Evidence to Practice Commentary New Evidence in Coaching Interventions

Abstract

Coaching has become a widely popularized strategy for improving one's work performance and life accomplishments. As well as, being considered fundamental to successful sporting and athletic achievements. Coaching is a training or development process that supports an individual to achieve a competence, result, or goal (Wikipedia, 2014, para. 1). Since the origin of the word coaching comes from transportation, the meaning has evolved to describe, "the process used to transport people from where they are, to where they want to be" (Wikipedia, 2014, para. 4).The early childhood field has long established tradition of recommending parent coaching in early learning and parent-child attachment as a strategy for optimizing child outcomes and building social capacity. In the last decade, coaching has also been adopted as an intervention for both children with disabilities and for parents of a child with a disability. Coaching provides a solution-focused approach to helping children and parents achieve goals that are uniquely meaningful to them. The purpose of coaching for parents and children with disabilities is: "to increase knowledge, skills, and competence . . . to enable participation in the context of the family's daily life" (Foster et al., 2013, p. 254). Coaching is different to traditional therapy in that therapists do not tell the parent or child what to do, but rather help the parent or child to solve problems and find possible solutions, using self-directed learning that enhances the individual's capabilities (Foster et al., 2013). Coaching involves (a) emotional support; (b) information exchange; and (c) a structured learning process involving (i) goal-setting; (ii) exploring options; (iii) planning action; (iv) carrying out plans in real-life environments; (v) checking performance through analysis and reflection; and (vi) generalization (Graham et al., 2010). Mother's believe that good coaching involves a collaborative relationship with the therapist characterized by open communication, knowledge sharing, reflection, and critical analysis (Foster et al., 2013). If the reflection and analysis components

Efficacy of the small step program in a randomised controlled trial for infants below age 12 months with clinical signs of CP; a study protocol

“…Although coaching is well established from a theoretical perspective, its effectiveness in practice has not been fully evaluated. A recent review summarizing the evidence for coaching’s effectiveness found only a few high-quality studies [44]. The most clear high-quality evidence was for improved educational outcomes for children at risk of developmental delay, but there was also some moderate evidence for improving motor outcome in children with CP if a motor learning approach is used.…”

Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education

“…Though it is still far from prevalent as a method of service delivery for OTs in early intervention, the development of the occupational performance coaching approach (Graham, Rodgers, and Ziviani, 2009 ) and early qualitative and quantitative investigations of OT coaching are moving this method steadily forward as a very promising means of service delivery (Foster, Dunn, and Lawson, 2013 ;Graham, Rodgers, and Ziviani, 2010 ;Novak, 2014 ). Results of these early studies indicate that parents value the coaching relationship and feel greater self-effi cacy as parents and that a coaching model can support both children and parents in achieving specifi c goals related to occupations and social participation.…”

Improving the participation of youth with physical disabilities in community activities: An interrupted time series design

“…This coaching approach involves specific use of language and questions to encourage parents to reflect on their child's participation and develop their own solutions to address the challenges their child faces. Studies examining the effectiveness of coaching with parents of young children with disabilities have demonstrated preliminary positive effects on children's goal performance (Dunn, Cox, Foster, Mische-Lawson & Tanquary, 2012;Graham, Rodger & Ziviani, 2010;Novak, 2014).…”