Signposts

THE SIGNPOSTS PROGRAMME
The Signposts programme provides written and videotaped materials to assist families who have a child aged between six and 18 years old with an intellectual disability and difficult behaviour.
It aims to help parents work out the purposes of their children's difficult behaviour and develop effective ways of managing that behaviour. Further, Signposts aims to help parents prevent the development of difficult behaviour in the future.
Five parenting skills development areas are addressed:
Module 1 - Measuring your child's behaviour Module 2 - Systematic use of daily interactions Module 3 - Replacing difficult behaviour with useful behaviour Module 4 - Planning for better behaviour
Module 5 - Developing more skills in your child.
Three additional modules are: • Introduction
• Dealing with stress in the family • Your family as a team.
These eight modules are presented in individual booklets.
The Signposts DVD provides examples of typical parent-child interactions and illustrates appropriate parenting strategies.
There is also a workbook that contains exercises for parents to complete as they work through the modules.
Ways of delivering Signposts
The Signposts programme is designed to be delivered in a variety of ways. This Facilitator's manual provides guidelines for delivering the program with: • groups of parents (section 1)
• individual families/telephone support (section 2) • individual families/self-directed (section 3).

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAMME
The core program addresses five parenting skill development areas. For each area, there is a written module and accompanying scenes on the Signposts DVD.
This section of the manual outlines the delivery of the programme face to face with groups of parents.
The parenting skill development areas are: Module 1 - Measuring your child's behaviour
• How to describe, measure and record behaviour.
Module 2 - Systematic use of daily interactions
• How to build on the child's strengths, use triggers and consequences effectively, and implement house rules.
Module 3 - Replacing difficult behaviour with useful behaviour
• How to identify the purposes of difficult behaviour and to encourage appropriate alternative behaviours.
Module 4 - Planning for better behaviour
• How to identify high-risk situations for difficult child behaviour, develop routines and plan for better behaviour.
Module 5 - Developing more skills in your child
• How to select and teach the child appropriate skills.
These skill areas are taught in five group sessions of two, or two-and-a-half hours, plus an additional session at the end of the program for review and evaluation.
To give participants time to practise the strategies taught, it is recommended that the group sessions are conducted fortnightly.
Participants learn via active teaching methods such as live and DVD modelling in addition to oral and written instruction.
There are two extra modules:
• Dealing with stress in the family • Your family as a team
These are given to participants in the form of written advice to read at home. Participants also receive a written module titled Introduction, which describes the programme and its use.