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Embedding positive psychology and flourish thinking in peer support

networks for parents raising children with disability: A game-changer
Sylvana Mahmic, Plumtree, Marrickville, NSW, Australia [www.plumtree.org.au]
Annick Janson, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
[http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cacr/about/people/associates/annick-janson]

Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 1
Why early intervention?...................................................................................................................... 1
Pioneering Positive Psychology as a basis for formulating and achieving goals in the disability
sector.................................................................................................................................................. 2
Method.................................................................................................................................................... 3
Goal setting process based on parents’ vision................................................................................... 3
Micro-interventions to achieve goals.................................................................................................. 3
Results.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Child goal....................................................................................................................................... 4
Family goal..................................................................................................................................... 5
Personal goal................................................................................................................................. 6
Agency ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Pathways............................................................................................................................................ 7
Working on child goals by re-examining relationships with professionals ..................................... 7
Working on family goals by engaging fathers ................................................................................ 7
Working on personal goals by re-entering the workforce............................................................... 9
The Now and Next impact model ....................................................................................................... 9
Discussion ............................................................................................................................................ 10
Effective partnerships with professionals impact on long-term outcomes for children................. 11
Peer networks impact on renewed family participation and contribution ..................................... 11
Parents confident to go back to work has long-term economic impact........................................ 12
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 13
References....................................................................................................................................... 14

Introduction
Why early intervention?
Increasingly, the benefits of early intervention for vulnerable children and families are being
recognised for their long-term impact. This long-term impact ranges from enhancing family wellbeing,
to reducing truancy or contact with juvenile and adult justice systems, to decreasing notifications of
child abuse and neglect, and also includes better employment outcomes for both people with disability
and their parents (Knudsen et al., 2006; Olds & Kilzman, 1993; One Scotland and Healthier Scotland,
2008; Wouldes, Merry & Guy, 2011). Moore and McDonald’s (2013) comprehensive analysis of the
international research evidence shows that the effectiveness of early intervention initiatives is
demonstrated through a multi-level approach, which involves community and service systemic
changes, as well as wider societal factors, such as changes to people’s attitudes and values. Similarly,
Bennett (2009) noted that preventing crises through early intervention results in cost benefits through
a) changing the balance of care to maximise the use of more informal supports and divert people from
a over-reliance on more expensive services, b) improving access to services, c) making better use of
community services, and d) identifying additional resources whilst making better use of existing
resources. These types of outcomes are included in any cost effectiveness calculations of early
intervention, and can be measured in the reduction of significant future costs to government.
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A previously untapped, additional resource to enhance early intervention initiatives was recognised in
an extensive review by Schippke, Provvidenza and Kingsnorth (2015), who reported that families
raising children with disability described specific benefits from peer support. Peer support increased
social belonging, and facilitated learning from the experience of others and acquiring practical
knowledge that families could use to enhance outcomes for their children. To date, there has not been
a targeted effort to clarify how peers can create impact at an early intervention level, within a Positive
Psychology framework.

This article summarises the evidence gathered by Now and Next, a unique and innovative peer-led
family capacity building program grounded in Positive Psychology, in its first years of operation. It
describes the learning journeys of families raising young children with disability and/or developmental
delays who came together to create better outcomes for their children.

Pioneering Positive Psychology as a basis for formulating and

achieving goals in the disability sector
Following on from evidence that high quality early childhood intervention can alleviate some of the
negative impacts of disadvantage on young children and families (Gross et al. 2003; McDonald, 2010),
Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC) programs imparted parenting knowledge to
families, and encouraged parents to formulate parenting goals and to evaluate that extent to which
goals were achieved. In other words, “the ultimate goal of a parenting intervention is that the parent
becomes an independent problem solver who has the resources, knowledge and skills to maintain any
gains achieved and the ability to tackle future problems with the same child or other family members”
(Winter, 2013, p. 3). EPEC programs collated parents’ concerns about their child and measured the
extent to which these concerns were addressed by the end of the program. Winter (2013), however,
remarks that collecting data about goal setting and goal achieving was unsatisfactory, since only 48%
of parents graduating from the courses submitted their concerns, with common concerns including
children’s tantrums, not listening, talking back, eating issues, bedtime issues, and fighting with
siblings.

