Parent-to-Parent Programs: A Resource for Parents and Professionals

Parent to Parent programs offer parents of children who have special needs the opportunity to receive emotional and informational support from another parent who is experiencing a similar set of circum-stances. By matching a trained veteran parent of a child with a disability in a l-to-l relationship with a parent who is newly referred to the program, Parent to Parent programs facilitate connections filled with information and perspectives that are unique to parents. This article introduces Parent to Parent support by (a) featuring the matched experience of two parents, (b) describing the results of a national survey of local Parent to Parent programs, (c) presenting guidelines for starting a Parent to Parent program, and (d) suggesting resources that are available nationally to those interested in Parent to Parent support. It's nice here at the table in the kitchen in the morning, Sitting with our coffee and talking 'bout our kids Did you ever dream of wheelchairs when you thought of having children I know most parents worry, and I guess I sorta did...

Statewide Parent-to-Parent Programs: Partners in Early Intervention.

Parents of infants and young children with disabilities or special health care needs are thrust, often without warning, into an unfamiliar and complex world that requires support for and information about a whole host of medical, educational, legal, financial, social, and emotional realities. Statewide early intervention efforts have a valuable ally in statewide parent-to-parent programs in meeting the needs of families of young children with special needs. This article reports on the descriptive results of a national survey of statewide parent-to-parent programs and suggests ways in which parent-to-parent programs and early intervention efforts can support and enhance their respective efforts on behalf of young children and families

Operation Positive Change: PBS in an Urban Context

Children who have problem behavior need not only the support of school personnel but also the support of their parents to be successful in both educational and community/home settings. However, too often research-based best practices in positive behavior support (PBS) do not reach families, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse families living in underserved urban communities. This article describes Operation Positive Change—a training curriculum and train-the-trainer model developed by Pyramid Parent Training Community Parent Resource Center that brings PBS best practices identified by leading PBS researchers to parents in New Orleans, Louisiana. After participating in Operation Positive Change work-shops, parents who are dealing with the problem behavior of their children, as well as a myriad of other challenges related to poverty, race, and language barriers, are gathering data about their child's strengths and needs and likes and dislikes, developing a functional assessment for their child, and participating as full partners in the development of a PBS pla

Participatory Action Research: Reflections on Critical Incidents in a PAR Project

This article describes a participatory action research (PAR) project designed to evaluate Parent to Parent progra ms in f ive states in the United States. The PAR team consisted of two groups: 1) parent leaders of programs that create one-to-one matches between help-seeking parents of children with disabilities and volunteer supporting parents and 2) university-based researchers. Based on a narrative record of the project, critical incidents are presented along with reflections of factors that contributed to the success of the project overall. The project successfully gathered evaluative data about Parent to Parent self-help programs. Results of both the PAR project and the s tudy i t created are presented. A process of developing a shared understanding of the programs and of the purposes for evaluating them, along with an on-going willingness of parents and researchers to compromise, led to creative solutions t