Yes, this course is for all parents who want to help their children achieve their full potential

Yes, it should. Our research trials have shown that these methods improve reading age

Yes, the methods are proven to be effective for reducing disobedience, tantrums and moodiness, and are recommended by official government bodies such as NICE (National Institute for Healthcare and Clinical Excellence)

Yes, it has major elements on how to make your child feel more secure and enable them to celebrate their successes and feel better about themselves

Yes, the methods in the course are proven to help these behaviours and retrain your child’s
brain to focus better and calm down. When they are marked, these behaviours can
add up to ADHD, for which these methods are recommended by NICE

It is not specifically designed for children with autism, but the methods have been shown to help both challenging behaviour and anxiety in children with autistic traits

It is designed for children aged 2 to 10. Young infants need a slightly different approach, and with teenagers the same ideas apply but more negotiation is necessary.

The principles of effective parenting with teenagers are the same, with strengthening of the emotional relationship, encouragement for good behaviour and staying calm with consequences for difficult behaviour. But the examples in this course are for primary age children

Definitely. As you change your approach to the relationship with your child, it will increase the benefit if your partner does it too and your child experiences the same approach from both of you.

Although this course is designed to be done by one parent/carer, it helps to work together, to discuss the strategies, look at the videos and examples as well as do the home practice. Although, few parents fully agree on everything (!), the more you can work together, support each other and be consistent, the better for everyone!

Yes, learning how to speak up for yourself and express your needs in a constructive way is part of the course, as is how to listen to them and show them that you understand what they are feeling

We have picked some of the main difficulties parents face and are in the process of putting together simple guides to help you identify the causes, understand the impact and what you can do to manage this. They can be found in the Resources section in the top navigation bar - Common Difficulties. We will continue adding to these topics in the coming months.

Because it consists of ingredients proven to work in over 300 trials with over 30,000 parents. This is their lived experience, that compared with parents who didn’t take a course, their children are happier, play and behave better, and make better friendships. And the family home is calmer. Beyond this, we have seen with our own eyes, time and time again, how family life can be transformed. However, to bring about lasting changes will require some input from yourself to practise the new methods with your child.

There are a number of online courses out there. Many are simply telling you what to do, without helping you put it into practice. Most don’t have elements to help you read with your child and improve their school performance, nor do they have ways to improve communication with your child and your partner or friend. None that we are aware of have an initial assessment to help you personalise your course to your own and your child’s needs. Few have a community too, where ideas and experiences can be shared, and parenting coaches and experts are also on hand.

There are 4 underpinning theories that we draw on: (i) attachment theory, which is about how to make your child feel safe and loved and strong inside, so then they are more willing to fit in with the family; (ii) social learning theory, which shows how to help children learn better habits, change their behaviour and gives you the tools to do this; (iii) educational language and reading learning theory, so that you use the best methods proven to help your child learn better; and finally (iv) neuroscience, choosing the approaches that have been shown to lead to better brain growth.

Yes, there is a brief introduction to the course right at the start. This includes a Family Star questionnaire, following which you will get some feedback about how you are managing as a parent, and how your child is getting on. You will be able to see the results on your personal Family Star chart, so you can see how you have changed from the beginning to the end of the course. This takes around 15 minutes, and is really worthwhile as it will also help personalise the course to your needs.

The course is designed to take 6 - 12 weeks. This means you can practice one or two new strategies a week with your child, before moving on to the next session or part of the course. Taking time and doing the exercises will help you to build on the positive changes.

Each online session takes around 30-40 minutes, although we have broken each up in to smaller bite-sized chunks that take between 2 minutes and 15 minutes sot hat you can easily fit it in to your daily routine. Some people like to spend longer, looking at the feedback from other parents in the course, and sharing challenges and successes in the supported community.

The course has two halves, based on LOVE and LIMITS, and how to get the balance! There are 9 sessions overall. We recommend you do these in the following order: Starting with 6 sessions of LOVE; Play 1, Play 2, Praise 1, Praise 2 and Listen 1, Listen 2. Then the 3 sessions of LIMITS; Rules, Temper and Plan.

Yes, you can pause at any time just by logging out. When you log back in you will be taken back to your dashboard where you can see which sessions you've completed and which are coming up next.

No, but we strongly recommend you to go in the order shown in the course, as sessions build upon each other

To get the most benefit for you and your child it is important to try out the skills covered in the course at home. It will feel strange at first, but if you keep on practicing you should see a difference. And it will get easier. We also would encourage you to practise doing play 10-minutes-a-day as well as reading together with your child throughout the course.

If you do the Parenting Style Quiz, you will get a PDF showing what sort of parenting style you currently have. Once you have signed up you will will find a few printable charts and documents within the course, such as reward charts. Downloadable materials can also be found in the community.

Yes, we will send you a reminder of your home practice by email once you've completed each section and this also refreshes you on key strategies.

Yes, doing home practice with your child is part of what makes this program so effective. This is a theme that runs through the course each week as it is so important. We encourage parents to continue the daily 10-minutes-a-day play and reading throughout the course. And at the end of the course, you can see on the dashboard how your Family Star has progressed.

Yes absolutely. Although this course is designed to be done by one parent/carer, you can certainly do it together, discuss the strategies, look at the videos and examples together as well as do the home practice. Although, few parents fully agree on everything (!), the more you can work together, support each other and be consistent, the better for everyone!

The course will be available to you for a minimum of 3 months.

We keep your information securely stored and confidential. You can access our Privacy Policy from the footer.

Yes, our Community Manager is responsible for managing discussions in the private community in order to create a safe, secure and respectful space for members.

You can use the contact us form on the site (via the top menu) if you need to contact the Parenting Matters team.

You can access the course from any internet enabled device - desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. We support all major browsers on these devices

Not at present. However you can get a simultaneous translation app for many languages.

There is a voiceover available for the first half of the programme and this will soon be extended through the rest of the course. However to benefit from the course it helps to have a reasonable level of English.