By contrast, new innovative early interventions focus on children’s and families’ strengths, and engage
in what Seligman, Railton, Baumeister and Sripada (2013) coin “prospection”. Through prospection,
parents formulate goals and scaffold their learning by trialing strategies to achieve their goals. Goals
are formulated from a strengths-perspective and include clear descriptions of how to recognise and
demonstrate the achievement of a goal. The importance of a commitment to goals is well documented
in Positive Psychology research. Snyder’s framework describes how, when goals provide targets with
sufficient motivation, people explore the strategies or pathways that will enable them to achieve their
goals (2002). Snyder uses the term ‘agency’ to describe such motivational channels to implement
pathways. According to Snyder and Lopez’s hope theory (2002), hope reflects individuals’ perceptions
of their capacity to 1) conceptualize goals clearly, 2) develop the specific strategies to reach those
goals (pathways thinking), and 3) initiate and sustain the motivation for using those strategies (agency
thinking). People become more hopeful, then, when they actively pursue their goals, build their agency
and continue testing pathways. Snyder, Lehman, Kluck and Monsson (2006) therefore emphasise the
centrality of hope as a powerful construct within intervention that can create clearer and more
sustainable goals, grow pathways thoughts, and instill greater agency. For example, a six-year study
documents the connection between hope and emotional-wellbeing in adolescents, especially during
transitions (Ciarrochi, Parker, Kashdan, Heaven and Barkus, 2015).

Setting and achieving goals is at the core of all interventions with children with disability. In particular,
the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) framework rests on identifying and
addressing goal-based decisions (Purcal, Fisher & Laragy, 2014). There is, however, conflicting
evidence as to what best practices result in parents formulating inspiring goals to which they will
commit, rather than simply settling for professional-driven goals (Jung & Grisham-Brown, 2006).
Shepherd, Kervick and Djenne-amal’s review (2017) of IFSP and IEP procedures and outcomes
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outlines gaps in the track record of genuine collaboration between professionals and families. Whilst
IFSP and IEP meetings were originally designed for professionals to help families to formulate goals
for their children, the evidence shows that these goals are often child-focused and therapy-based, with
relatively few family goals despite the recognised importance of a family-focused approach. This gap
is critical because such an approach can undermine the families’ commitment to these goals
(Gallagher, 1998).

The present paper focuses on the outcomes that participants of the Now and Next program achieve
when they receive intentional manualised training rooted in Positive Psychology from Peer Facilitators,
and when they engage with that training to pursue their goals. The learning, experiences and activities
that parents achieve and complete during the program are explained in the subsequent sections,
together with the empirical evidence and context to support these, starting with the goal setting
process.

Method
Now and Next is an eight-week learning program for families with young children with disability and/or
developmental delays. Program facilitators are peers (that is, other parents) trained to help parent-
participants to support and motivate each other to explore opportunities for their children through a
manualised and reproducible process. Table 1 summarises the methods used in this research.

Table 1: Goal development steps during the Now and Next program

Goal setting process based on parents’ vision

As the group program commences, families engage in a vision building process using an innovative
planning resource called Pictability©. This fun and engaging process helps families to see new
possibilities; later it helps them to set goals for their child, family and themselves. This individual
visioning session provides parents with – sometimes their first – experience of visioning a hopeful
future for their son or daughter. At the conclusion of the visioning activity, peer facilitators assist
participants to understand how to link a goal for their child to an outcome. The other group planning
sessions focus specifically on a short-term goal for the participant’s family, for their child, and a
personal goal for themselves. Families are invited to work on just one priority goal for themselves, one
for their family and one for their child to help them to experience success through targeted and
achievable pathway thinking.

Micro-interventions to achieve goals

During the remaining eight weeks of the group program, families work on the goals they have chosen,
and they are taught a series of micro-interventions to reach their goals. Table 1 provides some
examples for each goal type. Each session starts with small group discussions reflecting on the
participants’ progress towards achieving their goals, and in this way the participants not only get
acquainted with each others’ goals, but they also experience the process of giving and receiving
feedback on goals. These focused small group ‘check in’ discussions are crucial for the peer
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facilitators of the group to keep abreast of which participants are working on what goals. They also
allow each participant the opportunity to review their goals, strategise in depth, and provide a forum in
which to celebrate each goal achieved. These kinds of micro-interventions are based on evidence-
informed Positive Psychology methods, such as prospecting during small group discussions to receive
and provide feedback about goals (Seligman, Railton, Baumeister & Sripada, 2013).

