En Espanol
Parent-Child Interaction Training is a 14-plus week intensive parenting program designed to help parents and their children who are experiencing behavior problems ranging from mild to severe.
Each family receives one-on-one attention from trained Parent-Child Interaction Training coaches once a week for 60-75 minutes. During the sessions, parents practice specific play, communication, and discipline skills with their children. Coaches provide continual feedback, direction, and encouragement through a small radio receiver, which the parent wears behind the ear.
The program consists of two parts - a relationship enhancement component, followed by a discipline component. Parents are taught specific skills and given the opportunity to practice these skills in training and at home until mastery is achieved.
Costs
The cost of Parent-Child Interaction Training ranges from $5 to $100 per session. The per-session cost for each family is determined by consulting a sliding scale based on income.
Benefits of Parent-Child Interaction Training
The benefits of Parent-Child Interaction Training are too numerous to list. Not only will you gain specific parenting and communication skills, your child will experience greater self-esteem, increased attention span, improved thinking and verbal skills, and better behavior.
Better behavior means that your child will respond to you in more enjoyable ways, including following instructions, reducing aggression and showing improved social skills.
How Effective is Parent-Child Interaction Training?
Parent-Child Interaction Training is a research-based program developed by Sheila Eyberg, Ph.D., and practiced at several universities, including the University of Florida, University of West Virginia and the University of California Davis Medical Center. Parent-Child Interaction Training has been examined in numerous studies and been shown repeatedly to be an effective strategy for managing many difficult behaviors in children.
Using a two-way mirror to observe, coaches are able to speak to parents using radio signal devices. This process allows us to train parents without interrupting the essential parent-child relationship. We are proud to be among the first to bring this unique parenting education technique to Washington State.
Is Parent-Child Interaction Training right for your family?
Parent-Child Interaction Training is appropriate for children who are between three and seven years old and exhibit some or many of the following behavior problems:
- Aggressiveness
- Refusing to follow directions
- Poor social skills
- Low self-esteem
- Excessive whining
- Frequent temper tantrums
- Behavior problems in school
Parent-Child Interaction Training is appropriate for parents who:
- Learn more easily from a hands-on, experiential approach
- Want to improve and refine their parenting skills
- Can commit to weekly sessions until the program is complete
- Are willing to do and record daily home practice
A partial or modified version of Parent-Child Interaction Training would be appropriate for parents who simply want to enhance the relationship with their child or increase their own parenting skills.
For more information, please contact Parent-Child Interaction coaches Lindsay Weller
and, for Spanish-speaking parents, Rocio Collado.