Model. This treatment approach began in the 1960s at the University of Kansas. Its basis is in cognitive behavioral approaches, social learning theory, modeling, and a strength-based emphasis on actively teaching and role-playing skills that promote positive client and family outcomes.

HNC is a skills-training program aimed at teaching parents how to obtain compliance in their children ages 3 to 8 years old. The goal is to improve parent-child interactions in order to reduce the escalation of problems into more serious disorders (e.g., conduct disorder, juvenile delinquency). The program is based on the theoretical assumption that noncompliance in children is a keystone behavior for the development of conduct problems; and that faulty parent-child interactions play a significant part in the development and maintenance of these problems.

Parents attend sessions with their children and trainers teach the parents core skills necessary for improving parent-child interactions and increasing their children's compliance.

I Can Problem Solve (ICPS) is a preventive and rehabilitative program designed to lessen disruptive behaviors. It is a cognitive approach that teaches children ages 4 to 12 how to think, not what to think, in ways that help them learn to resolve interpersonal problems that arise with peers and adults. They learn that behavior has causes, that people have feelings, and that there is more than one way to solve a problem. The curriculum is divided into two parts:

• Pre-problem solving skills -- learning a problem solving vocabulary, identifying one's own and others' feelings, and considering another's point of view
• Problem solving skills -- thinking of more than one solution, considering consequences, and age-appropriate sequencing and planning skills.

Adults learn a problem solving approach to handling conflicts and other problem situations that helps children associate their newly acquired problem solving skills with what they do and how they behave in real life.

Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE) is a 7-week dyadic intervention, consisting of a pretreatment assessment/orientation to treatment and 6 one-hour-long treatment sessions, for a caregiver and child age 1-10 years who participate in treatment together. The caregiver can be biological, foster, kinship, adoptive, or another type of caregiver. This program is for caregivers and children who may:

• Be disruptive or defiant
• Have experienced a traumatic event
• Be adjusting to a new home or family situation
• Have difficulties within the caregiver-child relationship

PC-CARE has a variety of protocols for a wide range of populations and needs (e.g., trauma exposure, autism spectrum disorder). In PC-CARE each week, caregivers and children, if age appropriate, learn new strategies for enhancing the caregiver-child relationship and improving behavior management effectiveness. Therapists then coach caregivers while they play with the child, pointing out the strategies caregivers use that seem most effective for them and their child. The child is involved in the treatment process (teaching and coaching) as much as possible and appropriate.

Parenting Wisely: Teen Edition is a self-administered, highly interactive computer-based program that teaches parents and children, ages 11-18, skills to improve their relationships and decrease conflict through support and behavior management. The program utilizes a DVD for group administration or an interactive online program for individual administration with ten video scenarios depicting common challenges with adolescents. Parents are provided the choice of three solutions to these challenges and are able to view the scenarios enacted, while receiving feedback about each choice. Parents are quizzed periodically throughout the program and receive feedback. The program operates as a supportive tutor pointing out typical errors parents make and highlighting new skills that will help them resolve problems. Computer experience or literacy is not required. Parents and children can use the program together as a family intervention. The Parenting Wisely: Teen Edition program uses a risk-focused approach designed to reduce family conflict and child behavior problems and improve the quality of parent-child relationships. Note: There is a Young Child version of the program for parents of 3- to 10-year-old children that has not been reviewed or rated by the CEBC.

SNAP^® (Stop Now And Plan) Boys is a cognitive-behavioral multicomponent model for at-risk children with disruptive behavior problems, and their families. SNAP Boys focuses on teaching effective emotional regulation, self-control, and problem-solving skills, with an emphasis on challenging cognitive distortions and aimed at helping children make better choices in the moment in order to keep them involved in school and avoid criminal conduct. SNAP Boys uses strategies such as role-playing, cognitive restructuring, and reinforcement learning. Concurrently, caregivers are also taught the SNAP Boys strategy to help them cope with their own emotions and self-regulation, in addition to, effective parent management strategies. In addition to the group sessions, SNAP Boys provides services to meet the needs of individual families. These may include family counselling, academic tutoring, school advocacy, and mentoring. As part of a continued care model, SNAP Youth Leadership Services are offered to youth aged 11.5-14 who require additional skill development, employment skills, and help to prevent gang affiliation.

The Incredible Years® Classroom Dinosaur Child Program (Prevention) is used by teachers as a prevention program for an entire classroom of students. The curriculum is delivered 2-3 times a week by teachers in the classroom in 20- to 30-minute circle time lessons, followed by small group practice activities and promotion of skills throughout the school day. Program topics include doing your best in school, understanding feelings, problem-solving, anger management, friendship skills, and how to talk with friends. The program includes letters for teachers to send home with suggested activities parents can do with their children to reinforce the classroom learning and promote parent involvement in classroom learning. The program includes lesson plans for 3 levels so that teachers can choose lessons based on children’s developmental age (Level 1: ages 3-5: Level 2: ages 5-6: Level 3: ages 7-8).

The Incredible Years® Preschool Basic Parent Training Program (Treatment) is a group-based parent curriculum based on video modeling designed to strengthen parent-child interactions and attachment; reduce harsh discipline; foster parents' ability to promote children's social, emotional, and language development; and reduce externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Parents learn how to build school readiness skills and are encouraged to partner with teachers and day care professionals so they can promote children's emotional self-regulation and social skills. Lastly, the program focuses on increasing parents' self-regulation skills and social support.

The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program is a group prevention intervention/training delivered to teachers (which can include teacher aides, school psychologists, and school counselors) of children ages 3-8 years). Group leaders work with teachers in a collaborative and interactive way to strengthen teachers’ classroom management strategies, promote children’s prosocial behavior, school readiness, and reduce children’s classroom aggression and noncooperation with peers and teachers. The program also helps teachers work with parents to support their school involvement and promote consistency between home and school. The program can be delivered as a preventive intervention to all teachers or teachers can participate in the program to address the behaviors or a specific target child with disruptive or oppositional behaviors.