A parent education program is a course that can be followed to correct and improve a person's parenting skills. Such courses may be general, covering the most common issues parents may encounter, or specific, for infants, toddlers, children and teenagers. These courses may also be geared towards parents who are considering having a child, or adopting one, or are pregnant.
Contents
Some parent education programs are:
Kess-erziehen
Alfred Adlers individual psychology and the work of Rudolf Dreikurs are the scientific foundation of kess-erziehen. In German "Kess" means breezy or perky. The abbreviation refers to cooperative, encouraging, social and situation-oriented. The goal of the course is to promote a cooperative, democratic educational style through common rules for family life and consensus that is reached in a family council.
The course promotes the ability of the participants to understand the social needs of children, the disregard of which can lead to undesirable behaviors. Adults and children are seen as equal and the mutual approval of needs is emphasized. Parents and educators learn to develop cooperation, conflict management and to set borders through logical consequences. Consistent, encouraging action is used to promote independence and to allow children to accept responsibility for their own actions.
The participants are guided to act situation-oriented, to offer choices to children and to notice positive behaviors, instead of reacting primarily to undesirable behaviors. Thereby self-esteem and responsible action in partnership are promoted.
Starke Eltern - Starke Kinder
Starke Eltern – Starke Kinder is the parent education course of the German Child Protection Alliance (DKSB). The program is based on humanistic psychology.
The target audience of the program are all parents but adaption to more specific target audiences, as for instance single parents, stepfamilies, certain age groups or educators is possible. The course uses a model of guided education, which allows the parents to try out what they learned at home. The participants are guided to improve the communication between parents and child, to strengthen the self-esteem of the child, to reflect on educational goals and to recognize and solve problems.