The family activities include having parents delegate a child to serve their food, constructing a family flag, drawing and talking about drawing, play-acting feelings, and guessing each other's feelings. Parents oversee the family communication games at their own family table. Parents allow each person in the family to speak and be heard, which is a basic communication skill for conflict resolution. These exercises develop parental skills in requesting compliant behavior and in monitoring children's behavior. Team members actively support the parents to ensure the success of the family exercises.
Child abuse is correlated with later delinquency.
FAST incorporates support for parents by having the spouses, partners, or two single parents who are put together by team members spend 15 minutes at each weekly meeting listening to each other speak about issues of concern. The only restriction is that no advice should be given. This conversation time provides the opportunity for growth of reciprocal, personal support for the primary caretaker. Parents in FAST meet for 45 minutes in each weekly session to help each other assist their children to succeed in school and at home. No didactic presentation on parenting is allowed.