Shropshire’s parents given chance to complete ‘understanding your child’ course for free

Shropshire parents of children aged between six months and 18 years are being offered the chance to complete, for free, a popular course that will help them to better understand their child.

The ‘understanding your child’ course has been developed by the Solihull Approach team – health professionals working together with parents and practitioners to support a child’s emotional development, behaviour, and relationship with their parents.

From today (Monday 3 April 2017) Shropshire Council is offering all parents in the county the chance to participate in the course, by providing them with a free online access code.

To access the course parents simply need to visit www.inourplace.co.uk, and type in the discount code SHRPSAPARNT.

The course is 11 modules long and each module takes about 20 minutes. There are interactive activities, quizzes, video clips and practical handouts.

The modules cover: how your child develops; understanding how your child is feeling; tuning in to what your child needs; responding to how your child is feeling; different styles of parenting; having fun together; the rhythm of interaction; why is sleep important; self-regulation and anger; communication and tuning in.

Francean Doyle, Shropshire Council’s children’s services head of early help, said:

“We’re really pleased to be able to offer Shropshire parents free access to this fantastic course. This enjoyable online course is for curious parents, for dads who want to be the best dads they can be, or mums who want to be the best mums they can be. The advantage of the course being online is that it can be done at a time and place to suit family life, and by those who may not want, or be able, to attend a group.”

The Solihull Approach applies key messages from research to add to parents’ understanding of their children. Parents will find more ways to think about what their child is telling them through the child’s behaviour. They will also find more ways to think about their relationship with their child.

‘Understanding your child’ is the first online course for parents to be awarded the Government’s CANparent Quality Mark.

To learn more about the course or the Solihull Approach, visit their website or to find out more about Understanding Your Child groups in your area visit the Shropshire Family Information Service website.