By Yvonne Benson, Educational Psychologist and Mike Simons, Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist

Transcription

1 1-2-3 Magic By Yvonne Benson, Educational Psychologist and Mike Simons, Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist Description of Magic According to Magic the job of parenting consists of 3 tasks: 1. Controlling obnoxious behaviour (arguing, whining, fighting, tantrums) 2. Encouraging good behaviour (going to bed, homework, eating) 3. Strengthening your relationship with your child (praise, active listening, shared fun) The programme was devised by the Clinical Psychologist Thomas Phelan, Ph.D. parent of a son with ADHD and is a behavioural management programme for parents and other carers- including teachers - of young children up to 12 years of age. The Magic parenting programme explores parent-child relationships and the purpose of children s behaviour including sibling rivalry, conflict and tantrums. It shows how applying the rules of Magic can make a positive difference to these relationships. The Magic programme aims to provide simple, clear strategies, such as timeout and rewards, to reduce the negative and conflicted patterns of interaction between parent and child. It provides examples of positive and negative parenting practices and practical suggestions for overcoming difficulties caused by children s behaviour. The key elements for parents emphasise clear and calm communication outlining expectations for their child s behaviour and how to further develop and promote better relationships with their child. Focusing on the three tasks of parenting as stated above, behaviours are divided into those the parent wants their child to stop such as whingeing, fighting and defiance and those the parent wants their child to start, such as paying attention and being polite. Strategies that can be used by parents include stop techniques which involve several stages before going into a Time-Out ; while start techniques involve all the positive reinforcements that are familiar to most parents e.g. shared fun. Rationale for Magic Awareness Sessions A common factor thought to be one of the causes of behavioural difficulties in children is any difficulties in the parent child relationship (Kendziora and O Leary, 1993). Further research undertaken by Cummings and Davies (1994) highlighted how emotional negativity in parenting and problems in child management can contribute to the behavioural and emotional problems in children, which can in the long term result in conduct or oppositional disorder and other mental health difficulties for the child. In turn these increasingly difficult behaviours raise further parental negativity and continue this negative cycle for family relationships and future

2 outcomes for the child. Kendziora and O Leary (1993) noted that because of the impact this negative cycle has not just for families but society as a whole, the main focus and input for children s mental health should be on improving parenting and parental practices. It is important to support parents to feel more confident and have greater self efficacy about themselves and their own style of parenting. Over the past five years, there has been an increase in key policies (ECM, Early Intervention) for promoting children s emotional wellbeing through focusing on parenting interventions. Good, effective, positive parenting, is advocated by policy makers and practitioners to be a key element in supporting and enabling children and their families to have good long term mental health outcomes. A variety of behaviourally oriented individual and group-based parent programmes have been developed (Cunningham et al., 1995; Webster-Stratton et al., 1989 etc.) Behavioural orientated programmes focus on changing parental attitudes to affect parenting through the development of skills and self control to impact on their children s compliance and behaviour. Gottlieb et al (1995) report that programmes that focus on changing parental behaviour have a more profound and lasting effect on children s behaviour and so their longer term mental health, than those which focus solely on changing parents attitudes. Bradley et al (2003) found that in an evaluation study of the behaviourally orientated parenting programme Magic, undertaken in four brief sessions with parents of 3-4 year olds, parents reported more positive parental behaviour and significant changes in their child s behaviour that continued in a one year follow-up to the study. Bloomfield and Kendall in a more recent study (2007) also found that Magic is effective in terms of improving parenting selfefficacy. Parents who are confident in their parenting skills are more likely to be able to nurture and support the emotional wellbeing development of their children. The rationale for including Magic in the TaMHS project came from exploring how to support schools with their parental links and continue the development of positive mental health with their families outside of the school day. The Magic programme is widely advocated by Specialist CAMHS when working with parents and so was proposed as a useful, practical programme that schools could easily utilise. Provision of Awareness Raising Sessions and Implementation Two one-day Magic Awareness Raising sessions took place in Northamptonshire in January 2010, led by Julie Harrison formerly from the British Red Cross ADHD Project and at that time working as a Family Support Worker for Briar Hill Family Resource Centre. Members of staff from the TaMHS schools attended in each of their local areas - Wellingborough and Daventry. Materials and resources linked to Magic were made available and participants were given the opportunity to discuss the programme with a parent who used Magic in the home environment and further explore how they may employ the techniques and strategies within their schools. The sessions focused on: The key elements of the Magic programme. Techniques that can be useful for families who have children with ADHD. The structure of the programme. The importance of communication and language in Magic.

