Encouraging Positive Behavior

This series on the "active parenting" method models how to connect to young children, from newborns to five-year-olds, with positive interactions to teach them how to regulate their behavior and decisions. A variety of multiethnic families are represented in the vignettes, though there are no same-sex families. Positive Behavior stresses the importance of consequences as well as the ACT method: accepting the child's wishes or feelings without diminishing them, communicating the rules, and targeting a positive alternative. School Success presents six strategies for parents preparing their children for the elementary school years. Problems examines the importance of early brain development in later school success, along with the need to establish routines and schedules early on with tots. You and Your Child focuses on basic child development stages. The narrator mentions briefly the media guidelines for young children put forth by the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the importance of reading aloud to babies and toddlers every day. Overall, the videos are attractive, easy to follow, and professionally edited. (A minor quibble: certain vignettes appear to have been dubbed over.) The series is also available in Spanish.