Another evidence-based micro-intervention utilised in the program includes identifying and using
character strengths in new contexts (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005). As part of working on
their goals, participants identify their Character Strengths and bring these to bear when developing
their strategies and planning, when forming more meaningful partnerships with professionals, when
engaging with formal and informal supports, and when learning how to increase wellbeing. This micro-
intervention makes relevant the five PERMA elements (Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships,
Meaning and Achievement) utilised within the learning program by increasing a family’s flourishing
(Seligman, 2012). Facilitated discussions help parents to identify changes they have undergone in the
context of understanding the value of building better relationships with professionals to achieve better
outcomes for their children. Specifically, parents unpack the concept of agency as they witness
changes in their perception their role in professional partnerships: participants reflect on how much
they deferred to professionals to determine goals for their children, rather than trusting their own
opinions about what goals to pursue working in collaboration with professionals. Parents evaluate the
increase in agency that they experience during the program as they discuss examples and
implications of the changes through which they go.

The Now and Next program was co-developed through rapid prototyping and ethnographic
observations with 179 families, to refine its contents and get initial feedback. The program is further
detailed by Mahmic and Janson (2017). The present article presents results obtained from three
groups:
1. Now and Next Alumni conference with 57 participating families;
2. Program launch stage with 44 families, and
3. Special interest group with 20 fathers.

Results
The core of Now and Next is its participants achieving their goals. Following on from the visioning
session, four sessions explicitly scaffold parents’ planning experience. Table 2 below shows
summarises the learning that parents achieve during the program, together with explanations,
example outcomes, and results. These will be further detailed in the remainder of this paper. Table 2
below also details the main types of goals for each of our three points of focus (family, child and
parent), with goal achievement results listed in red, participants’ survey results listed in black,
engagement and participation results listed in green, qualitative data shown in purple, and statistical
comparisons listed in blue.

Child goal
When parents articulate goals for their children, Peer Facilitators position them within the context of
the three categories core to the Australian Early Childhood Framework, and consistent with the NDIS
Outcomes framework (Laragy, Fisher, Purcal and Jenkinson, 2015): ‘being’, ‘becoming’, and
‘belonging’:
• Being, including health and wellbeing, represented 5.8% of all child goals and were 100%
achieved. An example of a ‘being’ long-term goal was, “Emma to learn to regulate her emotions”,
with the attendant short-term goal for “Emma to learn the steps to calm herself down, starting with
getting a tissue each time she starts getting upset”.
• Becoming, including independence, personal care, decision-making and changes, represented
63.5% of all child goals and were 90.9% achieved. An example of a ‘becoming’ long-term goal
was, “Mitchell to become more independent”, starting with the short-term goal for “Mitchell to
dress himself before going to school in the morning”.
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• Belonging, including participation in family and community life and routines, represented 30.8%
of all child goals and were 93.8% achieved. An example of a ‘belonging’ long-term goal was,
“Labib to join socially in an interactive way”, with the associated starting short-term goal being
“Labib to participate in a play-date in the next 2 weeks”.

Table 2: Goal Analysis – Goal types, examples and results

Family goal
Participants formulated three main types of family goals:
• ‘Spending quality time together’ represented 61.5% of all family goals and achieved 90.6%
success. An example of this long-term goal was, “Having fun as a family” starting with
“Exploring a new neighbourhood” as a short-term goal.
• ‘Building family relationships’ represented 23.1% of all family goals and achieved 100%
success. An example of this long-term goal was, “Dad to grow his relationship with Joey”, with
an attendant short-term goal of “Dad to take Joey to the park Sunday mornings”. Whilst most
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participants regardless of gender reported impact on their engagement as they worked on
their goals, this impact created unique outcomes in the engagement of fathers, which will be
further discussed in the next sections.
• ‘Growing family wellbeing’ represented 15.4% of all family goals and achieved 75% success.
An example of this long-term goal was “Increasing community participation”, beginning with
the short-term goal to “Join in one communal activity with other families”. In this context, it is
significant that the Now and Next mechanism was rated by 92% of parents as allowing them
to experience increasing social support.

Personal goal
Participants formulated three main types of personal goals:
• Wellbeing represented 46.7% of all personal goals and achieved 90% success. An example of
this long-term goal was to achieve a “More balanced life style” by starting with the short-term goal
to “Call and meet a friend”.
• Fitness goals represented 40% of all personal goals and achieved 66.7% success. An example of
a fitness long-term goal was “Participating in a marathon” starting with “Running 2km in 20 mins”
as a short-term goal.
• Career goals represented 13.3% of all personal goals and achieved 100% success. An example
of this type of long-term goal was to “Go back to work”, with the first associated short-term goal to
“List possible options and investigate each possibility”.

As detailed above, participants shared the need to address wellbeing across all three goal domains of
child, family, and self. Micro-interventions in the program thus revolved around participants’ interest in
understanding how to help their children, their family and themselves flourish through various
situations.