3 The awareness sessions were provided at the Wellingborough Education Partnership training room on the 5 th of January 2010 for 18 participants and again at St James Infant School in Daventry on the 12 th of January for 14 participants. Participants included Educational Psychologists, Specialist Primary Mental Health Practitioners, a BACIN Family Link Worker, Family Centre Workers, Family Support Workers and members of staff from TaMHS schools, mainly those who have a specific role in supporting parents. TaMHS Evaluation Evaluation of the awareness raising sessions was carried out using a questionnaire which focused on participants rating their knowledge and skills regarding the learning objectives of the session before and after on a scale of 1-6 (1 not at all, 6 very much). Ratings for the presentation and relevance (1- poor and 6 excellent) were requested along with any comments about the sessions. The learning objectives for both sessions are listed below: 1. I understand the key elements of the Magic programme 2. I understand how the techniques can be effective with ADHD families 3. I understand the basic principles of the programme- structure, routine, clarity of language etc. 4. I feel confident enough to apply the Magic techniques to my work There was a plan also to evaluate the impact of using the Magic Programme with families using pre, post and post + 3 months measures of the parent version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). However, few of the participants of the training were able to provide any of this information to the project staff, for a variety of reasons, especially due to difficulties obtaining completion of these questionnaires by parents. Evaluation Results from the Magic Awareness Sessions held at Wellingborough Partnership January 5 th 2010 and St James Infant School January 12 th 2010 The graph below shows the average rating scales of all participants in both Daventry and Wellingborough training cohorts, before and after in relation to the learning objectives.

4 Scores for the presentation, resources and relevance were very positive with an average score from the participants of 5.3, 5.5 and 5.5 respectively. A sample of the comments from the participants on both courses included: Fantastic course learnt a lot and looking forward in trying it out. Very informative, interested, really enjoyed. Hope to put this into practice. I know of '1-2-3 Magic' and have watched the DVD, but seeing it being done and given more information and handouts are useful. Lots of info, particularly on ADHD, which I needed. Tutor was passionate and inspiring in her subject. This will be a very useful tool to share with families. Very personable and professional presentation with clear examples for implementation. Very engaging presenter which kept me focused and interested. Lots of examples of how approach used successfully. Very interesting course. Explanation of real life scenarios. Putting strategies into practise - hearing benefits and problems. Feedback at follow-up sessions A month following the sessions, meetings were set-up with groups of schools in each locality and facilitated by an Educational Psychologist to discuss how they had implemented or were hoping to utilise the information regarding Magic from the sessions. The information below summarises some of the feedback from these sessions: At that point in time there were 21 families in the Wellingborough and Daventry areas who were receiving Magic support in some form through their school. One school reported how successful the approach had been having been introduced into their year 4 and 5 classrooms as a whole class approach. The

5 children helped to own the problem as they were involved in the process of listing STOP and START behaviours e.g. wandering round, shouting out. Difficulties included several children needing time out space at one time and letting go of the idea for the teachers that time out is a punishment. Previously it had taken some children 1-3 hours to calm down, following the approach this had reduced to 5-10 minutes (following time-out ). One child recognising they had had an argument with their parent and needed to calm down asked to use the chill out zone on entering school. Parent of one child diagnosed with ADHD found support through school. One secondary school had discussions/coaching with their SEN Learning Support Assistants. Rather than using Magic as a whole school approach, they were using this within isolation / time-outs with about 4/5 individual children. Outcome Evaluation One school s, (Ruskin Infant) Parent Support Advisor (PSA) was able to share data with project team members for both Pre and Post intervention SDQs for 4 families, with whom she had specifically used Magic. From the results of the Pre and Post SDQ assessments, three out of the 4 children s presentations improved in Total Difficulties scores, to the extent that they changed categories (according to the assessment tool guidance), 2 children s scores changed from Abnormal to Borderline and one changed from Abnormal to Normal. The only child whose Total Difficulties score did not change, already had a score within the Normal range, according to the assessment tool guidance. The shifts between Total Difficulties scores and resulting categories (provided in SDQ guidance) pre and post Magic are as shown in the graph and tables below.

