The Holding Hands Program: A behaviourally based relationally rich program for parents of toddlers.

Interventional Participants in HH are parents who refer or are referred into the UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic reporting clinically significant levels of social, emotional, behavioural and/or parenting difficulties in their child(ren) aged 12-60 months. Parents who meet inclusion criteria are invited to participate in 6-8 x 90 minute treatment sessions that address parenting difficulties in the context of early child behaviour problems. Each session comprises a 50-60 minute PARENT-TIME session focused on the delivery of behaviourally based parenting skills followed by a 40 minute KID-TIME session where therapist guided review of progress is undertaken. The number of treatment sessions provided is determined by the supervising psychologist and is based on treatment gains Behaviorally based programs, also known as Behavioural Family Intervention and Parent Management Training, commonly identify parents as the potential mechanisms of change in child behaviour. The interventions achieve change through the engagement of parents in one of two distinct modes. They either involve 1. the delivery of parenting information to parent(s) in session in the absence of their children, assessment of which is undertaken session by session via parental self-report 2. the direct coaching of parents as they interact with their children, the assessment of which is undertaken session by session via self-report in conjunction with observational coding during session The current study will combine sessional engagement of parents on their own which, in the current research is termed PARENT-TIME and direct coaching of parents and their children which, in the current research is termed KID-TIME. Drawing on clinic referred children aged between one and three years, and undertaken at UTS: Family Child Behaviour, the current study seeks to assess the potential to increase treatment response by combining these two distinct modes of treatment delivery in a clinic referred population. The sessions are presented to individual families, one per week, and are run by provisionally registered psychologists under the supervision of an Board approved and Endorsed Clinical Psychologist. Treatment gains are assessed session by session. The sessions have been informed by reviews of applicable scientific literature and informed by the CI's 15 years research and clinical work in the area. Sessional material is presented in a discussive manner that emphasises families as expertise in their own situations and utilises presentation and case scenario material.