Agency
Upon graduating from the program, parents who participated in the program launch reported feeling an
average increase of 27.6% in agency, increasing their feeling of agency from 60% to 87.6%. A paired
t-test comparison was statistically significant (p<0.0001; t=8.811; df = 37; standard error of difference
= 3.061). Beyond comparisons of these averages, it is informative to consider how parents’ rating of
their agency gain was distributed: 50% reported feeling between 0 and 20% more agency, 31.6%
reported feeling between 21 and 49% more agency, and 18.4% participants reported an increase of
between 50 and 80% in agency. As we verified that agency does increase significantly by the end of
the program, we complemented this finding with qualitative data about how this increase was
connected to the different outcomes and motivations resulting from working on each of the three goals:
Hugely useful session for me today… Everything we've done so far in Now and Next just clicked
into place. Now I see why this course has been described as 'life changing'- it shifts the perspective
of parenting a child with additional needs from one of anxiety and isolation to one of confidence,
empowerment and collaboration (NA, parent).

One of the few parents who reported no change in her agency noted that she had always felt in
charge of her child’s progress, but that although Now and Next had not changed her belief in her own
agency, it had helped her act on this belief.

Another indicator of agency was noted following the initial development stage, during which we
surveyed the extent to which participants acquired new learning from self-reporting measures. At this
data point, 88% participants reported that Now and Next helped them to set a vision for their child and
family; 98% answered that they understood the difference between long-term and short-term goals,
and 88% answered that the Now and Next program taught them to break down their goals into smaller
achievable steps.
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Pathways
Participants built different action pathways as follows:

Working on child goals by re-examining relationships with professionals

Through discussions with other parents, participants were able to experience new understandings of
how they could create new outcomes for their children. One vehicle for this realisation was a
redefinition of the relationship between parents and professionals. One peer facilitator concluded:
Overall, I have realised that the Now and Next Program provided the ability for participants to achieve a
sense of empowerment and self-knowledge, in addition to satisfying a yearning for companionship. It is very
clear from their ongoing successes, that many doors were accessed and continued to remain open through
redefining their relationships with professionals. Parents’ positive energy and renewed belief in themselves
has been a shared source of happiness, which is something I believe will support their efforts as they use
these tools to identify purpose, refine meaning in their lives and succeed further (MK, parent).

At their inaugural “By Parents For Parents” Alumni conference, the 57 participating families
agreed on and launched a Parent-Professional Relationship Statement (Heyworth, 2017).
Amongst others, they formulated the following principles:

“We have a responsibility to:

• be the most powerful agents for change for our children;
• believe in our own agency as the experts in our children, and embrace our experiences and
wisdom as valued and valuable;
• share our expertise with our professional partners to achieve the best outcomes for our
children;
• be confident leaders in professional partnerships because of the unique insight that we offer;
• engage in self-education and self- knowledge so that we can continue to be active and
informed leaders in our partnerships, and
• share our knowledge and experiences with other parents so that we can build a strong
network of educated and empowered parent leaders who have confidence in their own self-
worth and competency”.

Illustration 1: Excerpt from Parent-Professional Relationship Statement

The Now and Next experiences that prompted parents to formulate such principles were summarised
by one parent:
Now and Next helps us as parents to take responsibility for our own education and knowledge, it
inspires us to self-empower rather than relying on others to empower us. I use (the) concept of
parents 'leaning in'. (Now and Next offers) an important peer network in terms of the support it
offers in battling the isolation and undermining influences we're so often exposed to. The parent-
professional statement showcases the connection between Now and Next and what we need to do
to go forward. (MH, parent)

Working on family goals by engaging fathers

One significant element of the program is its appeal to fathers. Half of the participants of the inaugural
‘By Parents For Parents’ Alumni conference were fathers. A 50% ratio for father participation was, to
our knowledge, never achieved before in such groups. Some of these fathers came from the ranks of
the 24% fathers who had attended the Now and Next program, others came from a fathers’ group
which was established in response to needs articulated by Now and Next father-participants, and
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others yet came on the basis of their partners’ or male friends’ recommendation that they would learn
from and enjoy sharing with others.

