116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Ties program empowers families
This story first appeared in Healthy You - July 2024, The Gazette’s quarterly health publication.
A free program in Cedar Rapids is equipping parents with tools to help their children develop healthy behavioral skills.
The Teaching Interventions to Empower and Strengthen Families, or TIES program, is designed to instill children 18 months to five years of age with healthy behavioral skills. The program trains parents to teach their children positive behavior and is staffed by both professionals and parents who have completed the program with their own children.
Born out of the Regional Intervention Program, or RIP, in Tennessee in 1969, the TIES program was originally used with kids diagnosed with autism. It didn’t take long for someone to realize that the linchpins, structure, consistency and clear instructions — crucial for autistic children — apply to everyone. That program eventually expanded into TIES.
Sixteen years ago, UnityPoint Health sent a team to Nashville to train for a month on the TIES program. They are the only facility in the Midwest that has this curriculum. The program is a partnership between the ABBE Center for Community Health, Grant Wood AEA, Healthy Linn Care Network, Mercy Medical Center and St. Luke's Hospital, and is funded by the Linn County Early Childhood Iowa.
“We think it’s a pretty important deal and a huge asset to the community,” said Teresa Daubitz, program coordinator. “The only other sites associated with RIP are located in California. We continue to maintain our accreditation with RIP, which has to be renewed every three years.”
Daubitz has been program coordinator with TIES since October 2021. The program also employs Caitlin Kolosick, case manager, who’s been with TIES since March 2022.
Parents who participate in the TIES program often need help with their children for aggression, meal time problems, bedtime and sleeping issues, tantrums, separation anxiety, trouble at school and more.
The program is held in a classroom setting and typically meets for two hours twice a week for 16 weeks. It is a significant time commitment for families, which is the first pushback Daubitz says they encounter, especially if they are working with a first-born or an oldest child.
“But when I explain they are going to invest more time taking their kids to travel baseball, travel soccer, dance rehearsals, things like that, then ask ‘Don’t you want your children to be well-behaved?’’ If so, the foundations must be built early.
TIES is based on eight strategies:
Stating expectations in advance and giving one clear instruction. “We tell parents that unless a child has been diagnosed with a hearing issue, they hear the first time,” Daubitz said.
- Catching your child being good. “Which is odd for people because we want to give feedback when the child is misbehaving,” she said.
- Presenting limited and reasonable choices. If given too many choices, children can’t decide, like an adult standing in the salad dressing aisle, looking glassy-eyed and faced with dozens of choices. But asking, “Do you want oatmeal or cereal for breakfast?” allows them limited and reasonable options.
- Using “when/then” statements. For example, “When you get your shoes on, then you can go outside to play.” This states something the parent wants first, followed by something the child wants.
- Planning ahead.
- Knowing what is reasonable. Understanding the specific child and childhood development in general keeps parental expectations realistic.
- Staying calm. This is a big one, because parents who are upset at the same time as their children only complicates the situation.
- Using neutral time to talk about what happened when things didn’t go well.
What to expect
Time for both the parents and children, who are not always together during the evening, is broken up into half-hour segments, and activities change at those half-hour marks. The kids start the session with a puzzle box that’s age appropriate.
Walking to the bathroom is practiced next. Instructions are always given and include keeping your hands and feet to yourself, staying in line and using your walking feet. Snacks follow bathroom protocol, and more instructions are provided, like sit at the table, stay at the table and use inside voices.
A fun group activity, like pinning the horn on the unicorn, duck, duck, goose or another age-appropriate game, is played. Art projects also teach children how use and share crayons and glue.
Next is playing with the big kid toys such as the kitchen set, sand table or racing cars. Children learn how to play with each other, with as little adult interaction as possible. Adults will step in if necessary and model the behavior that’s desired.
The last adventure of the session is to sing the good-bye song and go home. All of these activities help children become preschool or kindergarten ready.
The parents spend the evening meeting with a caseworker, training on the same skillset their kids are learning; watching videos from the RIP curriculum; or practicing what they learn with the child in a separate classroom. Observed through a two-way mirror by one of the staff, the parent then gets immediate feedback on how well they did.
“We’re able to give that immediate, hands-on feedback to the parent. This is how you need to pivot, which is crucial [timing],” Daubitz said.
For questions or to participate in the TIES program, contact Daubitz at 319-558-4861 or teresa.daubitz@unitypoint.org. The program is located at 4050 River Ridge Dr. NE, Cedar Rapids.
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