The Teacher Therapist: Teaching Parents to Help Their Children through Systematic Contingency Management

Abstract

Preschool teachers frequently are cast in the role of parent counsellors. This can be a suitable role if teachers will avoid a pseudo-psychoanalytic approach and focus instead on the actual behaviors manifest by the parents and the children. Such focus by teachers can lead to training parents how to keep objective records upon which systematic home management programs can be based Three such cases are described. One concerns a child who procrastinated lengthily over dressing herself; the second, an exceedingly non-compliant child; and the third, a child with frequent bed wetting episodes. In each instance the parent was taught systematic procedures which alleviated the problem.