The fathers’ group has become an active and engaged offshoot of Now and Next. For example, the
group decided to take action and create an open letter for schools’ newsletters and school websites to
educate others about disability. They thought that they would create impact by showcasing the
message that everyone is worthy by first sharing stories about their own experiences and then by
expanding their reach to all vulnerable children and families. They drew from their collective
professional expertise to build a strategic approach aimed at initiating a grassroots movement to
pioneer change in all parents who can, naturally influence their children. Participants designed the
‘cool to be kind’ tag line to deliver a positive message through this social movement for ofttimes
maligned and marginalised children. All fathers contributed a story of a ‘not-so-good experience’ or ‘an
awkward moment’, and these stories detailed what went wrong, what someone said, or did, or equally
important, what wasn’t said or what wasn’t done:
Something that can express how it might have made your child feel, how it affected you, or perhaps
made your wife feel, and also, if a sibling was there, how it might have impacted their feelings, and
thoughts. The message may be " You might not know this yet".... or, "If you're a parent that is
unfamiliar, or not ever exposed to disability, then..." ... or "Things you might not had a chance to
know about".... we can include a conversation where we state.... " We're not exactly sure how to
move this forward, but we know that this is important and needs to be shared".... we might take the
approach to make parents feel heard " If you're a parent that this has happened to... we want to
offer our support"... However we structure the dialogue, we need your stories, we need to capture
the emotion, a level of controlled emotion, where people don't feel sorry for us, but feel connected
to us (MK, parent).

The facilitator of the fathers’ group added:

I think it's wonderful that we are moving forward and not sitting and not feeling, or becoming a
victim, that we, even in the infancy of discussion, we are being innovative in seeking a solution, and
contributing with our responsibility to engage with the concept of inclusion, to be equal citizens in
our communities. This shifts things from a “poor me” mindset, to one of power, where we are
becoming creators of change. As a facilitator, I felt the energy in the room when we discussed this,
as I felt everyone elevated to the higher role we have to play, to contribute and drive education.
This is about our children not only surviving, but thriving at school.... helping to shift and change the
way people view and engage with disability. There are lessons for Kindergarten, Primary School,
and even High School, and each message needs to be crafted differently. Yes, there is lots to do,
but I know we will meet this challenge more powerfully then we thought possible previously. If
nobody calls us crazy, or thinks we're too ambitious, we might need to go back to the drawing
board. Let's dream BIG for our children, for our families, and yes, even for ourselves!! (MK, parent)

Our data suggests that the Now and Next program has especial appeal to hard-to-reach
demographics like fathers. Another significant dynamic in this appeal is in increased CALD family
engagement. Many families comment that challenges around their child’s behaviour had eroded their
interactions with others outside the home and that as a result they were feeling isolated (Sartore,
Lagioia & Mildon, 2013). For families of CALD background, this feeling of isolation for families is liable
to take on a cultural disconnect perspective also. Amongst the 48% participating families from a CALD
background who attended the Now and Next workshops, most reported benefitting from the program
on multiple levels beyond achieving their explicit goals and encouraging their peers to enrol in the
program. Significantly, these participants also extended their social networks, sometimes with
immediate benefits as in the example of a mother from an Indonesian background who stood up
during family goal week to explain, “Our goal is to find another house fast. We were evicted yesterday
with one-week notice”. The group’s Peer Facilitator reported, that on this announcement,
another parent (a high flying corporate lawyer) immediately stood up and said: “this is not legal;
let’s talk after the workshop and I will help you through it”. What effectively happened is that two
families were connecting and giving/receiving support. One could feel there were no socio-
economic, educational or cultural barriers whatsoever in the room – but rather a strong bond of
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shared experience. Above all, parents wanted to make progress happen for their child – and that
bond was stronger than any other consideration! (AJ, parent)

The question of how to best engage parents with a disability is also at the heart of early intervention.
The below is a quote from a CALD parent with a mild intellectual disability who had been referred to
Now and Next by a key worker who added that she had not been able to conduct successful planning
session with the parent. During the program, the parent remarked:
For me I learnt that a big goal should be broken down into a smaller goal so it can be more
achievable. One should not forget about the little steps taken as they are getting you closer to
reaching your goal. We planned a family outing and only spent ten minutes at our outing. I felt that
we didn't really achieve our goal but in fact we did as it was a successful outing and we achieved
our goal. I learnt to plan ahead and travel at our own pace. (BA, parent)
Interacting in sessions with peers helped this parent to build confidence in the planning process and in
devising strategies to achieve their goals.

