Programs / Parent coaching
Parent Coaching
A second component of the sensory gym program is the parent coaching. Whilst strongly encouraged that parents or carers participate in this coaching to successfully support their child undertaking the sensory gym program, it is not mandatory. Children and young people will experience behavioural breakthroughs at a faster rate if their parent or carer is providing support by modelling themes taught in the sensory program and are appropriately guiding and reinforcing their sensory regulation exploration and discoveries.
sensory gym session
Parents and carers are invited to participate in the sensory gym sessions with their child to understand the impact of sensory preferences and sensitivities on their child. The child is encouraged to further explore their sensory world in the home initially, then school and community environments as their confidence and competence in self-regulating their emotions grows. Through the parent coaching program the parents and carers engage in strategies to incorporate sensory regulation into their family’s lifestyle on a daily basis to most suitably regulate their emotional reactions and subsequent behavior to minimize unrestrained emotional outbursts and challenging behaviours that reduce enjoyment of life and fulfillment of potential.
Parental involvement
Parental involvement in the sensory gym sessions creates a safe, fun learning environment for the child and enhances their trust and bond with their parent or carer, important ingredients for exploring their sensory, physical and emotional boundaries in a caring, secure, supportive environment. Whilst the young people where age appropriate are encouraged to lead their exploration and learning, the parents and carers are actively involved in enabling the achievement of their sensory, emotional and physical goals both within the gym and the home environments. Participation in the sensory gym alongside the child also allows the parent to maintain a regulated nervous system to keep engaged in the gym learning environment and in the most open, positively responsive frame of mind for the child’s experimentation and learning.
parent coaching develops
Participation in the parent coaching develops the parents and carers’ self-regulation skills to support and guide the child and family in sensory regulation through modelling opportunities. They have a better understanding of the concepts of self-regulation and how to incorporate it into their family’s lifestyle suitable for each individual family member. Weekly zoom calls with the coach provide for discussion of what is effective and what is less successful in terms of regulating emotions and reducing challenging behaviours together with further enhancement of their strategies in the home, school and community.
Participation in Parent Coaching Only
For parents and carers unable to attend the sensory gym program regularly with their child due to factors such as distance from the gym or other personal or family commitments, they are welcome to join the parent coaching program by request. This program does not include participation in the sensory gym although a session will remain vacant in the appointment scheduling for the term at a set time to accommodate the child and parent or carer’s participation where available. Participation in the sensory gym is strongly encouraged as the core component of Sensory Tuning at the heart of reaching its mission in using a sensory based approach to help children and young people adopt emotional regulation as both a preventive measure and strategy to self-regulate their arousal level when feeling anxious and heightened or when feeling low in feelings and energy.
In this dual sensory gym and parent coaching approach teaching occurs through incidental learning opportunities and in supported discussions with the child, parent and coach where appropriate in a child-led approach in the environment of the sensory gym whereby consolidation of the insights and learnings implemented within the home and the community are secondary through the parent coaching element of the Sensory Tuning approach which involves parent-coach interaction solely without the child’s contribution in the moment of the zoom call coachings. In the parent coaching only program, absent of child’s regular participation in the sensory gym, parents and carers will be coached in the principles of self-regulation through sensory experiences and guided to understanding the customized program for their child to provide informed care and support based on parental or carer insight of the child only.