Through the Looking Glass

Invest to Grow: Through the Looking Glass - A Community Partnership in Parenting

The Through the Looking Glass (TtLG) Project is a joint health, education and welfare collaboration that uses nominatedearly childhood services to assist families where there is an identified difficulty in the attachment relationship between the parent and child/children.

TtLG has been running for seven years and is funded by the Commonwealth Government.

TtLG is a parenting program that works mainly with mothers to help them to understand how to strengthen their relationship with their child.  It is suitable for families where children are easily distressed and unsettled, where the parent is experiencing anxiety about the relationship or where families are concerned about their child's behaviour.  TtLG is uniquely located within early childhood services whereby early chidhood staff are able to continue offering focused support for the family after the completion of the project.

The project draws from the ‘Circle of Security’ (COS) project model (Marvin et al. 2002) which assists families and early childhood staff to understand and integrate attachment theory into practice.

More than 9 in 10 mothers who participated in the project reported being more confident in responding to their child's needs, felt better able to cope as a parent, felt closer to their child and acquired more understanding of their child's attachment and exploration needs.

Families can be referred to the project by any service/s supporting them, or by self-referral.

For more information, visit the Through the Looking Glass website http://www.throughthelookingglass.org.au

or contact Project Coordinator - Lyndsay Butcher, Lady Gowrie Child Centre Incorporated

Phone 08 8352 5144 Email lyndsay@gowriesa.org.au

To read more about the project, view the final evaluation report from May 2009.