Working on personal goals by re-entering the workforce

As noted above, 13.3% of participants’ personal goals were career related. Whilst some of parents
decided to re-activate the career that they had been pursuing before they paused (usually to care for
their child), others discovered new meaning and direction through their participation in the program.
Some of these participants achieved their goals of (re)entering the workforce because they were
invited to join the program’s Peer Facilitator training. As participants remarked:
Now and Next gave me the opportunity to come out of my home and experience again the feeling
of making an important contribution to society – aside from helping my own child. I was swept by
the strength of the positive emotions I experienced even as doing part time work and so thankful for
the opportunity. (NB, Peer Facilitator)

It has been personally life-changing in terms of offering me the perfect kind of employment which is
flexible and empathetic, but makes a difference and contributes to our community. (MH, Peer
Facilitator)

As already mentioned, the Now and Next program development includes identifying and training Peer
Facilitators to lead the groups. Part of the Now and Next operational funding goes to paying wages to
parents who come forward to be trained as Peer Facilitators or mentors. All Peer Facilitators have
reported that this experience is an important stepping-stone to getting back into the workplace. They
undergo group training and individual coaching to teach them to facilitate Now and Next local groups.
Peer Facilitators build their capacity as they take up part-time, casual employment as facilitators. The
program also incorporates another group of parents who are already working, but who want to
contribute and support their peers through a partial commitment around specific projects. These Peer
Workers interact with the Now and Next team, donate their expertise, train to add to their specific skill-
set, and help to run the program through their writing, designing, and organising skills. Peer
Fafacilitators represent 6.25% of participants of this program.

The Now and Next impact model

Illustration 1 below depicts how the Now and Next impact model is rooted in Positive Psychology
through the types of evidence-based exercises listed in Table 1 that facilitate learning to achieve
participant goals. The model shows, under the umbrella of prospective activities, how participants set
a vision and translate it into long-term goals (see right side of illustration), and how they evolve
through the program to create outcomes (around the rocket), whilst going through agency as a central
change element. The increasing control that participants feel over what they can make happen for
their child and family is represented by their agency, and marks their departure from feeling that
professionals are responsible for their children's progress. This part of the model connects Snyder and
Lopez’s theory (2002), in which agency thinking creates the motivation to trial different strategies to
pursue goals, with prospection theory. Prospection theory suggests that generating appropriate
alternative prospections, or developing more effective prospections, is crucial to increasing the
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chances of successful future-proofing (Okuda, 2012). These theories include concepts that
complement each other with compounded effects when used in combination.

Illustration 1: Now and Next sessions contents and outcomes model as interpreted by a Now and Next graduate

Early in the program, participants connect prospection activities to the meaning and purpose in their
lives that they attribute to the presence of their special needs children. They also connect prospection
to the achievement and goal (PERMA) elements leading to outcomes. As referenced in the micro-
intervention section above, participants work on identifying their Signature Strengths, which connects
with the PERMA engagement element as participants discuss how to use their unique strengths in
their support of their child’s outcomes. This process thus grows their agency and their belief that they
can directly impact and create better outcomes for their children. Participants discuss the relationship
elements of PERMA in two contexts: firstly, in the context of achieving their goals for their child using
the Parent-Professional Relationships Statement that the Now and Next Alumni peer network
launched as a backdrop, and secondly, in the context of how their immediate Now and Next group
peer network assists them to work on their family goals with resulting increasing social support.

Discussion
Prospection is the generation and consideration of mental representations of a range of future
possibilities. Seligman, Railton, Baumeister and Sripada (2013) have argued that prospection is a
fundamental organising principle in people’s ability to preview the future and to build meaning and
purpose. Prospection is thought to shape cognition, emotion, and motivation, however it is only
recently that psychological research has started to focus on prospection and to investigate strategies
to make it more effective (Seligman, Railton, Baumeister & Sripada, 2013). Our Now and Next results
support the research that puts prospection as central to participants’ learning journeys. The results
also extend Snyder’s hope theory (2002) as a framework for understanding the importance of goals in
designing effective interventions with parents raising young children with disability.
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Effective partnerships with professionals impact on long-term outcomes for

children
When parents learn how to develop more effective relationships with professionals as they formulate
goals for their children’s progress, they necessarily imagine more opportunities for their children.
According to Okuda’s (2012) theory, they form and encode personal plans for action that are
maintained and retrieved at an appropriate time (or condition), for instance, a meeting with a
professional. Hence interventions that carefully follow prospection are most likely to change parents’
expectations of success for their children, which in turn has the potential to impact on children’s school
integration from the start. The Now and Next program details specific examples for parents to create
positive change in this educational domain with long-term impact on their children’s future educational
experiences. Our future research seeks to use Now and Next to further develop the role of parents in
positive education (Dubroja, O’Connor & Mckenzie, 2016), and better describe and understand how to
generate parents’ involvement.

