Going beyond 'I'm a Coach': Adopting a Caregiver Coaching Framework in EI

Caregiver coaching is a mutually beneficial practice used by early interventionists (EIs) to build caregivers' confidence and capacities to support their children, which, in turn, leads to EIs gaining knowledge from families and developing new skills (e.g., Douglas et al., 2020; Meadan et al., 2020). Coaches (i.e., EIs) help others (i.e., caregivers) learn to (a) reflect on their actions and (b) create plans to improve their actions (Rush & Shelden, 2020b). EIs who use a coaching framework primarily interact with caregivers, while the caregivers' role is to work directly with their children. This service delivery model differs from traditional services, in which the primary interactions are between EIs and children, with caregivers mainly assuming the role of observer (Campbell & Sawyer, 2007). In this article, we provide guidance for adopting a coaching framework and cover the following topics: (a) rationale for using a caregiver coaching framework; (b) what coaching frameworks exist; (c) considerations when choosing a framework; and (d) how to individualize coaching for families.