Parent Tools — Help Your Keiki

Parent Education
Empowers caregivers with formal knowledge and information about problems their child may be facing. This can help caregivers understand their roles in the therapeutic process.

Attending
Facilitates high-quality time between parents and children. The child picks an activity and the parent joins this activity while being as non-critical as possible and providing occasional praise.

Differential Reinforcement
Involves teaching caregivers how to reward specific, positive behaviors while ignoring unwanted, problematic behaviors.

Praise
A helpful parenting tool that involves looking for and recognizing positive child behaviors.

Time-Out
A time-out is period of time when all reinforcement is taken away from the youth after they have shown negative behavior. Therapists work with caregivers to effectively administer time-out for behaviors which need to be extinguished immediately.

Tangible Rewards
Physical objects or desired activities can be given to children by caregivers when a desired task or behavior is completed when asked. These rewards are useful in promoting positive behavior, particularly behavior that has been difficult for the child in the past.

Commands
Clear and specific instructions which accurately explain the caregiver’s expectation, increasing the likelihood of them being followed.

Stimulus Control
Involves identifying specific triggers which may cause negative and problematic behaviors in youth.

Behavior Alert

Provides an alert after a problem behavior. The alert can come from a device (e.g., urine alarm, motion detector) and prompts some form of correction.

Parent Coping

Exercises or strategies designed to enhance caregivers’ ability to deal with stressful situations.

Parent-Directed Nutrition

Helping a parent or caregiver take more control of eating and weight management for their child by managing their diet, exercise, and when and how they eat.

Family Engagement

Activities for strengthening the partnership between families and the therapist.

Monitoring

Teaching family members or other adults how to observe and keep track of a child’s behavior and/or moods.