6 Pre -Total Difficulties Post- Total Difficulties Shift in Total Difficulties Family Family Family Family Average SDQ Categories for Total Difficulties Levels of Categories Shifted Pre -Total Difficulties Post- Total Difficulties Family 1 Abnormal Normal 2 Family 2 Abnormal Borderline 1 Family 3 Abnormal Borderline 1 Family 4 Normal Normal 0 In terms of the difference between pre- and post SDQ assessment on aspects reflected by the sub-scales in this assessment tool, the greatest positive difference related to Conduct Problems, which positively shifted by the greatest amount for each of the 4 families. Also there are positive effects for 3 of the 4 families on ratings for Hyperactivity, Emotional Symptoms and also Pro-social skills. The average shifts in ratings of these sub-scaled aspects and the total across the 4 families are shown in the graph below with all but Peer Problems showing a positive shift. For Peer-

7 Problems, there was no change in ratings for 3 out of 4 families with one family reporting a slight negative shift. In terms of the parents rating of impact of the difficulties by completing the second part of the SDQ called the Impact Supplement, there was a decrease of impact in all 4 cases with 2 of them by an especially significant extent. This positive decrease was mainly accounted for by the change in the extent that difficulties were placing a 'Burden on your family as a whole': moving from pre: A great deal to post: ' only a little ' for two of the children. This same shift extent for these 2 children occurred also for impact on the child's friendships. Furthermore, there was a positive impact on 'Leisure Activities' for all four families. The overall impact pre and post and the sizes of the shift for each family and as an average are shown in the graph below.

8 According to the PSA who worked with these families using Magic, she commented that it seemed especially helpful to the children s emotional well-being by it enabling the provision of consistency for them when they behave inappropriately and giving them clear boundaries to try to adhere to. She identified that is worked well in combination with other interventions that were available at about the same time through TaMHS and through other provision. For one child, the combination of Magic, Zippy s Friends (see elsewhere in this report) and accessing Wrap Around (the school s after-school provision) seemed to be important for improved family functioning and improved mental health for the child. In terms of recommending it for use with other families, she highlighted the need for families to be able to stick to the process for Magic to then enable family members to get on better with each other. Overall Impact Ratings of Magic " Where 10 is very highly useful and 1 is not at all useful, on a scale of 1-10, how useful do you think the following TaMHS interventions were/are a)for children who are vulnerable to experiencing difficulties with Mental Health or who are already experiencing such difficulties Overall Impact Ratings of Magic for use by parents, according to senior staff from 8 project schools Average Median Mode Range to 8 b) Overall to the school to 8

9 " Where 10 is very highly useful and 1 is not at all useful, on a scale of 1-10, how useful do you think the following TaMHS interventions were/are a)for children who are vulnerable to experiencing difficulties with Mental Health or who are already experiencing such difficulties Overall Impact Ratings of Magic for use by school staff, according to senior staff from 7 project schools Average Median Mode Range to 8 b) Overall to the school to 8 Comments made alongside these ratings identified that within school Magic worked well with individual children due to shared language and shared approach building on what already existed. One school representative commented that due to there being many children with issues re behaviour, Magic is very helpful overall. In terms of use by parents, overall rating comments included that some parents have found it useful: but others less so, as they seemed not able to take approach on: depending on organisation and motivation of the parents. But that when parents engage well and take on Magic, individual children seem to benefit. Capacity Building The Magic Awareness sessions has built the capacity for staff in parental linked roles within the TaMHS linked schools in terms of the knowledge and skills in using the Magic Programme. From the follow up meetings, schools were reporting a variety of ways they were utilising the programme and information from the awareness sessions to support children and their families. Capacity was also built through the attendance of Educational Psychologists and Specialist Primary Mental Health Practitioners at the initial Magic awareness raising sessions to use in their roles when working with parents or schools. Further sessions could be offered to other schools possibly through clusters. Feedback from the TaMHS mainstreaming conference showed that 83 participants indicated they would like to receive further information about the programme and 12 of these participants indicated they would be likely to purchase further sessions/training if funding was available in schools. Further capacity-building could usefully take place by commissioning ADDISS (the Magic Licence Holder in UK) to train appropriate staff in Northamptonshire to deliver the programme to parents and to train appropriate staff to deliver training to school staff. This will need to be considered alongside other parent training and school behaviour management approaches.

