Thanks to all who have helped to make visitors feel at home
The number of people asking to visit the Centre and see local services in action is growing all the time, so we would like to thank all of you that have allowed our visitors into your services. Expect us to be making many more requests for people to come along and learn from you.

Manchester Education Service
In December 2006 we were visited by Jenny Andrew the Assistant Chief Education Officer for Manchester along with Educational Psychologist Maria Heffernan who was trained by Judy to deliver the teacher classroom management programme. During their visit they got a chance to talk with Rhiain Gwyn, the seconded headmistress that undertakes most of the IY teacher classroom management and Dino school training in Gwynedd (see newsletter) and enjoyed a visit to Ysgol Abercaseg, Bethesda, to see Classroom Dino in action

Developing links with Australia
January 2007 saw the arrival of two CAMHS staff from Flinders, Adelaide, South Australia, Andy Lawrence, Consultant Nurse Specialist and Dorothy Abbott, Education Liaison Officer. Having been trained in Adelaide by Judy last May to run the parent programme, they came to Bangor to visit services and to take part in the ADVANCED parenting and the Therapeutic Small Group Dino training. Thanks to all who have welcomed them into their services.

Andy and Dorothy are being followed by Jenny Makros and a colleague from Victoria, Australia, who will be with us in early June to see services. So, with the visit by Anwen Williams from Perth earlier last year things are really moving down under. Anwen has funds to develop and research the parent programme with aboriginal families in Western Australia.

IY in Finland
January 2007 saw a visitor from Finland, Mikko Kampman, from the Research Centre, Tampere. Having undertaken parent leader training in October with Judy in Helsinki, he came to train as a teacher programme leader. During his visit he also met with Rhiain Gwyn and with the IY research team. There is growing interest in Finland who are hosting Judy for further training and consultation in May, again in Helsinki.

Jamaica
Judy is following up on the visit by Helen Henningham, originally from North Wales but now living in Jamaica, (see Newsletter) with a visit to see how the teacher programme is being received there. Congratulations to Helen who was awarded her Welcome Fellowship, and will be spending three months working with us, some time during the next year.

Introducing Nia Griffith our new Ph.D. student
We are delighted that Nia Griffith has joined the team. Nia graduated from Bangor in 2003, and then spent three years as the administrator at a community initiative (the Caban), before joining us as an M.Sc./Ph.D. student. This year she is researching the correspondence between observer ratings of behaviour when the observers (in this case teachers) have, or have not undertaken frequency counts of child problem behaviours. This will be a replication of the work of Professor Bob Wahler, University of Tennessee (Wahler and Leske 1973). Professor Wahler heads the Child Behaviour Clinic at Knoxville and has visited us twice in 1996 and 1998.
For her Ph.D. Nia hopes to research the new infant and toddler parenting programme, due out in the Autumn which we hope to evaluate with our Flying Start partners across Wales.

The link with Portugal
Judy and Tracey have been awarded a small British Council Treaty of Windsor award to undertake exchange visits with Maria Filomena Gaspar, Auxiliary Professor of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of Coimbra University, Portugal, and a colleague to develop research links, and work on a joint project comparing parenting styles in Portugal and Wales and parental satisfaction with the IY BASIC parent programme. Maria and colleague will be with us in September 2007 and our return visit will be in Spring 2008.

Northern Ireland
Interest in the programme in Northern Ireland is growing, with four parent group leaders returning to Bangor to train in the ADVANCED parenting programme and the Therapeutic Dino School. Also, Tara Molloy a Doctoral student from Queens University, Belfast will be joining us for a two week placement in June. Tara is undertaking a Doctorate in Educational Psychology.

Autumn visitor from the States
Associate Professor of School Psychology, John Carlson of Michigan State University will be visiting us during his sabbatical year during the Autumn term. John has been pioneering the use of the self-administered parent programme for parents of children with ADHD and conduct problems, and also the teacher self-administered programme in his area.

Other world-wide links
During the past year we have also welcomed people from Denmark, Sweden, The Philipines, Yeamen and New Zealand as well as Ireland and the home countries to our training courses.

LILAC
We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in obtaining a grant to research the parent programme with foster carers, and look forward to working with our partners Powys, Wrecsam and Flintshire over the coming year on this project.

New Developments in the Incredible Years Programmes.
i) Programme for parents of 8 – 12 year old: A new seventeen-session programme has been put together for the English Pathfinder Project in which six Authorities have been funded to deliver the Incredible Years programme to parents of at risk 8 – 13 year olds. This programme is based on the current school aged and ADVANCED programmes and the new two day add on training to deliver this programme will be described.
ii) Promoting children’s school readiness: This is a four-session programme based on language and play which is now available. It can be run as a stand-alone programme or woven into the BASIC programme recommended for parents of high-risk children.
iii) The baby and toddler parenting programme: This programme will be for parents of babies and toddlers up to the age of two and a half and will be available for the Autumn. We hope to run it as a trail as part of the Flying Start project with a small number of Authorities. Nia Griffiths, our new Ph.D. student will research it.

Other news:
The British Medical Journal has published our short-term findings from our evaluation of the IY Basic Parent Programme with parents of children at risk of developing conduct disorder. The programme was run in Sure Start areas across North & Mid Wales. The study was funded by the Health Foundation.

The Welsh Assembly Government have extended funding to 2008 to enable Judy to continue to train leaders in delivering the IY Programmes. This funding is to enable the rolling out of the IY programmes throughout Wales.