Professional Development
Workshops/How To Work With Families » Foster Parent Training - Options For Youth
Explaining a Program
Job and Family Services - Foster Family Training
The ABC’s of Positive Parenting for Foster Parents
We must communicate the program clearly to the child and seek the child’s agreement with it. Any program is only as good as the child’s understanding of it. We explain a program in order to make our expectations and the planned consequences clear to the child. If the child does not understand what he/she is expected to do and why, the program is not likely to succeed. For older youngsters, participation in the planning process should be invited to maximize chances for reaching agreement on the program. Explaining a program to an adolescent should include some elements of negotiation, as indicated in steps #6 and 8 below.
The steps involved in explaining a program are:
____________________1. Set a time when you can talk with the child.
____________________2. Start with a positive statement that is linked to the teaching goal.
____________________3. Describe positive behavior (teaching goal) the child is to learn.
____________________4. Give reasons for behavior and need for program (plan).
____________________5. Describe the consequences/contingencies.
____________________6. Give the child choices
____________________7. Ask the child to repeat the program (ie., what is the behavior, what are the
consequences, when should the behavior occur, etc.)
____________________8. Close with a clear agreement by parents and youth (Ask youth,
“Do we have an agreement on this, then?”)
