Header image. Text on a transparent white background reads "what is parent-coaching anyway?" In the background is a family playing together.

What is Parent-Coaching anyway?- Parent-Coaching Mini-Series Part 2

Parent-coaching is a well-established evidence-based approach that therapists use in Early Intervention therapy sessions with parents and caregivers. In part one of this Parent-Coaching mini-series, I talked about the importance of parent-coaching. In this post (part two) I want to explain what parent-coaching is, and how we can explain it to parents and caregivers.

Landscape image- on the right is some text. The question is "what is parent-coaching?" The answer is written underneath and reads "Parent-coaching is where the therapist coaches parents/caregivers to use specific skills or strategies in play and/or daily routines to support their child’s development". To the right is a picture of a mother and her young daughter putting laundry in a drawer.

What is parent-coaching?

Parent-coaching involves the therapist coaching parents/caregivers to use specific skills or strategies in play and/or daily routines to support their child’s development (speech, language, communication, feeding, etc.), as opposed to the therapist working 1:1 with the child in the session.

There is a wealth of evidence that shows that coaching parents/caregivers to use strategies or skills with their children can improve their child’s outcomes.

A text-book definition of parent-coaching

Rush and Shelden (2020) define parent-coaching as an “adult learning strategy that is used to support the coachee in identifying, obtaining, and mobilizing the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve an intended outcome” (pg.13).
In other words, parent-coaching is a capacity-building approach; it is used to support parents and caregivers to learn and develop knowledge and skills that support their child’s development in a variety of areas.
Effective coaching supports and enhances parents’ and caregivers’ confidence and competence in using particular skills.

Landscape image with a white background and a pale pink border. On the left is a picture of a multi-cultural family playing together. On the right is some text. The question is "What is parent-coaching?", the text underneath reads "Parent-coaching is a capacity building approach".

Parent-coaching in Early Intervention is highly effective

Coaching has been shown to be effective across various contexts (e.g., at home, or in the community), settings (e.g., early intervention, or early childhood classrooms, etc.), and with a variety of individuals (e.g., parents, teachers, day care providers, etc.), (Rush and Shelden, 2020).

As I mentioned in Part One of this Parent-Coaching Mini-Series, a recent meta-analysis by Sone, Lee, & Roberts (2021. Access the research paper from EI Northwestern here) has shown that parents/caregivers learned to use strategies and skills at “significantly higher rates” when a coaching approach was used vs when it wasn’t!

 

Parent-coaching in Early Intervention is a family-centered practice

Parent-coaching is a family-centered practice, which is a key principle in early childhood intervention (Child Welfare Information Gateway, (2016), and others, cited in Rush and Shelden, (2020)).
A family-centered model of service delivery is recommended by both the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) in the United Kingdom, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) in the United States of America.

A key part of this practice is the premise that practitioners (SLPs/SLTs) believe that “all families are capable and competent”, (Rush and Shelden, (2020), pg.21). Additionally, this practice requires a good working-relationship between the therapist and the family in order to be successful. (Read this blog post for tips for developing a good working-relationship with families).

Explaining parent-coaching to parents and caregivers

In order to increase buy-in and engagement in our sessions, it is crucial that we help parents and caregivers to understand what parent-coaching is, and the reasons why we are following this approach in our Early Intervention sessions.

Landscape image- on the left is a handout about parent-coaching on a pale pink file-folder, on a darker pink background. On the right is a quote which says "helping parents and caregivers to understand what parent-coaching is, and the reasons we are following this approach, is crucial".

We need to explain to parents/caregivers that parent-coaching is a beneficial approach to use. We want to talk to them about the time their child spends with them, vs the amount of time they spend with you (See Part One of this series for a breakdown!).
We also want to explain what is expected of them re. practice and carryover. As well as what your role is as a therapist.  This can be a lot to talk about, so I created a handout that explains all of this in parent-friendly terms. It is part of my Parent Handouts for Frequently Asked Questions resource. You can purchase this from my TpT store here.

I hope you’ve found this post helpful and informative. The next post in our Parent-Coaching Mini-Series is all about Adult Learning Methods and how this relates to parent-coaching.

References:

Rush, D.D., and Shelden M.L. (2020). ‘The Early Childhood Coaching Handbook’, 2nd ed. Paul H Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD.

Sone, B. J., Lee, J., & Roberts, M. Y. (2021). Comparing instructional approaches in caregiver-implemented intervention: An interdisciplinary systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Early InterventionAccess the research papers from EI Northwestern here