The family experience of children with challenging behaviors is particularly important for their future development. Unfortunately, these infants and toddlers are particularly hard to parent. The Positive Education Program seeks to help young children at-risk for the development of emotional or behavioral problems and their parents through a family-driven Early Intervention Program. This program demonstrates what can be done to prevent re-exacerbating behavioral problems in children.

PEP’s two Early Intervention Centers (EICs) in Cuyahoga County, Ohio serve high-risk children from birth to six years of age who have behavior problems, developmental delays, or language delays. This family-driven program aims at providing children with the skills and behaviors needed for integration into regular education settings, and at enabling families to develop the skills and knowledge that will help them to work more effectively with children who are challenging to parents. Parents actually implement the interventions with their children and other parents, thus empowering families and helping them invest in reaching solutions for themselves. Experienced professionals and a parent para-professional staff provide guidance and expertise. There is no financial cost to the family. Participants "give back" to the program by teaching their new skills to new families.

The Early Intervention Centers involve all adult family members and pre-school siblings in the family-based therapeutic process. Services include:

• a family-driven needs assessment process,
• classroom experiences for families,
• individual parent-child play sessions,
• theory classes,
• home programming,
• personal growth group therapy, and
• special interest support groups (e.g., fathers, single parents, community services consultation).

Parents are taught to manage the behavior of their child and to teach their child in a way which is conducive to his/her special needs. Program results include an increase in family member skills, knowledge, assertiveness, and parental capacity to advocate for their children. Outcome data for graduates of the program suggest that this intervention reduces the need for

special education services by as much as 50 percent. As one parent described her experience, "I feel free to love him again, to be free to love my son is a wonderful gift the center has given me."