Parent Coaching for Families

“Finding Michaela to guide us through the ESDM was the best thing that could have happened to us. Not only was she kind and amazing to work with when we came in person, but she also continued to work with us online, since we were from another Province. She was the only one who saw my concerns as real concerns to address sooner rather than later. She provided us with the tools to completely change my oldest son’s path. I truly believe without her help, we would be in a different place with our son. ​I cannot express how truly grateful we are to have worked with Michaela!”

Amber and Carter Wagner, Parents

“We found Janet’s parent coaching approach to speech therapy to be highly effective when working with our son. Janet creates a team environment where the entire family builds their skills together. We were able to incorporate techniques organically into everyday activities and play so our son was motivated to work along with us. Time at home to practice was something we all did and made it an easy sell. Janet was extremely responsive to adjusting our program as needed for our family. We truly feel working with Janet allowed for breakthroughs in our son’s speech development.”

Ashley, Parent

“It was good to be able to discuss challenges and questions throughout the sessions. I also thought that by asking us to decide what we would focus on each week, it was helpful in really diving into the practical/practice. It really has given me the skills to work more effectively with parents!”

Robyn Mor-Bagshaw, Infant Development Consultant

“The strengths of the workshop were discussion, shared experiences around real families, and video clips of actual sessions. The information/knowledge will definitely improve my ability to think in a much broader sense and view the family though a different lens.”

Nicky Hendry, Infant Development Consultant

“The strengths of the workshop were the cases shown throughout the workshop. It will be very important to improve the outcomes of the sessions I have with the kids, once I also target the family.”

Maria Laura Machado, Speech-Language Pathologist

“Michaela and Janet work very well together.  I enjoyed hearing how they have progressed through their learning. The many examples were very helpful.  I also enjoyed getting resources that will help me further my learning.

Heather Joe, Intake Coordinator

“Thank-you for the level 1 and 2 parent coach training workshop. I loved the content. Thank-you so much! The strengths of the workshop were learning the various tools and resources available to me.”

Mette Lockwood, Speech-Language Pathologist

“The way approached was perfect and easy to understand. It will help a lot in practice. It helped to reflect on listening more and adapting content for each family. The strengths of the workshop were materials, content and availability. For me it was excellent, I don’t see anything to improve. The workshop will help in my job as it will help directly in the relationship with the parents, not only for the parents who are in training, but also in the general orientations of each day for the parents of the children that I see on a daily basis.”

Ivanna Vozivoda Salvan Garcia, Speech Therapist

“Overall I have learned so much about parent coaching with Michaela and Janet during the level 1 & 2 parent coach training workshop. I hope to be able to use what I have learned in practice with my clients in the future! The strengths of the workshop were the instructor’s passion and enthusiasm as well as knowledge of the content of parent coaching. I really enjoyed the discussions we had throughout the sessions and really liked the website resources provided. The workshop will help in my job as I will start my own parent coaching sessions with parents and adopt this as my main service delivery.”

Stephanie Leung, BCBA

“The level 1 parent coach training was thought-provoking and well done. Michaela and Janet’s energy and enthusiasm is contagious. I am looking forward to Level 2.  There was a great balance of videos and presentation. The strengths of this workshop were the balance of videos and presentation and many opportunities and space for questions and comments. Thank you so much.”

Georgina Exley, Infant Development Consultant

“Thank you so very much to both Janet and Michaela for the level 1 and 2 parent coach training workshop. Your co-facilitation in the larger group format worked well. A huge thank you to Michaela for your facilitation, and mentoring in level 3 small group SCD group sessions. I really enjoyed and valued/appreciated our small break out sessions with Michaela and SCD group to discuss the practical pieces of integrating the training into our role and practice, as well as hearing Michaela’s guidance our individual practice.

Alanna Pamminger, Supported Child Development Consultant

“I got a lot out of the level 1, 2, and 3 parent coach training.  I am excited to change and tailor the way I am practicing to include parent coaching, as I truly believe it is one of the most effective ways to work with families and help support them to achieve their goals.  This course made it much clearer to me how to adapt parent coaching to many different aspects of what I do as an Infant Development Consultant. I am grateful I am still at the beginning of my practice and have been given some amazing tools to use.  Thanks Michaela & Janet! This has helped me to see my role in a different way and approach relationship building differently.  I think this approach will help me to be more collaborative with the families I am seeing.

Emily Moss, Infant Development Consultant

“I loved the level 1, 2, and 3 parent coach training program. I really appreciated Michaela’s ability to adapt the principles of parent coaching to the many hats of SCD consultants. The structure of the workshop was, for me, optimal. The combination of information and opportunity to reflect and share worked well. I appreciated the opportunity to participate in this workshop in this small group setting with my colleagues. The length of the sessions and the information provided felt ‘just right’. Many of the principles are directly applicable, and we have already begun to re-think our approach using the framework we explored.

