Coaching Guidelines For Parent-Child Interaction: A Tool For Parent Educators

The following guidelines are designed to help parent educators coach parents* on their interaction with their children – improving communication, bonding and skill development. Parent educators play a critical role in helping parents gain perspective on the daily interaction they have with their children. Yet many parent educators lack basic language and tools to communicate specific feedback to parents. The coaching guidelines begin with various settings and strategies for communicating with parents. The chart on page two includes key parent competencies that will improve interaction. The parent competencies represent messages delivered in parent education classes that resonated with parents in the Family Resource Center Program at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Santa Cruz County. Next to the descriptions of the competencies, parent educators will find direct feedback that they can use to coach parents.