Parenting is rewarding but can also be challenging at times. Our Parenting Support page is here to offer guidance, encouragement, and community. We hope the resources below help you navigate challenges and celebrate milestones. Because no parent should have to do it alone! 

Young father holding a child

Parenting Success Portal

With the Parenting Success Portal, ISU employees have free 24/7 access to tools, resources, and experts to help parents understand, teach, and better communicate with their children. In addition to on-demand courses, articles, live webinars, and discussion groups, parents can also take advantage of free consultation sessions with Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) who specialize in working with parents across a broad spectrum of child needs.

Parenting Success Portal

Local Resources

ChildServe improves the health and well-being of nearly 4,500 children each year through specialized clinical, home, and community-based programs and services. They are are experts in pediatric rehabilitation and care for children and young adults who have a wide variety of developmental delays, disabilities, acquired injuries, and other special healthcare needs.

ChildServe

Early ACCESS is Iowa’s early intervention system for infants and toddlers under 3 years old who are not developing as expected or who have a medical condition that can delay typical development. Families and Early ACCESS staff work together to identify, coordinate and provide needed services and resources that help families assist their infants and toddlers in their growth and development.

Heartland AEA - Early ACCESS

Lutheran Services in Iowa (LSI) offers parent education programming, behavioral health intervention services, therapy, and more. To learn more, use the link below for contact information for the LSI office located in Ames.

LSI Ames Office

YSS provides mental and behavioral health services for youth and their families in central Iowa. Their comprehensive programs serve children, from newborns through young adults, as well as their families.

Youth Standing Strong (YSS)

Online and On-Demand Resources

AnswerLine provides information and resources for Iowa consumers with home and family questions. Professional family and consumer scientists can answer questions about child development, home environment, food safety, and more.

AnswerLine

Track your child's first five years of development with the milestone checklists from the CDC.

CDC's Developmental Milestones

Find information and resources to help you support children who are struggling with mental health, behavior, or learning challenges.

Child Mind Institute

Just In Time Parenting offers information and strategies identified by researchers as those most crucial to helping children thrive - promoting healthy growth and development, preparing children for school success, reinforcing positive parenting behaviors and affirming healthy interpersonal and family relationships.

Just In Time Parenting

Presented by Iowa State University Extension & Outreach, The Science of Parenting provides parents with the most current research around child-rearing, including information about child development, nutrition, guidance, discipline and more.

The Science of Parenting

Find tools and information designed to support parents in developing their own ways to promote their child's growth and development, based on the belief that parents are the true experts on their children, and that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to raising children.

Zero to Three