Supporting Parenting

Nurturing parents’ knowledge of child development and supporting their ability to build healthy family relationships are important for achieving positive health outcomes for children. All children rely on safe, stable and positive interactions with a parent or caregiver for their development. Building parenting skills and confidence is particularly important for families facing adverse conditions and toxic stress, since positive experiences can buffer children from adversity and help build resilience. Positive parenting skills are also protective factors that may help reduce risk of child abuse and neglect. 

Through the office visit, clinicians are well-positioned to observe, address, and promote positive parenting, and make recommendations or referrals for activities and interventions that bolster parent-child attachment and parenting skills, as well as make recommendations for services and interventions.

Following are strategies for nurturing parental confidence, skills, and well-being. 

Strategies for Supporting Parents

• Share models, activities, and tips that support parent-child relationship building and techniques like attachment parenting—for example, brain building or brain development activities like those offered by Vroom, and Positive Parenting tips.
• Integrate child development specialists into the practice using an approach like ZERO TO THREE's HealthySteps program. 
• Learn about protective factors for increasing resilience and the everyday actions you can take to encourage them, as well as about trauma-informed care approaches. Pursue professional development and training on trauma-informed approaches and resilience from organizations like Prevent Child Abuse New York. 
• Partner with programs in your community that support parents and to which you can make referrals. For example, Parenting Journey is a facilitated small group program for parents and caregivers to promote confidence, capability, and resilience, available at some community-based organizations around New York City. 
• Familiarize yourself and your practice staff with approaches to nurturing parent confidence through strengths-based observations and positive feedback to parents, which can be particularly useful during stressful visits, such as vaccinations. Examples of these approaches include Reach Out and Read, Video Interaction Project, and Newborn Behavioral Observations. 
• Review resources on primary and secondary prevention of child abuse, like those from Prevent Child Abuse New York, and from Practicing Safety, an initiative of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
• Nurture parental well-being and mental health by encouraging self-care to prevent caregiver burnout. Learn about everyday self-care strategies to share with parents, as well as more targeted tactics for self-care during emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Promising Approaches to Supporting Parents 

Pediatric practices across New York have adopted a range of approaches to support parenting as part of the well-child visit. These include:

• Pediatric Bundle Initiative, an effort by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to help pediatric practices in NYC provide evidence-based programs and use promising practices to support healthy development in children from birth to age 5. Some pediatric practices are integrating elements of the PBI and into their workflows and services, while others are forming relationships with community partners and making referrals out for services. Featured interventions include:
  • Centering Parenting, a program that supports parent connections by offering well-child care in a group setting.
  • Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, an evidence-based model that helps parents build family relationships though a variety of services like home visits, individual and group support meetings, and workshops. 
  • HealthySteps, a model for integrating child development specialists into the pediatric practice to facilitate universal screenings, provide interventions and referrals, and follow up with families. 
  • Incredible Years parenting programs, which provide lessons and supports on parenting competencies and parent involvement in school activities.
  • Maternal Depression Screening to identify mothers at risk for maternal depression and refer them to services that can be implemented in-office or through a community-based organization.
  • Reach Out and Read, a national initiative promoting parent-child attachment during well-child care visits by encouraging parents to read and have daily language interactions with children. 
  • Video Interaction Project, a parenting program using videotaping, toys, and resources with parents and children to develop early literacy skills through pretend-play, shared reading, and daily routines. 
• Pediatric practices are partnering with community-based organizations that offer supportive services such as home visiting and parenting classes. Examples include referrals between NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP)/Columbia Charles B. Rangel Community Health Center and the Northern Manhattan Perinatal Partnership, and between NYP/Queens Theresa Lang Children’s Ambulatory Center and Public Health Solutions. 

Resources for Supporting Parenting and Child Development