Annette MacGregor, Supported Child Development Consultant

“Thank you! I love that the level 1, 2, and 3 parent coach training outlines a model of practice that fits within our philosophy of family-centered practice and offers enhanced skills in the area of collaboration, joint planning, and self-reflection. I feel that within my role as SCD Consultant, I can use these skills and practices with both families, and child care providers to continue to extend our partnerships and to build consensus about how to best collaborate to support growth for both adult learning and the development of child.”

Alanna Pamminger, Supported Child Development Consultant

“Working with Janet and Michaela gave me skills, direction, and hope! I began working with Janet and Michaela during a time when I needed expertise, guidance and support for both my young child and myself. I absolutely wanted to do what was best for our daughter, but I didn’t know how. Working with Janet and Michaela gave me goals, and the direction I needed. The skills that they taught me are now woven into every day activities and exchanges with our daughter. Janet and Michaela set us up for success and now two years later, we are thriving! Michaela and Janet: thank you so much for helping me become the mother I wanted and needed to be. ​I am forever grateful.”

Nicole Hardy, Parent

“Any parent who works with Michaela or Janet is truly lucky and will have life changing results. The parent coaching component is by far the most important piece of the puzzle.”

Carla Willock, ​Registered Speech-Language Pathologist

 “Wow! Overall, I found this L1 and L2 parent coaching workshop to be everything I hoped for and more. I really feel like I got my money’s worth and so many valuable connections and resources. The balance of video, theory, application and personal reflection made the workshop very engaging and dynamic. I really enjoyed the way the workshop ran, and the resources offered; it has given me a framework to work from in my current role of supporting BIs as well as for when I do work 1:1 with families. Thank you Michaela and Janet!”

Bethany Boyle, BCBA

“The L1 and L2 parent coaching workshop was great, thank you very much! It was very helpful getting to see examples in the videos. It was great to hear how you troubleshooted issues that came up. I appreciated that you highlighted the difficulties in this approach, and how you have had to monitor and change your own behaviour. As I take on more parent coaching clients, I will aim to apply the strategies and theory learned in this course. Having reviewed the adult learning principles and coaching characteristics was very helpful to ensure a solid foundation is established with parents and to ensure I’m coaching them in the most effective way for them. I hope to empower them and really establish a true partnership.”

Orly Silberstein, M.Ed., BCBA

Parent Coaching Services for Families

JHMJ Coaching & Consulting offers online or in person parent coaching services for caregivers wanting to learn evidence-based strategies to use with their young child who is showing signs of communication delay, experiencing difficulties with social communication, and/or showing signs of autism. Children do not need to have a diagnosis for parent coaching to be beneficial to caregivers wanting to support their child. For families living in British Columbia who have a child with a diagnosis of autism, parent coaching services can be paid for with MCFD Autism Funding. Both Janet and Michaela are listed on the BC MCFD Registry of Autism Service Providers (RASP).

For families living on Vancouver Island, in person coaching may be available. For those elsewhere in Canada or beyond, online coaching is available using video conference technology. JHMJ Coaching & Consulting has provided online coaching for many families living across Canada and elsewhere in the world.

​For families interested in parent coaching references are available upon request. For families interested in parent coaching online, a stable internet connection and a communication device with internet and video capabilities (e.g., computer, tablet, phone) is required. Please contact us for more information.

How Parents Support Their Young Children 

Parents can play a significant role in helping babies and children with developmental delays (or showing possible signs of autism) engage, communicate, and learn to be their best. Research clearly indicates that it is most effective for parents to begin intervening as soon as they suspect their baby is not developing in a typical manner. ​

Michaela and Janet have much experience in parent coaching. From working with a wide range of families supporting babies and young children with developmental concerns, to training others in parent coaching, to participating as parent coach trainers in research that found parent coaching to result in improvements in child outcomes and family quality of life.

10 Strategies

In addition to reviewing general information about autism in early life, An Early Start for Your Child with Autism: Using Everyday Activities to Help Kids Connect, Communicate, and Learn details supports and strategies that fall into 10 broad categories. The strategies in these 10 chapters are intended to help parents best engage and communicate with their child and support their child’s learning through daily routines and activities. Each chapter is full of ideas that parents may be already using, or new strategies that they can begin to use immediately with their child.

  1. Step into the Spotlight – Capturing Your Child’s Attention
  2. ​Find the Smile! – Having Fun with Sensory Social Routines
  3. It Takes Two to Tango – Building Back-and-Forth Interactions
  4. Talking Bodies – The Importance of Nonverbal Communication
  5. “Do What I Do!” – Helping Your Child Learn by Imitating
  6. Let’s Get Technical – How Children Learn
  7. The Joint Attention Triangle – Sharing Interests with Others
  8. It’s Playtime!
  9. Let’s Pretend!
  10. Moving into Speech
  11. Putting It All Together

“Any parent who works with Michaela or Janet is truly lucky and will have life changing results. The parent coaching component is by far the most important piece of the puzzle.”

Carla Willock, ​Registered Speech-Language Pathologist