Parents, Teachers, and Therapists Using Child-directed Play Therapy And Coaching Skills to Promote Children’s Social and Emotional Competence and Build Positive Relationships Rationale and Theory

problems (high rates of aggression, noncompliance, oppositional behaviors and emotional dysregulation) place children at high risk for recurring social and emotional problems, underachievement, school drop out and eventual delinquency (Loeber et al., 1993). The development of emotional self-regulation and social competence in the early years plays a critical role in shaping the way children think, learn, react to challenges, and develop relationships throughout their lives (Raver & Knitzer, 2002). Thus, early intervention efforts designed to assist parents, teachers, and child therapists to promote children’s optimal social and emotional competencies and reduce behavior problems can help lay a positive foundation and put children on a trajectory for future success. The Incredible Years (IY) Parents, Teachers and Children’s Series are a set of three separate but interlocking programs designed to prevent and treat conduct problems and promote social and emotional competence in young children (C. Webster-Stratton, 2005). Each of these programs has been evaluated in randomized control group trials by the developer as well as by independent investigators and has been shown to be effective in reducing conduct problems, promoting social competence and school readiness (for review see (C. Webster-Stratton, Mihalic et al., 2001). Research has indicated that combining the IY teacher and/or child programs with the parent program results in the most stable and sustained effects across settings (home and school) and over time, particularly for children diagnosed with Oppositiona