Common Sense Parenting

We understand there are times when adolescents experience significant emotional, behavioral, educational, interpersonal, and familial problems. During these times adolescents often need more help than parents alone can provide.

Common Sense Parenting®

• offered on Thursdays from 6:00-9:00 p.m
• Please call 970-352-1056 ext. 24 if you are interested in attending or referring a family

Common Sense Parenting® is designed as a practical approach to help parents respond more positively to their children and use more effective discipline.

The program consists of two three-hour group sessions led by a parent trainer. Parents are taught skills that help them encourage positive behavior, discourage negative behavior, and teach alternatives to problem behavior.

The training model used in Common Sense Parenting® is one that focuses on experiential learning. The five training components – instruction, modeling, practice, feedback, and review – give parents an opportunity to learn and use the parenting skills in a neutral class setting before putting the skills to use at home with their children. After viewing both live and videotaped modeling of the parenting skills, parents spend the majority of the class time practicing how to use the skills with children.

There are three main instructional tools used in the program. First, the parent book includes a description of the Common Sense Parenting® skills & some additional tools for parents to use with their children. Second, narrated videotapes include examples of correct and incorrect use of the skills by parents of various cultural backgrounds with both children and adolescents. Third, the parent trainer’s manual includes specific outlines and activities for trainers to use with parents.

Session 1:

• Parents as Teachers: Parents learn how to be more influential in their children’s lives by describing their behavior and using positive and negative consequences.
• Effective Praise: Parents learn to provide praise and encouragement for positive child behaviors. This specific attention increases the likelihood that these same behaviors will occur again.
• Preventive Teaching: Parents learn to prepare kids for new situations and situations in which their child has had problems in the past.

Session 2:

• Corrective Teaching: Parents learn to stop problem behaviors, give consequences for those behaviors, and teach their children how to handle those situations in the future.
• Teaching Self-Control: Parents learn how to keep themselves and children calm during emotionally intense interactions and to teach children how to control their behavior when they are upset.
• Putting it all Together: Parents learn how to integrate and adapt the skills learned in the previous sessions to fit with their family.

Research and Feedback
Common Sense Parenting® is continually researched and developed. Outcome studies have indicated that parents report significantly fewer child behavior problems and improved parent and family satisfaction after participating in the program. Additionally, the program has shown benefits for parents from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, various socioeconomic groups, and parents having a history of child abuse and neglect. Parents appreciate the support they receive from other participants in the class experiencing similar difficulties.