10 Conclusion As shown by the both the qualitative and quantitative results from the Magic training and implementation, Magic can be helpful to families who are able to implement this within their families, in combination with other school based input; and Magic also has been shown to be of use to school staff in schools for setting and enforcing boundaries for behaviour. The key lessons learned in the Northamptonshire TaMHS Project about Magic to take forward include:- Indications are that Magic can be introduced successfully into Northamptonshire schools with a positive impact on children who are vulnerable to experiencing difficulties with Mental Health or who are already experiencing such difficulties, and on the school overall. In particular, children benefit in terms of increased compliance with behavioural boundaries and parents benefit from using a framework for being more confident in their approach to boundary setting, and hence, increase positive behaviour of their children and reduction in impact of emotional and behavioural difficulties. Key aspects for making implementation of Magic successful for use at home or school include the readiness, motivation and capacity of the parent(s) or staff to make use of the framework and techniques. Capacity needs to be further built for further implementation of Magic in Northamptonshire schools, and the detailed results above need to be taken into account. Further evaluation of the impact of Magic locally would be beneficial for ensuring its efficacy. Because of the indications of the importance to children s mental health of Magic, it has been included in the Building Blocks of Provision for Building Mentally Healthy Schools in Northamptonshire at the Wave 3 focus for use by parents and as a Wave 1 Whole School Behaviour Management Approach, as a recommended provision for all schools.

11 Building-Blocks of Provision for Building Mentally Healthy Schools in Northamptonshire As informed by Northamptonshire Targeted Mental Health in Schools Drawing and Talking KS1-4 Emotional Health / Wellbeing Team to support students in KS3&4 Home-Focused Practitioner Trained in ASD, 123 Magic, Solihull Approach Parenting More Targeted Programmes or Support - Wave 3 focused Peer Support KS1&2 Peer Mentoring KS3&4 Building Resilience thru: Zippy s Friends KS1 FRIENDS KS2/3/4 CBT based Group Work e.g. Growing Optimism or RESPECT Peer Massage or Relaxation Techniques Support for child experiencing Loss, Bereavement, Separation, ADHD, ASD, Selfharm & Domestic Abuse Whole-School Behaviour Management Approach Targeted Programmes or Support - Wave 2 focused Universal Programmes or Support- Wave 1 focused County PSHE Prog inc SEAL. Healthy Schools Anti Bullying Shoe Box & Mental Health Handbook Headteacher Wellbeing Programme Staff Wellbeing Programme Tackling Stigma Solihull Approach & or Protective Behaviours Solution Focused Approach Children s Workforce Core Competencies (from DCSF, ECM 2005) Mental Health Team or Lead Person in School Parent Engagement best Practice Essential Foundation Programmes & Approaches May 2011 Essential Underpinnings for work with children References Phelan T Magic: Effective discipline for children. 3rd ed. Child management Inc.; Bradley SJ, Jadaa D, Brody J, Landy S, Tallett S, Watson W, et al. Brief psychoeducational parenting program: An evaluation and 1-year follow-up. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2003; 42(10): Bloomfield, L. & Kendall, S. Audit as evidence: The effectiveness on parenting self-efficacy of 123 Magic programmes in one community. Bloomfield L, Kendall S. Testing a parenting programme evaluation tool as a preand post-course measure of parenting self-efficacy. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2007; 60(5):

12 This Magic chapter was authored by, Yvonne Benson, Educational Psychologist and Mike Simons, Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist and edited by Mike Simons, Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist and TaMHS Project Manager and Programme Lead. The full document Northamptonshire TaMHS Project Evaluation of Interventions April 2009 is available on the Northamptonshire Shoebox Website For training opportunities re Magic and other interventions, please see For any further enquiries about or TaMHS, please contact Mike Simons misimons@northamptonshire.gov.uk in the first instance