The ABC (Area Based Childhood) Programme is a national prevention and early intervention programme funded by Tusla -The Child and Family Agency.

The Louth ABC Programme – aims to promote and improve the development of children in County Louth through the implementation of evidence-based approaches/interventions.

To achieve this, we use three methods to influence positive change:

1.         Direct Service Delivery to Families & Children

2.       Capacity Building of Local Services

3.       Systems Change – Evidence Informed Decision Making

The ABC Programme coordinates the implementation of the following interventions:

Parent & Family Support

The Incredible Years® Series is a set of Parent Support Programmes that are delivered over a series of 10-14 weeks. These Programmes can be delivered to parents of children aged from 0-8 years of ages, and are designed help build attachment, and inform parents how to respond when confronted by challenging behaviour and emotions.

Louth ABC Programme offer a range of different Incredible Years Programmes and they are:

·       Incredible Years Parent & Baby Programme (0 – 10 months)

·       Incredible Years Toddler Programme (18 months – 3 years)

·       Incredible Years Basic Programme (3 – 8 years)

·       Incredible Years Autism & Language Delays Programme (2 – 5 years)

Circle of Security Programme – is an 8-week programme based on decades of research about how parent – child relationships can be supported and strengthened. Topics covered in this programme:

• Understand your child’s emotional world by learning to read their emotional needs
• Support your child’s ability to successfully manage emotions
• Enhance the development of your child’s self esteem
• Strengthen parent/child bonding and attachment

Junior Strengthening Families – is an evidence-based 14-week family skills training programme that involves the parents and children in three classes run on the same night once a week. This gives parents and their children the opportunity to work together to learn new skills, improve communication and create positive relationships within the family.

Topics covered in this programme:

• How to communicate effectively as a family
• Improving the parent-child relationship
• How to set boundaries and stick to them

ParentChild+ Home Visiting Programme – is a home visiting programme created to support early literacy, school readiness and early opportunities. It is an evidence based, “learning through play” experience, where the home visitor will visit the family twice a week for 1 hour play sessions designed to encourage the parent to be the child’s first and best teacher. Over the course of two cycles, families receive up to 92 home visits and acquire a library of:

• 46 high quality books and educational toys
• 46 curricular guide sheets with tips on vocabulary-building, engaging conversation, skill development, social-emotional development, imaginative play, and literacy, music, and art activities.

The ParentChild+ Programme is funded by The National College of Ireland and the ReThink Ireland Education Innovation Fund.

School & Early Years Programme Support

The Incredible Years® Series is a set of interlocking, comprehensive, and developmentally based programmes targeting parents, teachers, and children. The programmes are designed to work jointly to promote emotional, social, and academic competence and to prevent, reduce, and treat behavioural and emotional problems in young children.

Louth ABC Programme Support the delivery of these programmes in 16 Primary Schools and 16 Early Learning and Care Centres throughout County Louth.

The KiVa Anti Bullying Programme is an innovative school-based anti-bullying programme. The programme uses universal actions to prevent bullying and indicated actions to address cases of bullying.

Louth ABC Programme currently support the delivery of this programme in 27 Primary Schools in County Louth.

The Hanen Program® is delivered through the Learning Language and Loving It™ programme and the Teacher Talk™ training series to provide early childhood educators and junior/senior infant teachers with practical, evidence-based strategies to help all children in the classroom build language and social skills regardless of their individual learning and communication styles, and any special needs.

Early Talk Boost – is a classroom-based targeted intervention for children with delayed language helping to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. Differentiated for children between the ages of 3-7 years, the programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of six months, after a nine-week intervention.