Dynamic Parenting Assessments

What is a dynamic parenting assessment?

This is an assessment of how a parent is able to meet their child's needs, but the assessment includes Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) sessions. The purpose of the VIG sessions are to help the parent be more responsive to their children's needs by developing skills in mentalizing and communication. As the parent is being both assessed and supported simultaneously, this is called a dynamic parenting assessment.

After 5 sessions for Video Interaction Guidance (1 meeting to set a goal and discuss, followed by 2 cycles of filming and reviewing) it is generally apparent whether further sessions would be beneficial, and this will be discussed with the family and professionals involved. A written report with a summary of progress made will be provided, including recommendations for further support.

When would a dynamic parenting assessment help?

Although a dynamic parenting assessment can be arranged within family court proceedings, it is particularly beneficial in the pre-proceedings stage for the following reasons:

By evaluating the parents' ability to respond to VIG sessions, the assessment can help to answer the question "can the parent make changes for the benefit of the child, within the child's timescales?"
At the conclusion of the VIG intervention, we consider what other support is needed, to maintain or further any progress made.
This helps social workers to create timely plans for the family.

Although VIG is a strengths-based intervention, my role is to offer honest and respectful feedback about my observations so that the parent can be fully supported to make changes.

What is the evidence base?

Research by Dr Chantal Cyr (2017) shows that completing video based intervention with a parent during an assessment of parenting capacity is effective for two important reasons:

- it helps to improve the parents' sensitivity to their child

- responsiveness to video feedback was a good prediction of future child maltreatment occurring, as such helped to inform decisions about where the child should live, once broader risk and protective factors were considered.

Dr Cyr's study concludes that one reason why video based intervention was able to predict re-occurrence of child maltreatment is that video feedback sessions encourage the parent to develop mentalizing skills.

Mentalizing is an essential skill for a parent. If a parent consistently struggles to mentalize their child well (i.e. don't typically see their own or other's actions and behaviours to be driven by underlying emotional states or needs), they are more likely to maltreat their children (as evidenced in the following studies; Allen, Fonagy, & Bateman, 2008; Allen, 2013; Fonagy & Luyten, 2009).