About this course
It's great that you are reading this! 9 out of 10 parents who do this course find it helpful. How amazing is that? So start your journey now!
Want to know why it's a good idea to complete this course? If you have 6 minutes, listen to these parents and teachers who are parents from a Primary School in Scotland.
Want to know a bit more about the course? Read on! 'Understanding your child' is an online course for all parents, grandparents and carers of children aged 0-19 years. This course is a journey through knowledge. It builds up a way of looking at things that will be helpful for most situations.
This course has the content you can trust. It has been developed by the Solihull Approach team with Clinical Psychologists, Child Psychotherapists, Health Visitors, Parents, Child and Family Practitioners and many others.
There are 11 modules, each taking around 20 minutes. The Modules build on the ones before, creating a course. There are interactive activities, quizzes and video clips. There is also an optional voiceover. The course covers the foundations of wellbeing and mental health.
We do not recommend that you do this course in one go. There is a lot to take in and it is best done in small chunks, usually a Module at a time.
Keep going till the end as we know that parents and grandparents get a lot out of the course! We can't promise you a free gift at the end, but we can promise you a certificate!
‘Just wanted to say how grateful I am with this course. For me it's an absolute game changer and will enhance my life with my children and really make a difference. I'm so happy I have found this I could cry.’
Occasionally, for some people, this course can bring up difficult feelings, so it might be helpful to think about how to access further support, whether from your friends & family or even from professional services, in case this is your experience too. There is further information and support materials under “Further resources” in the final section of the course (“Looking back and looking forward”).
We know that there are many different families, with different backgrounds and shapes and sizes. We have tried to consider some of the different needs of different families in this course, but it hasn't been possible to account for all family backgrounds. If that is the case, we still hope that you find something helpful in the main ideas about developing close, connected relationships between parents and children.
If you want to find out how the course works click below (each page opens in a new tab).
- Instructions on navigating through the course
- How to turn off the course audio
Ready to start? Find out about your child's brain in Module 1.
1. How your child develops
Taking a bit of time to think about being a parent, then lots of great information about what is going on inside your child's brain and how this affects their behaviour.
22 Units-
View Unit1.1 What's different about the Solihull Approach?
- 1.2 How do you currently feel about parenting?
- 1.3 How parenting makes you feel
- 1.4 How parenting makes you feel on a bad day
- 1.5 Finding out more
- 1.6 Developing your relationship with your child
- 1.7 How the brain develops
- 1.8 Video: Experiences build brain architecture
- 1.9 The developing brain: What it all means
- 1.10 The importance of early brain development
- 1.11 Video: Serve and return interaction shapes brain circuitry
- 1.12 What else affects brain development?
- 1.13 The impact of high levels of stress
- 1.14 Children's experiences informing behaviour
- 1.15 Brain development through childhood
- 1.16 Teenage brain development
- 1.17 How the teenage brain develops
- 1.18 Teenage brain development
- 1.19 What you've learnt
- 1.20 Things you might like to change
- 1.21 Time to have a go!
- 1.22 End of Module
2. Understanding how your child is feeling
Exploring the signs and signals that tell you how your child is feeling.
21 Units- 2.1 Welcome back!
- 2.2 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 2.3 What's coming up
- 2.4 How we know we're happy
- 2.5 How we know we're sad
- 2.6 How we know we're tired
- 2.7 How we know we're anxious
- 2.8 Understanding when your child feels happy
- 2.9 Understanding when your child feels sad
- 2.10 Understanding when your child feels tired
- 2.11 Understanding when your child feels anxious
- 2.12 Reading behaviours
- 2.13 Other parents' examples
- 2.14 Reading your child's behaviour in these situations
- 2.15 How our behaviour affects our children
- 2.16 Other things to consider
- 2.17 The challenge of reading behaviours
- 2.18 Time to have a go!
- 2.19 What you've learnt this Module
- 2.20 The three key questions
- 2.21 End of Module
3. Tuning into what your child needs
Tuning into what your child needs
16 Units- 3.1 Welcome back!
- 3.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 3.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 3.4 What's coming up
- 3.5 Tuning into what your child needs
- 3.6 Children's brain development
- 3.7 Forging connections
- 3.8 Reflecting on your child's brain development
- 3.9 Helping your child learn new skills
- 3.10 What it takes to learn new skills
- 3.11 Two sides to every problem
- 3.12 Understanding developmental stages
- 3.13 What would you do?
- 3.14 What you've learnt
- 3.15 Time to have a go!
- 3.16 End of Module
4. Responding to how your child is feeling
Responding to how your child is feeling
20 Units- 4.1 Welcome back!
- 4.2 Some other parents' observations
- 4.3 Reflecting on the last Module
- 4.4 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 4.5 What's coming up
- 4.6 Containment: the basics
- 4.7 Containment: learning more
- 4.8 Containment: learning more
- 4.9 What can happen when we have our own worries
- 4.10 The effect this has on the child
- 4.11 Making space in your mind
- 4.12 How feelings are communicated
- 4.13 The underlying emotions
- 4.14 Doing things differently
- 4.15 Thinking about how we say things
- 4.16 Saying things differently
- 4.17 Developing a containing relationship
- 4.18 What you've learnt
- 4.19 Time to have a go!
