The YUVA Academy, in close collaboration with the Sidus Learning & Development Institution and the Centre for Counselling & Mindfulness, has come up with a new empowerment programme – the Certificate in Positive Parenting Programme. This 12-hour short course reiterates the fundamentals of a strong and secure family support system that aims to equip parents with the skills and confidence they need to be self-sufficient and to be able to manage family issues.

The Certificate in Positive Parenting Programme covers a broad range of topics, including what parenting skills are, the dynamics of discipline, teaching values to our children, small and daily habits that will make the difference and more. It is ideal for all parents, but can also be a very useful tool for caretakers, grandparents, teachers, and anyone who spends a lot of time helping to shape the minds of the next generation. The programme provides an overview of all the parenting skills that are necessary to raise a healthy and well-adjusted adult. It will also help participants to learn where and why some challenges may arise and how to best go about overcoming them.

It can be difficult to know what to say or do to best help one’s child become a responsible, caring and loving individual. At times most parents and caregivers feel that they are failing their children by not doing things in the correct way.

Good parenting skills play the biggest role in the development of a child. It officially starts when one gives birth to a child. While there are no set rules, official handbooks, school or special classes that teach parents about good parenting skills, it is a skill that can be learned and mastered. Good parenting skills fall into several categories which are love and affection, behaviour management, autonomy and independence, stress management, life and relationship skills and health and safety.

High quality care-giving, characterised by a sensitive, cognitively stimulating, and moderately controlling approach, is crucial for children’s development and safety. Indeed, many of the skills children acquired during the early years are fundamentally dependent on the quality of their interactions with their parents. For instance, parents play an important role in fostering children’s early learning (e.g., language and problem-solving abilities) and in shaping their social-emotional skills (e.g., emotion regulation, reactivity to stress, and self-esteem). Furthermore, parents have an influence on the development, maintenance, or cessation of children’s positive and/or negative behaviours. The quality of parenting children receive during the early years affects three key determinants of later success in school: their cognitive potential, their social skills, and their behavioural functioning.

Additionally, parenting is the single largest variable implicated in childhood illnesses and accidents; teenage pregnancy and substance misuse; truancy, school disruption, and underachievement; child abuse; unemployability; juvenile crime; and mental illness. These are serious in themselves but are even more important as precursors of problems in adulthood and the next generation. The importance of parenting arises from its role as a buffer against adversity (such as poverty or delinquent influences) or mediator of damage (as in child abuse). More educated parents will make better decisions in the lives of their children, in turn improving the mental and emotional development of children throughout their lives.

By offering the Certificate in Positive Parenting Programme, the YUVA Academy aims to empower parents in order to raise healthy and educated children, in whose hands lie the future of our country.