Classroom Dinosaur Program Certification

Step 1: Send in your video for review (see #9) and certification fee along with the following forms: Application Form (#1), Brief letter summarizing the session/topic covered and population served, as well as ONE Self Evaluation that corresponds to the session you are sending for review.

Step 2: Once your video review passes, you will be asked to send in the remaining paperwork – see notations below.

There is a certification application fee of $800 which includes detailed video review and supervisory report (up to two reviews), registration process, and certificate of certification. Additional video review, if needed, is billed at the rate of $230 per hour.  The certification application fee must be received for the video to be reviewed.  If the supervisory report has been approved by a certified mentor (rather than an Incredible Years trainer) then the cost of certification is $185.

Send Application Materials and certification fee to:

Incredible Years, Inc.
Certification Committee
1411 8th Avenue West
Seattle, WA 98119  USA
incredibleyears@incredibleyears.com

Our Incredible Years trainers are now scheduling to deliver video reviews for certification live over Zoom! 

Delivering groups in another language?  Group leaders can provide live translation of their videos with our trainers over Zoom.  Trainers will schedule for up to an hour of extra time to complete the video review plus translation time, billed at the rate of $230 per hour.

Attend Approved Training Workshop:

Attend approved training workshops. Only those candidates who have successfully completed the approved training qualify to submit a certification application. Approved training consists of a 3-day workshop offered by a certified trainer of group leaders.

Experience Requirements:

Education as teacher, psychologist, or school counselor.

Conduct minimum of 1 full Dina Curriculum (60+ lesson plans). Conduct the complete first year Dinosaur video curriculum (2-3 times per week for 20-30 weeks), or all the lessons in the two-year model (60+ lessons). Leaders/teachers are expected to have conducted some lessons (as developmentally appropriate) for all dinosaur units in the curriculum, and to have completed 45 to 50 lessons minimum if unable to do all 60+ lessons due to time constraints.  More than 60 lessons is also acceptable, if you need to extend the curriculum as well.  We will not accept your materials if you do not have lessons from all seven dinosaur units.

Satisfactory completion of unit checklists for each unit (75% to 85% minimum of the 60+ lessons, representing all units). See checklists in leader’s manual and in resources section.

Submission of a minimum of 10 (completed by parents at end of year or after your final lessons in the curriculum). *New requirement as of January 1, 2012.

A minimum of 12 children per series is required. A list of dates, locations, and number of attendees will need to be submitted.

Peer and Self-Evaluation:

Submit 3 teacher-child group self-evaluations (from throughout the year).

Submit 3 peer-evaluations. (These may be done by an Incredible Years Classroom Dina Coach or by a co-teacher.)

Feedback from Certified Mentor or Trainer:

Telephone consultation from Certified/Accredited Mentor or Trainer. Group Leaders may request telephone consultation, which is provided by a Mentor or Trainer. Consultation calls are contracted through IY office.

In-Person Consultation workshops led by Certified/Accredited Mentor or Trainer. These workshops consist of 6-8 pairs of group leaders who present videos of their parent groups for peer review and feedback from IY Mentor or Trainer. Agencies may request these consultation workshops at their site or send group leaders to regularly held workshops in Seattle.

Video review of complete group session by IY Certified/Accredited Mentor or Trainer. Satisfactory feedback for one lesson, submitted to the Certification Committee. This feedback may be in one of two forms: By submitting a video for one lesson including large circle time and small group activities. Or a certified trainer or mentor may do a live observation of the circle time and small group activities and provide you with written feedback for you to submit.

Your video must meet minimal requirements for following the session protocols. If it does not meet these requirements a second video will be requested. Two video reviews are included in the initial certification fee. For each additional video review (beyond the first two) a fee is required due to the time intensive process of the review and preparation of the written report. Your video should show two lessons that include the following:

The video submission should be labeled, identifying the program and submitted with the group leader’s self-evaluation checklist.

Please see the Tips for Preparing your Video for review below.

Our Incredible Years trainers are now scheduling to deliver video reviews for certification live over Zoom! 

Maintaining Fidelity after Accreditation/Certification

In order to assure that accredited group leaders continue to deliver the program with fidelity, we highly recommend the following:
-Accredited group leaders should lead at least one group every 18 months
-Accredited group leaders should participate in a fidelity check every 18 months: this could be a coaching session with an accredited Peer Coach, a video review of a group by a Mentor or Trainer from the Incredible Years office, an in-person consultation day, or Skype consultation calls with a certified Mentor.

Even expert group leaders benefit from on-going feedback and discussions about their work. Without fidelity checks, it is easy for group leaders to drift from the original model.  Fidelity checks are also a chance for group leaders to hear about new materials or innovations to the programs.