Baby – Parent Interaction Training

 

Understanding how babies and parents interact is an essential skill for working well with families

 

Browning House provides training to individuals wanting to better understand the interactions that take place between young children and their parents/carers.

 

Baby – Parent Interaction training (NCAST) is a systematic and well researched examination of child and parent interaction. It has been well documented that there is a gap in assessment tools that are focused on working with children this young, Baby – Parent Interaction allows the assessor to observe and evaluate the depth of attachment between parent and child and more importantly watch how this develops over a period of time.

 

We offer individual places at our offices in Leeds or alternatively we will deliver training at a time and venue to suit you.

 

Benefits of Baby – Parent Interaction training

 

• Improves the decision-making process by assessing and assisting the child-parent/carer relationship
• Forms a basis for intervention and care-planning that is highly sensitive and measures change
• Provides a strong evidential base that can be used in Court

 

Who is it for?

 

• All professionals with a role in the decision-making process
• Front line staff that have direct involvement with children and parents/carers e.g. Health Visitors, Family Nurse Partnership, Children’s Social Care (Local Authorities), Voluntary/ Independent sector, Residential Assessment units and Mother & Baby units

 

Features

 

• Uniquely focuses on the interaction between babies (and very young children) an their parent/carer
• Parents/carers are given the opportunity to understand their child's communications
• Baby – Parent Interaction can identify positive areas of social, emotional and cognitive development to build on; the Teaching and Feeding scales are so sensitive that they can identify the smallest of changes
• Assesses both aspects of the child-parent/carer relationship in their interaction
• Evidence-based standardised tool provides a systematic means of assessing interactions
• Both Feeding and Teaching scales are suitable for older children if they have experienced delay in development
• Post-training support (telephone and e-mail) is available

 

Aim of the training

• To gain an understanding of the child and parent/carer interactions during feeding and teaching situations
• To gain 85% reliability when using the Feeding and Teaching scales

Learning objectives

• understanding of child's cues and responsiveness to parent/carer
• Opportunities to teach parent/carer to promote child's development
• Assess a parents/carer's sensitivity and responsiveness to child 

 How it works?

 

Baby – Parent Interaction has two scales; Feeding and Teaching which contain robust set of observable behaviours depicting baby – parent/carer communication and interaction during routine and novel situations. By using both scales, professionals are given different perspectives in which to assess the baby-parent/carer relationship. This is also an opportunity to offer intervention in order to promote a parents/carer's sensitivity and knowledge of their child's cues, responses and overall development.

 

The Feeding scale is reliable for babies from birth up to one year old. Feeding occurs immediately after birth and several times a day from thereon, thus presenting both the child and parent/carer the opportunity to develop positive and/or negative behaviours. By using the Feeding scale to assess children and their parent/carer, professionals are able to identify specific problems and offer effective intervention, therefore offering the opportunity for improving a fundamental aspect of care and interaction.

 

The Teaching scale is reliable for babies from birth up to three years of age. In contrast to the Feeding scale, the Teaching scale offers the professional an opportunity to assess the child and the parent/carer interacting during a novel situation, whereby the parent/carer teaches the child a new skill; thus offering the opportunity to observe and assess the parent's/carer's knowledge of the developmental stages of their child and their child's responses.

 

Participants in the training are taught the many non-verbal cues children offer to their parent/carer in order for their needs to be met; they learn to identify sleep and awake states, and when a child is most open to interaction. Both scales recognise strengths to build on, and are so sensitive that observers are able to identify the smallest of changes. They can be used to assist and assess parents/carers, and uniquely offer babies and young children the opportunity to be assessed whilst demonstrating their behaviour in familiar/unfamiliar situations with their parent/carer.

 

Within Browning House the baby – parent interaction assessments are filmed and given to parents/carers on a DVD to keep; this offers parents/carers the maximum opportunity to develop their skills, it empowers them to identify and make changes, and most importantly it ensures that children and their parents/carers have a record of feeding and playing together.

 

Trainer profile - Moira Read MA BSc (Hons) PGCE

 

Moira's association with Browning House began in 2000 when she regularly worked at the house as a Health Visitor within the NHS. She then joined Browning House full-time as a Family Assessment Worker in November 2002, and was then promoted to a Case Manager in 2006. She qualified as a General Nurse in 1979, a midwife in 1981 and as a Health Visitor from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1994. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing Studies from the University of Manchester in 1997, a PGCE from the University of Sunderland in 2000 and a Masters degree in Child Welfare & Protection from the University of Huddersfield in 2008. Moira completed the Parent – Child Interaction training in 2005, and then travelled to the University of Washington in Seattle to acquire her instructor certification in 2009.

 

Booking/Further information 

Please contact Moira Read on 0113 262 1110 or alternatively e-mail her at mread@browninghouse.org.uk