About SMART Family System
The SMART Family System is a web-based software program designed to equip parents with the tools necessary to raise responsible and independent children. The paper version of the SMART program has been used with success on thousands of clients over the past ten years at the Tarnow Center for Self-Management.
The SMART Family System makes it easy to create a customized positive reinforcement framework that's simple to use and makes it fun and rewarding for children and adolescents to exhibit good behavior. With the SMART System, you can:
- Choose weekly behavioral goals using our extensive sample list – or add your own
- Track daily points earned in a user-friendly interface
- Select rewards and privileges that your children would like to earn
- Provide a dashboard for therapists and teachers, enabling a truly collaborative treatment process
- And much, much more...
What is self-management?
Self-management is an important skill for achieving success in all aspects of life. Good self-managers are able to set goals, meet objectives, and achieve emotional balance and stability in their lives.
Well-developed self-management skills give you the ability to monitor and process internal and external information. They also allow you to weigh that information to develop a good strategy, and then carry out a plan that best fits the situation. Finally, good self-management skills help you figure out what worked and what didn't, so you can improve your performance in the future.
People with self-management deficiencies may have difficulty with tasks such as:
- Managing their impulses
- Taking responsibility for their actions
- Tolerating frustration
- Inhibiting inappropriate behavior
- Maintaining concentration
- Developing executive function competency
Children and adolescents with poor self-management skills often experience problems in the classroom, and are also more likely to suffer from low self-esteem and poor social relationships. In addition, teenagers lacking adequate self-management skills have major problems with individuation – becoming their own person. This leads to difficulties with making the transition to independent adulthood.
What are SMART goals?
All goals are not created equal. When choosing goals for children and adolescents, it's important to ensure that they are SMART:
Specific Manageable Achievable Reinforceable Trackable
SMART Family System provides you with all the information you need to create goals unique to your family, or you can choose from an extensive list of pre-defined SMART goals.
About Our Experience
Jay Tarnow, M.D. is a board certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and of the American Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Tarnow is considered a leading national expert on childhood and family stress, as well as on psychosomatic illness, and has conducted research in the area of Self-Management Disorders (i.e., ADHD, Tourette's Syndrome, PDD) for the past 20 years. He is also well known for his expertise in developing cost effective programs and has acted as a consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health and healthcare corporations.
Dr. Tarnow has served as Executive Director of the Houston Child Guidance Center and as Director of Child Psychiatry Training at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He is currently a Clinical Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and at the University of Texas Medical School.
He was a City Commissioner on the Houston Human Services Advisory Council and was an active member of the Mayor's Task Force on Drug Abuse and Children. He has served on the Board of the American Association of Psychiatric Services for Children and was the President of the Houston Society of Adolescent Psychiatry.
Allen Wrinkle is the Chief Operating Officer of Self Management, LLC and has over 21 years of experience architecting, designing, and developing custom software solutions for a variety of industries. He is unique in that he is one of only a few people who can simultaneously operate at a very detailed, technical level, manage large projects, and be fully functional in business matters and strategy. He has been President of a small software consulting company called Clarity Solutions, Inc. since 1996.
He graduated with honors with a BS in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance and Management Information Systems from University of Houston. He is also a certified Project Manager Professional (PMP) as licensed by the PMI organization.
At the Self Management company, Allen has worked with Dr. Tarnow and staff for the past 2 years to refine the requirements for the SMART Family System software. He has architected, designed, and developed the software to meet the needs of the clients in a way that no one else has previously accomplished. In addition, he designed the system with pliability in mind, ensuring that the software is easily adaptable to other applications and flexible enough to handle changing business needs.
Just a few fun facts: Allen is a 2X Ironman Triathlete. He is also an ultrarunner who has completed five 100 mile ultramarathon trail runs, one of which in just over 23 hours.
