Good information, evidence-based, too long, slow.

If you're a parent or otherwise work with children, do your children and yourself a favor and TAKE THIS COURSE. I found this to be an outstanding course and far beyond the basics that "The ABCs" would suggest. These are the ABCs of how to promote positive behaviors: Antecedents, Behavior, and Consequences. Dr Kazdin relies on scientific research into this all important subject, not just vague good intentions. He illustrates his points with relatable examples (child has a tantrum if told no, teen wants to spend all her time on her phone... what's a parent to do??? ) AND parental pitfalls (focusing only on the negative behavior, trying to punish the bad behavior away instead of reward and promote the desired behavior that is its opposite, setting goals that are too ambitious, lack of consistency, etc). I appreciated that he is clear and specific in explaining what works . For example i've often heard "catch your child being good" but he tells us how to identify the positive opposite of unwanted behavior, and to praise the desired behavior, up close, effusively, with a warm touch, and right after the good behavior. The videos are easy and fun to follow, the reading materials are helpful and optional.

Very good course. The time commitment is a little weighted towards the beginning of the course. This is natural. The beginning material is applicable to children of any age. As you work through the course it becomes more specialized: school behavior, adolescent, etc. Very powerful fundamentals with focus on how parents behaviors and reaction influences child’s behaviors. I think the biggest challenge with this program is committing to change more own responses to change my Son’s behavior. The gap between knowing and doing. Thanks this was a very helpful course, that focuses on results / how can you change your child behavior?

This is a great course. It starts off and seems kind of home cooked with simple graphics and Professor Kazdin a fine gentleman who reminds me of my father. The ideas at first appear as if nothing new but we soon learn that how we implement the ideas is crucial and we are shown clearly how to do this. There is enough detail to show where we might have gone wrong in the past and explanation about why common default setting toward nagging, punishment, criticism don"t work. As I went through the course I appreciated more and more the depth of the professors knowledge and I also enjoyed reading the supplementary material.

This course is an example of what the best should look like. The very concept of the course and the areas it covers are excellent. The way in which prof. Kazdin communicates simply unsurpassed. He was a pleasure to listen to and follow. even though I have been a school psychologist for 15 years and a mother of two children, the course opened up some new perspectives for me that I have already applied in education and that I will continue to change. Also, the course helped me a lot in order to transfer the acquired knowledge to others who are ready to learn. Thanks to Yale University and Prof. Kazdin.

Very useful tools!!! It definitely gave me concrete ideas how to deal and cope with the behavior of my own child. Perhaps in version 2, a portion of the lecture will include explaining the reasons behind these tools. For example, for the special praise, -the steps, application, and goals of this tool was well presented. BUT it may also be helpful to know as parents WHY ecstatic appreciation works in changing behavior. There was a mention on negative bias, but its curios to know the mental or cognitive processes that praise unlocks which will eventually lead to behavior. Over-all, great course!

I was a social worker decades ago, so had quite a lot of training in dealing with children, tweens and teenagers; however, now that I am a parent - struggling at times to develop the needed behavior in our children - so I needed to up my parenting game. This course was well-constructed and presented and covered all the bases I needed.

I HIGHLY recommend this course to all parents and look forward to my spouse completing it as well, cause it's gonna get us onto the same page and help us to help our kiddos to develop the life skills and behavioral patterns that they will surely need to thrive.

Dear Prof. Kazdin,

As a nursery teacher this course has been fantastic for me, providing very useful tools for my work and also for my private life with our two children. Its a pitty I didn't know these tools years ago, but it's never too late to get better! :)

I look forward to use them after the Corona Lockdown is over, Have often thought about different children, situations and tools I can apply and I'm sure, we'll have a challenging good time.

My deepest respect and thanks for sharing your vast experience with us!

Best greetings and God bless you always!

Monique Escamilla

I am a mother of three and I thought I knew every parenting hack-but this course helped me in raising my children even more smoothly, almost effortlessly. It is a very intelligent and peaceful approch to parenting, that focuses on reward systems, rather than punishing methods for correcting unwanted behavior. The professor, Dr. Kazdin is a very positive, engaging instructor with a great sense of humor. I recommend this course to parents but everyone who is involved in taking care of children, such as daycare professionals and teachers-and pastors and pastoresses of course.

i am Bernard, 43, from Nigeria / Biafra, a father of five, twins among. oldest kid is 10.

the guide from this course is very exceptional. at first, i doubted, how can an American concept of child rearing be efficient in a 3rd country as mine, all hardship included??

But it turned out to be super-relevant!

To me, it makes parenting a whole easier. its a kind of One-Tool-Fit-All.

seamlessly now, i can pass a directive to kids amicably and go to rest without much aches!

and the most difficult of them is like..wow!, "daddy you're my friend"!

Thank you.. Alan, and well done Yale!

Thank-you Dr. Kazdin.

This course was very valuable.

I teach parenting and I will be communicating this information to my students.

Thank you for the guidance.

It would be amazing if you created a course specifically for teachers on behaviour and classroom management. It is the most challenging part of our job and most of us don't have any training in it beyond baptism by fire.

I would have liked a second example at the end perhaps involving teenagers and technology in the classroom.

Fantastic information. Great delivery. I am so pleased I decided to take it.

I highly recommend this course for all parents and to be parents.