- 4.20 End of Module
5. Different styles of Parenting
Different styles of Parenting
14 Units- 5.1 Welcome back!
- 5.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 5.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 5.4 Mid-point recap
- 5.5 Review of progress
- 5.6 What's coming up
- 5.7 Approaches to parenting
- 5.8 What you might like to pass on to your children
- 5.9 Styles of parenting
- 5.10 Different kinds of parenting (part 1)
- 5.11 Different kinds of parenting (part 2)
- 5.12 Authoritative parenting: Getting the balance right
- 5.13 Time to have a go!
- 5.14 End of Module
6. Having fun together
Having fun together
16 Units- 6.1 Welcome back!
- 6.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 6.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 6.4 What's coming up
- 6.5 Learning by playing
- 6.6 Learning through play with adults
- 6.7 How children learn through play
- 6.8 How play can benefit relationships
- 6.9 Ideas for playing
- 6.10 Different ways of playing
- 6.11 Another look at the play sequences
- 6.12 The wider benefits of play
- 6.13 What you've learnt this Module
- 6.14 Time to have a go! Part 1.
- 6.15 Time to have a go! Part 2.
- 6.16 End of Module
7. Rhythm of interaction
The Dance of Reciprocity. The what? The way that we communicate with each other and our children. What it means for managing feelings and behaviour.
18 Units- 7.1 Welcome back!
- 7.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 7.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 7.4 What's coming up
- 7.5 The Dance of Reciprocity: The basics
- 7.6 Communication between adults
- 7.7 Communication between adults
- 7.8 Understanding the Dance of Reciprocity
- 7.9 The 7 steps of the Dance
- 7.10 Understanding babies' actions
- 7.11 Noticing the Dance with your children
- 7.12 The Dance: Some other parents' observations
- 7.13 The Dance in everyday life
- 7.14 Self-regulation and the Dance
- 7.15 Building connections in the brain
- 7.16 What you’ve learnt this Module
- 7.17 Time to have a go!
- 7.18 End of Module
8. Why is sleep important?
How sleep is directly linked to your child’s healthy development as well as to their mental and physical wellbeing. How reciprocity links to everyday behaviours such as sleep.
16 Units- 8.1 Welcome back!
- 8.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 8.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 8.4 Key learning points from Time to have a go!
- 8.5 What's coming up
- 8.6 Good sleep patterns: The basics
- 8.7 Separating from a child
- 8.8 Overcoming separation difficulties
- 8.9 Common causes of sleep disturbance
- 8.10 Why do we need to sleep?
- 8.11 What helps us to get to sleep
- 8.12 Sleeping difficulties
- 8.13 Having a routine to go to sleep
- 8.14 What you’ve learnt this Module
- 8.15 Time to have a go!
- 8.16 End of Module
9. Self-Regulation and Anger
More about self-regulation and how the Dance of Reciprocity affects self-regulation.
20 Units- 9.1 Welcome back!
- 9.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 9.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 9.4 What's coming up
- 9.5 Anger and independence
- 9.6 Coping with anger
- 9.7 Seeing anger in a different way
- 9.8 When can anger be helpful?
- 9.9 What are the kinds of things that might make a child feel angry?
- 9.10 How to help a child who feels angry
- 9.11 Learning emotional containment
- 9.12 Helping your child learn to manage their anger
- 9.13 Anger and independence
- 9.14 Parent child interaction examples
- 9.15 Reflecting on what you just saw
- 9.16 Alternative approaches you could take
- 9.17 The marshmallow test
- 9.18 What you've learnt this Module
- 9.19 Time to have a go!
- 9.20 End of Module
10. Communication and tuning in
How we communicate both shapes and reflects the relationship between parent and child. Because the ways we communicate are not always perfect and we’re not always in tune with our children, we’re going to explore how to make things better.
20 Units- 10.1 Welcome back!
- 10.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 10.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 10.4 Some other parents' observations
- 10.5 What's coming up
- 10.6 The Dance of Reciprocity: Recap
- 10.7 How to recover when things go wrong: rupture and repair
- 10.8 Example of a rupture
- 10.9 Where did things go wrong?
- 10.10 How the situation could be improved: A repair
- 10.11 What was different in that sequence?
- 10.12 Repairing the situation
- 10.13 Repairing relationships
- 10.14 What happens after a disagreement
- 10.15 The importance of apologising
- 10.16 Some other parents' observations
- 10.17 Helping your child learn rupture and repair
- 10.18 Some other parents' observations
- 10.19 Time to have a go!
- 10.20 End of Module
11. Looking back and looking forward
Drawing the course to a close, reflecting on containment and reciprocity and summarising what has been going on over the last 10 modules.
13 Units- 11.1 Welcome back!
- 11.2 Reflecting on the last Module
- 11.3 Feeding back on Time to have a go!
- 11.4 Some other parent's observations
- 11.5 What's coming up
- 11.6 What have you managed to change?
- 11.7 Quiz Time
- 11.8 Doing things differently
- 11.9 Recap of Resources
- 11.10 Further resources
- 11.11 Post-course questionnaire
- 11.12 Solihull acknowledgements
- 11.13 The end of this course: continuing your journey
