About the program

Playsteps is a parent and child play-based program helping parents to strengthen their relationship and interactions with their child while learning practical parenting skills and building local support networks.

Program structure

9-week group program where parents are shown videos, given handouts and can participate in discussions about parenting.

Each week covers a different theme:

• Getting to know you
• Infant Cues
• Infant States
• Follow my lead
• Teaching my child
• Circle of Security
• The path of trust
• Celebration. 

Facilitator training

A 1-day training course is required to deliver the program. To attend, participants must have:

• experience and/or qualifications in infant mental health; or
• completed the Keys to Caregiving program.

For more information about Playsteps and Keys to Caregiving training visit the Queen Elizabeth Centre website.

Cost

Playsteps 1-day training course: $490

Keys to Caregiving 1-day program: $315 

Evaluation and effectiveness

An evaluation conducted by the Parenting Research Centre in 2007-2010 showed that participation in the program was associated with demonstrated improvements in parenting, resulting in changes in children’s emotional and social competence. Strong results were found for the parental mental health outcome measure.  

References

Matthews, J. & Hamilton, V. (2010) Evaluation of the Queen Elizabeth Centre’s Playsteps program. Melbourne: Parenting Research Centre.