Families raising children with disability or delay can be overwhelmed, anxious and disempowered by a
system that does not seem to understand their child’s needs, and this overwhelm is often amplified
when children enter the pre-school and education systems. A New Zealand Special Education survey
recorded that a staggering 13% of the children do not attend school all day – with obvious long-term
consequences for these children and their families – although parents and teachers disagree on the
causes for this phenomenon (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2016). The relationship between
disability and several longer-term impacts is frequently reported, such as stand-downs, frequent
absences, compromises to students’ experiences of quality learning, truancy (Kearney, 2016), and
eventually entry into the justice system (Lynch, 2013). Hence, even a minimal impact on children’s
educational experiences at an earlier stage in their education careers, could have strong preventative
impact later in their lives in ways that are impossible for the broader society to dismiss or ignore.

Until now, fostering effective partnerships with families has been the responsibility of professionals, but
apart from isolated pockets of innovation, genuine professional-family partnerships are not often
realised (Mahmic & Janson, 2017). It is thus timely that families should take responsibility for, and
understand their part in, forming these partnerships. These families then can be enrolled to reach out
to other families in their communities who have not yet been identified by professionals, or who have
shied away from them. For parents to understand their agency and make a leadership statement such
as the Parent-Professional Relationships Statement described above is unprecedented in the field of
disability. It demonstrates that parents can increase their skills, confidence and capacity to participate
and contribute to the community, and can protect their own rights as well as those of their children.
Future research needs to evaluate whether parents’ motivation to create more effective partnerships
with professionals impacts educators’ knowledge, understanding and capacity to foster more inclusive
behaviour in schools1.

Peer networks impact on renewed family participation and contribution

Our Now and Next parents are building a sustainable movement. As each new Peer Facilitator joins
the team to bring about in other parents the kind of changes that they went through, they bring new
energy, skills and passion to build the movement, to reinforce peer support (Duarte, 2005; Van Riper,
1992), and to achieve further successes. Now and Next is a growing social movement: the long-term
vision of parents who so build their collective capacity within Now and Next is to inspire a new
generation of parents of vulnerable children “to lead their family’s progress, drawing from sustainable
and deeply embedded peer-networked foundations of knowledge, capacity and creativity”. As they
graduate from Now and Next, families join the Alumni group and continue to inform, support and
motivate each other. This group then continues to meet face-to-face and through various technology-

1Participation and contribution in their community is one of the NDIS Information Linkages and
Capacity Outcome Framework (https://ilctoolkit.ndis.gov.au/outcomes/measuring-outcomes)
 12
based mechanisms in order to inform, support and motivate each other to aim high, and to see new
opportunities for their child now and into the future. The Now and Next Alumni network grew to 217
parents in its first year, and it continues to provide a forum for parents’ ongoing engagement with the
principles of the program and the practical implications of them in families’ lives.

In addition to the impact on families and educational outcomes, there is a series of factors that have
come to be recognised as significant players over the life-span of children with disabilities and their
families. Though empirical evidence points to the value of supporting families raising children with
disability, there needs to be clearer pathways (Davis et al., 2003) to accompany implementation, which
programs such as Now and Next could potentially offer. For example, as critical as fathers’
engagement is, most reports only account for low levels of paternal involvement. A large NGO, for
instance, reported a 9% male participation rate amongst parents raising children aged 0-5 taking their
courses in the five past years. Indeed, although it is widely recognised that it is “mostly mothers” (Day,
Michelson, Thomson, Penney & Draper, 2012) that participate in such programs, and despite that
participants highly recommend that service providers engage with and encourage more fathers to
participate in their courses (Winter, 2013), the reality is that there has not been much progress in this
domain, nor are we aware of any program of this sort proven to increase father participation
significantly. Sartore, Lagioia and Mildon’s Cochrane protocol (2013) reviews the evidence that
suggests that raising a child with disability disturbs family and social relationships leaving parents to
feel isolated, weighed down, and lacking in support. This evidence points to the importance of acting
early to engage fathers and to empower them with the tools and knowledge to create better outcomes
and more authentic inclusion for their children (Dadds, 1987; Fawthorpe, 2006). Now and Next is
achieving paternal engagement and offers one possible solution to disrupt the trend of fathers’ lack of
involvement. Similarly, increasing engagement from CALD families, as Now and Next does, will shift
the landscape of the disability sector.

