Expired Personal Best Program: A Curriculum to Promote Adult Development and Sensitive Parenting

This two-day workshop prepares participants to implement Personal Best groups with parents and caregivers of young children. The program helps parents manage stress, reach goals, understand their children, and improve relationship, problem solving and communication skills. The goal is for parents to become resilient, self-aware and engage in positive interactions with their child. The 16-session curriculum provides guidelines for discussion, small and large group activities and personal reflection. The workshop is appropriate for clinicians and early childhood staff who would like to offer group interventions to diverse populations including underserved and vulnerable families, teen moms, and at-risk children.

Learning Objectives:

• To increase parent confidence, social support, executive function and social-emotional skill
• To describe the unique neurobiological and familial influences on child learning and behavior
• To identify stress triggers, responses and effective coping strategies
• To discuss parenting beliefs that influence the parent-child relationship and parenting practices

Presenter:

Judy Grossman, DrPH, OTR is the Associate Director of Ackerman’s Center for the Developing Child and Family; former Director of the Resilient Families: Children with Special Needs Project; and creator of the Personal Best prevention program for parents with young children. She is also an adjunct faculty member at NYU, and consultant to community organizations. Previous employment includes special education policy research and academic appointments at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center and Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Grossman lectures nationally and internationally about family resilience, primary prevention, mental health consultation, program development and evaluation, and early intervention/special education services. She maintains a private practice working with couples and families.

Dates / Time:

Thursdays, October 10 and 17, 2024
10:00 am–4:00 pm