Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

At school, there have been times when I have noticed that I do not have the best of attitudes about certain students in the classroom because of their challenging behavior. I don't like this feeling, as I know that these students are struggling as well and they have special strengths that I often don't focus on because I'm spending so much time dealing with their challenges. Recently, I found an article that helped me get my focus back on building positive relationships with my students. I found that when I focused more on building relationships with these students, they often responded more positive to my behavior management interventions as well. I believe that this model can be used both at school at at home, as kids don't care what we know until they know that we care.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy or PCIT is a researched based method that involves training parents to focus on having a positive relationship with their children while learning effective ways to manage challenging behaviors. This model has also been successfully implemented in the preschool classroom. The first phase of this model is to learn how to build positive and meaningful interactions with children (Gershenson et al, 2010). Children are motivated to listen to adults who take the time to know them. During the second phase, parents are encouraged to avoid commands or criticism and to focus on "PRIDE" skills which include praise, reflection, imitation, descriptions of behavior, and enthusiasm (Gershenson et al, 2010). By reflecting upon issues to problem solve together in a positive manner, students are more likely to elicit more positive behaviors.

So before you have another negative experience with your child today, ask yourself these questions:

1) Have I spent much time playing with my child today?
2) When I think of a common challenging behavior that will reoccur, how can I respond in a positive way?
3) How can I include my child in solving this problem?

For basic problem solving techniques, the PCIT model suggests to introduce the problem at a later time, then model appropriate behavior. Last, role play the skills to strengthen your child's ability to behave appropriately next time (Gershenson et al, 2010).