Children of Divorce Intervention Program

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Divorce is considered as a highly complicated and stressful process for the entire family. The process is performed to terminate a marital relationship between two individuals. However, the life of other family members, especially children, can have a severe impact of divorce on their lives. Therefore, it is highly important that children coming out of a divorce family should be properly guided in order to face the negative effects of divorce that is observed post divorce. The needs of children may vary depending upon their age group. However, there are several support groups who provide emotional support and teach relevant skills to deal with divorce effects. Children of Divorce Intervention Program is one of such programs introduced, which is mainly performed at school platform. This particular group deals with children studying in the fourth, fifth and sixth grade. With the help of such programs, children get chance to speak about all their feelings related to their parent's divorce condition. At the same time, they may learn specific skills regarding how to deal with problems and frustrations. Therefore, the undesired effects of divorce are generally described and discussed with the help of role plays, drama or films presented by the controller. Overall, this program greatly contributes to minimize the ill effects of divorce that continuously make rounds in the minds of children. Therefore, here we are focused to provide you detailed information related to Children of Divorce Intervention Program and the major functions performed through such programs.

Aims of "Children of Divorce Intervention Program" (CODIP)

• To assist children to manage a variety of challenges by teaching various skills and thereby increase their confidence.
• To decrease the worry and anxiety in the minds of children regarding their family conditions that hampers the academic performance.
• To raise the acceptance and understanding of children regarding concepts related to divorce.
• To increase the abilities of children to recognize and precisely express the feelings pertaining to divorce.
• To keep the behavioral and emotional problems to the minimal level that mainly result when children experience divorce in the family.

Details of Children of Divorce Intervention Program

• Parents, community members or school personnel direct children during this program.
• Trained group leaders or mental health professionals or counselors conduct this program in 12 to 15 group sessions in a particular school so that each affected child may get the opportunity to attend such sessions and receive benefit from the program.
• This program comprises of 4 procedure manuals and particularly designed board games. These have been developed keeping different age groups in mind. It is ascertained that every child undergoing this program gets information and skill-building activities that are relevant to his or her age

A summary CODIP

CODIP is a program meant for children who have experienced divorce and are in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. . Sometimes children from kindergarten to 8th grade are considered. In this program, children are divided into groups. The intent of this program is to offer a forum for children to learn skills to handle divorce as well as share their individual experiences. The program comprises of group discussions, films, role plays and skits. The children, who have experienced divorce, have usual feelings of being different, stigma and seclusion. This program attempts to decrease these usual feelings.

Sessions of CODIP

CODIP usually extends for 10 weeks and comprises of 3 major blocks.

The initial sessions concentrate on building support for children. The sessions deal with the common misconceptions children have about divorce. The group leaders encourage children to speak regarding their anxieties related to divorce. Role plays and skits are used to assist the children to express the feelings.

The middle sessions try to build the cognitive skills of the children. The trainers teach children to find a solution to their interpersonal conflict and talk regarding their problem resolutions with other children in the group. During these sessions, the children learn how to differentiate between problems over which they have no control and problems over which they have control.

The final sessions are dedicated to anger control. The group leaders direct the children on how to recognize and manage anger emanating due to divorce conditions.

Accolades received by CODIP

• New York state's Education Department has validated this as a successful program
• Association of Family and Conciliation Courts has named this as an Exemplary Program
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has given an Award for Program Excellence
• National Mental Health Association has bestowed the Lela Rowland Award

The Children of Divorce Intervention Program is mainly focused to provide significant help to those children who come from divorce family in order to deal with negative effects of divorce by using relevant skills and proper understanding of the situation.

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