Parents confident to go back to work has long-term economic impact

Evidence of parents returning to work after graduating from the Now and Next program – whether
because they decide to become Peer Facilitators or because they choose to restart their careers
elsewhere – is an important factor in the larger context of the disability sector. It is well documented
that raising children with disability impacts parents’ careers with long-term implications (Ball et al.,
2016; Gendall & Fawthorpe, 2006). Long (2015) shows that amongst parents of children with disability
or delays under the age of four, 45% said that either they or their partner would like to work more. The
most common reason given for not working (at 87%) was the situation of their child with disability. Two
thirds of these parents also agreed or strongly agreed that having a child with disability made it more
difficult to meet the everyday costs of living. Long argued his business case supporting the economic
impact of the Australian NDIS based on the fact that the scheme’s costs would be covered largely by
the increase in productivity when disabled people enter the workforce, and when families are able to
work whilst bringing up disabled children. In Australia, one in eight employees have a child with a
disability, which often disrupts their careers, with many parents having to leave paid employment.
Long’s report concluded that supporting carers to remain in the workforce will significantly improve not
only their future financial security, but also the country’s fiscal outcomes, by generating new taxation
revenue. Long also estimated that “in total, the projected GDP gain from the NDIS from additional
employment of people with disability and their carers will be between $18bn and $23bn” (p. 5). This
conclusion is relevant in the context of Now and Next, especially given the global shift to disability
systems offering more control and choice to its participants and facilitating parents going back to work.
As families feel empowered to reenter the workforce through programs like Now and Next, their
opportunities to participate actively and their feelings of belonging in community correspondingly
increase.2

2Increased contribution to community life is one of the NDIS Information Linkages and Capacity
Outcome Framework (https://ilctoolkit.ndis.gov.au/outcomes/measuring-outcomes)
 13
The limitations of this study are the size of the sample and the lack of a control group. Furthermore,
although parents who had a disability themselves shared stories of empowerment, we were only made
aware of their disability if the parent chose to disclose this information to us, limiting the amount of
evidence that we could collect about supporting parents with a disability. More generally, when it
comes to the impact of developing family capacity over time through early intervention, there are many
unanswered questions. More longitudinal research is needed to address, for instance, the specific
impact of fathers’ engagement over time on children and family outcomes. At the moment we can only
approximate this impact, although social innovation evidence suggests that it is worth investing in this
question. Our aim is to follow up the spread of this social movement and document and evaluate its
longitudinal impact.

Conclusion
The present work points to yet untapped positive forces as change agents that can make a difference
for children with disability: fathers who have often been “missing in action” as their children grow up,
parents with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and those who have a disability
themselves and may not have been able to take up these leadership challenges until now3. As families
graduate from the program and continue to meet via social media and at scheduled face-to-face
meetings and the annual conference, Now and Next continues to add unique value by building a
sustainable peer network, setting it apart most other programs of its kind. Our results also extend
Snyder’s hope theory (2002), which reinforces the intimate and interdependent relationship between
the Goals/Agency/Pathways ‘trilogy’: any program aimed at parents raising children with disability that
does not concurrently encompass all elements of this trilogy can miss out on one crucial part of this
equation. Without the three elements, programs risk limiting the extent to which parents’ realise their
agency through prospecting, as well as the success parents achieve in crafting future outcomes for
their children.

The Now and Next program is a disruptive peer network and family leadership initiative for parents of
young children with disabilities and delays in their development that builds on the advances of
Prospective Psychology. The researchers that coined the term “homo prospectus” (Seligman et al.,
2017) stated that one of its characteristics that groups of strangers can jointly construct their future, as
indeed Now and Next participants have done by committing to change their relationships with
professionals to generate better alternatives and outcomes for their families and children. By focusing
on their future, the program provides a transformative opportunity for families to inform, support and
motivate each other to aim high and see new opportunities for their child. Parents focusing on
formulating achievable goals and testing pathways or strategies to achieve them experience significant
increases in agency that they could define and identify. In addition, Now and Next operates on another
two levels: firstly, it is a mechanism to train Peer Facilitators from amongst participating parents, and,
secondly, it provides a vehicle for parents to keep learning together after the program is finished.
Extending the “homo prospectus” theory, the program posits that prospection enables us to become
wiser into the future not just from our own experiences, but also by learning from others. This
underlying base of evidence-informed Positive Psychology is a significant philosophical shift from
other programs aimed at parents in the disability sector.

Acknowledgements: The researchers wish to thank Philippa O’Brien from Statistics New Zealand, Dionne Steven from Ministry of Social Development,

Evealyn Whittington from Treasury, and Rebecca Armstrong from Parent to Parent for their help in collecting information relevant to this report.

3Increased connections, relationships and support networks in community; Increased shared

understanding, experiences, collaboration and leadership are some of the NDIS Information Linkages
and Capacity Outcome Framework (https://ilctoolkit.ndis.gov.au/outcomes/measuring-outcomes)
 14
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