 Nurturing America’s Military Families is a Nurturing Skills Parenting Program specifically designed to improve the nurturing parenting skills of parents in the military with children ages birth to 11 years old. Parents and Parent Educators work cooperatively in tailor making parenting programs that meet the assessed needs of the families. The flexibility in the structure of the Lesson Guide makes it possible for parent educators to meet the demands military families face in short notice deployments, long term deployments, changes in schedules, relocation to other bases.
The Army and Navy New Parent Support Programs have implemented the Birth to Five Nurturing Programs worldwide.
- The Lesson Guide for Parents contains 78 individual lessons in parenting, and family life in the military.
- Each lesson can be taught in a home based setting, or in a group based setting.
- The length of each lesson is approximately 60 to 90 minutes, depending if the lesson is offered one-to-one in a home based setting, or in a group based setting with multiple families.
- Lessons are presented in 15 Skill Areas which target specific skills: discipline, brain development, building a sense of caring, etc.
- Lessons are also presented in the five parenting constructs that represent the subscales of the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2): Developmental Expectations; Empathy; Alternatives to Corporal Punishment; reversing Family Roles; and Oppressing Children’s Power and Independence.
- Parents complete the AAPI-2 and the Nurturing Skills Competency Scale (NSCS) to measure changes in knowledge, beliefs, and behavior.
- Based on the pretest data, parents and parent educators create a Family Nurturing Plan (FNP) that tailors lesson to meet the specific parenting needs of the families.
- The FNP allows military families the flexibility of continuing their lessons in other locations resulting from deployment to other bases.
- Weekly Home Practice Assignments help parents develop the nurturing parenting competencies.
A big part of being active duty is the chance of long term deployment during war and training times, post deployment issues, loss of life or limbs, issues of separation and the stresses of military life in general brings to families.
Lessons in the program guide parent educators to assist families in dealing with these issues, as well as issues of culture, spirituality and staying connected as couples and families.
Program Instructional Materials
- Lesson Guide for Parents. The Lesson Guide is the basic curriculum for the parents program. It offers 71 individual lessons located within 14 major Nurturing Parenting Skills Sections. People facilitating the Parent Program need to have their own copy.
- Parent Handbook. The Parent Handbook serves both as class text and workbook. Each parent/family is to receive their own copy and is requested to bring their Handbook to every class. Teachers should also have their own copies of the Parent Handbook for reference.
- Nurturing Book for Babies and Children. The NBBC is a user-friendly manual that provides parents with instruction in infant massage as well as activities parents can do at home to build the growth and development of their children. Each parent/family is to receive their own copy and to use it as a resource.
- Easy Reader Parent Handbook. The Easy Reader Parent Handbook was developed to make Nurturing Parenting easy for parents and practitioners to understand and practice. There are 37 chapters which present the concepts and techniques of Nurturing Parenting in a step-by-step format utilizing drawings of parents and children. The drawings serve as a visual stimulus to help parents remember how to use the skill. Minimal words are used when possible.
- Instructional DVD for Nurturing Parenting for Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers. The DVD contains 20 separate programs that correspond to some of the lessons being offered in the Lesson Guide.
- Alternatives to Spanking DVD Series. Instructional segments include: Red, White & Bruises; I’m Only Doing This For Your Own Good; This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You; My Way or the Highway; and Spare the Rod, Spoil The Child.
- Assessment Inventories. Each parent completes the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2), the Family Nurturing Plan, and the Nurturing Skills Competency Scale.
Materials such as flip chart for the group sessions, DVD player and TV, magic markers and clipboard for home visits are additional items needed to implement the program. >> Order Nurturing Skills for Military Families |
|
