Adventures in Parenting

Have you heard the latest advice about parenting?

		Related Articles • Adventures in Parenting • Starting • RPM3 • Responding • Preventing • Monitoring • Mentoring • Modeling • Remember Internet Links • Under Age 3 • Children Age 4-10 • Children Age 11-14

Of course you have. From experts to other parents, people are always ready to give you parenting advice. Parenting tips, parents’ survival guides, dos, don’ts, shoulds, and shouldn’ts—new ones come out every day.

But with so much information available, how can anyone figure out what really works? How do you know whose advice to follow? Isn’t parenting just common sense anyway? How can the experts know what it’s like to be a parent in a real house?

What’s a parent to do?

Try RPM3—a no-frills approach to parenting from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

For over 30 years, the NICHD has conducted and supported research in parenting and child development. We’ve talked to experts, parents, and children. We’ve collected statistics, identified myths, and tested suggestions. The result is RPM3.

The RPM3 guidelines aren’t meant to be just another parenting “how to,” telling you what to do. Instead, RPM3 separates the useful information from the not-so-useful so that you can make your own decisions about parenting. RPM3 does more than tell stories about what people think about parenting, it incorporates 30 years of NICHD research to tell you what really works.

RPM3 confirms something that you already know: parents do matter. You matter. Read on to find out just how much...

The first section of this booklet explains each item in RPM3, responding, preventing, monitoring, mentoring, and modeling, in more detail. These lessons describe how RPM3 can help you make daily decisions about parenting. The remaining sections of the booklet give examples of how some parents have used the lessons of RPM3 with their own children.

As you read, you will notice numbers, like 1 or 7 next to certain words. These numbers relate to the research that supports an idea or concept, listed on the References page. These references give you more information about NICHD parenting research.

RPM3 stands for:

• Responding to your child in an appropriate manner.
  
  
• Preventing risky behavior or problems before they arise.
  
  
• Monitoring your child’s contact with his or her surrounding world.
  
  
• Mentoring your child to support and encourage desired behaviors.
  
  
• Modeling your own behavior to provide a consistent, positive example for your child.
  
  

Next Topic > Starting > 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

reproduced from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

Important disclaimer: The information on keepkidshealthy.com is for educational purposes only and should not be considered to be medical advice. It is not meant to replace the advice of the physician who cares for your child. All medical advice and information should be considered to be incomplete without a physical exam, which is not possible without a visit to your doctor.