North Star Conversations Transcript: Beyond Behavior: Parent Coaching and Kids’ Self-Worth | Mind Chicago
More than behavior management, PCIT and PMT help kids feel successful at home and with peers. In this clip, Lee Wells and Brandon Gimbel explore how coaching improves family connection and increases self-worth in children with ADHD.
Brandon Gimbel (00:00)
One of the things that I find really valuable about parent coaching, about sharing our experiences with parents, is that it not only helps the parents, it also helps the kid. Because the kid needs structure, they need limits, they need boundaries. I'm not a real big fan of consequences or the concept of consequences. I am a big fan of the idea of limits and clear communication, clear understanding, clear expectations. Kids benefit from that. So one of the things that I imagine happens as a result of PCIT and PMT is that not only are the parents feeling better and more competent in what they're doing in their approaches to their parenting, but the kids are responding very well.
Lee Wells (00:37)
Absolutely. Brandon, that is like the number one thing that we tell parents when they first come in. Because it's a lot. We're informing them of all these steps, all these activities, the consistency coming in. It is not for the faint of heart to do PCIT and PMT. Parents come in, they want to feel better as parents, but what they really want is their kids to be happy. And they want their kids to have friends. We really emphasize it increases kids' self-worth. We work with a large ADHD population at Mind. And so we see in that group a lot of correction, a lot of quote unquote fails, a lot of difficulty making friends, not quite being able to do what their siblings are able to do. And so all that correction leads to inevitably lower self-worth, increased anxiety. We know the rates of anxiety are higher with kids with ADHD, increased rates of depression with ADHD. These things help increase that connection so that they feel successful and they can effectively do tasks and activities that family members do in the home to be part of a family. And then that translates to friendships and school. And that actually really motivates parents a lot more than this idea that you're gonna feel empowered yourself, even though we really want that for them too.