About Our Training

Professionals who work with caregivers and young children (birth to 5 years) often see the need to support and guide caregivers in building nurturing and responsive relationships with children. Promoting First Relationships gives professionals the knowledge, tools, and strategies to do so.

Through this training, participants learn unique consultation and intervention strategies that they can integrate into their work with families and young children. The strategy can be used one-on-one with parents, in the clinic or in home, and also with child care providers and early childhood teachers responsible for group care. Because Promoting First Relationships is a positive, strengths-based model, caregivers are open to the intervention and gain competence, and thus investment, in their caregiving.

The Promoting First Relationships training program integrates theory, practice and intervention. Trainers use various learning approaches including video case studies, role-playing, and reflective dialogue. These approaches allow participants to apply the framework directly to issues faced in their work environment. The PFR training program focuses on the following:

• understanding factors that promote a positive parent-infant relationship;
• using reflective observation, verbal feedback, and reflective questioning;
• discussing social and emotional needs specific to the infant-toddler period;
• discussing care giving qualities and activities that promote a contingent, reciprocal interaction and enhanced behavioral and emotional regulation in the infant (e.g., individualized attention, increased routine and predictability);
• practicing care giving qualities and activities that promote social behavior (e.g., managing distress, offering rituals and routines);
• handling challenging behaviors (e.g., identifying possible causes for challenging behaviors, reframing the behaviors for parents, developing individualized intervention plans); and
• exploring the parent’s own sense of self, emotion regulation and support that influence the care giving environment.

There are three levels of Promoting First Relationships’ Home Visiting training available.  To obtain more information about training in our Child Care or Pedicatric Clinic based model, please contact Jennifer Rees, rees@uw.edu.