Dr. Alan's this course has helped me develop a better relationship with my loved ones, probably changing the course of our lives, and I cannot thank him enough for that. Using his techniques and ideas, we have started to develop a much better atmosphere to raise our children.

We may have demands/unreachable-goals/ambitions (for our children) embedded in our thought process, but his work/class has helped me realize my areas of improvement, and I plan to embed his teachings in our daily lives.

Absolutely phenomenal course. Going well beyond being just a helpful parenting class, this course is a downright public service to society. Kazdin is incredibly engaging, genuinely cares about the topic, and explains things in a clear, concise, and organized way. Best of all, the material is carefully vetted by years of scientific research, yet takes into account the practical considerations of real life parenting. At home, we call his techniques a "magic wand". I highly encourage parents of children of any age to take this course.

Excellent course. Very systematically planned and presented. All techniques and strategies discussed are so important and helpful for all the stakeholders. The entire programme is so effective and efficiently structured and makes the learner feel so empowered. I as a parent and a Counsellor have gained so much which I will definitely share with all my friends and family. Indeed a great and fulfilling experience. Parenting and child Rearing is indeed beautiful. Thank you so much Professor Kazdin for giving this valuable experience.

Very Practical and easy to apply at home, I am going to ask all my family members and colleges to follow the course, and after the completion of the course, it is very handy for me to go back for the unit and review it again and again, especially after using it and find out it really works. Great course and well designed. Highly appreciated for the reading pieces shared after every unit, I have download all of them one by one and it provides a better background to support the learner for the course.

Dr Kazdin, the everyday parenting course was very interesting and helped me more understand more what is happening in my childrens' thoughts before or after the undesirable behavior. I am a mom of three children 11, 8, 8 and each of them has a specific undesirable behavior(s) and one of my children is on the spectrum, but I believe I can engage your techniques in her life as well, starting with very small amounts of the desired behavior.

I wish I could study any of your other courses.

Thank you!

Thanks! this class provided me with a great guidance as to identify the behaviors I should care to change and those I can tolerate while I focus in others that are relevant. Also, the tools and techniques were explained in a very easy practical way. Now, I need to do the hard part, practice! I am confident I will do much better in helping my child to behave in a positive way and handling situations with a different approach which will reduce my stress and increase the potential for success. :-)

Professor Kazdin is very engaging, it is fun and motivating to watch his lectures.

The contents is well-structured, and the most important points are repeated from time to time, so they really stuck. Many real-life examples illustrate the techniques. The parenting techniques themselves make a lot of sense, and -- most importantly -- are simple enough to implement at home.

Because my new-born is too young to try the techniques on him, I cannot elaborate on the effectiveness of the techniques.

It does have a slight US focus but this is the only slightly negative feature of this course. I can truly recommend this course to any parent independent of the age of the kid. Really easy to understand and very applicable to the everyday challenges of a parent. If you want some nudges on how you can become a (even) better parent - this course if for you. It gives you a tool box of different parenting approaches and it's then up to you to decide which tools are most applicable for you.

Love this course! Thank you so much for offering this course. I'm a mother of 2 and also an instructor to kids between K-5 at the moment and this helps to see how we can communicate with other children but our own. This course has given me another perspective on raising better children and better myself as a mother, role mother, guidance to them. Amazing course, please keep offering more in depth how we can better ourselves as humans and how to communicate with our children or others.

This course was the answer to all the questions about childhood experiences and behavioral issues. I would recommend this course to anyone because the Professor Kazdin teaches the right approaches about all the different methodologies parents tend to take, e.g., the effective punishment that changes the children's behavior, the process to take to keep them motivated, and so on. The course is pretty concise and to the point. Overall the course was very practical and a lot to learn.

My name is Rosemary Oluchi Chikezie. I’m a caregiver.The ABCs of child Rearing is indeed an incredible course, it has really increased my love for children and helped me a lot in taking care of my amazing niece😘😘and other children around me. Thanks a million to the Director of the Yale parenting center. Dr. Alan kazdin professor of psychology and child psychiatry . You’re an amazing teacher sir. I like your methods of teaching and I enjoyed all your lessons👍👍👍

Best Regards.

This course is very nice, easy to understand and systematic. I really enjoyed learning from this course. Each videos are long enough to get engaged and learn something and not to get bored. The delivery is amazing. It is systematic, easy to understand and right to the point with some specific examples. Thank you to Coursera and all those unknown nice people who make this course available. A special thank you to Dr.Kazdin for the amazing delivery and cool looking personality.

The best course to helping parents, or nannies as me, to change behavior and help the child to be happy too!! I highly recommend to everyone.

And Professor is the best! 10 stars! Super. He has passion to teach and passion to help families and children. I was motivated since day 1 to the end, and when it finishes I felt sad because I wanted to keep learning! =) Thank you Professor!! I really enjoyed each of the classes and videos =) All super clear!! Muchas Gracias!!

Learnt so much about how to deal with tantrums of my toddler. I could use what I have learnt here in the course with my toddler who I felt was getting out of hand. Even the way the acted out when we did the wrong thing, was explained in the course and I was blown away. The level of accuracy in this course is amazing. Thank you so much form me and my 3 year old, even though he doesn't know it, I feel like a better parent now for him than I did before this course.