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Why Child Coaches need
to be trained in the fundamental behavior science mechanics about
change.
Child
Coaches
are required to both
change the level of mental, personal
and life skillls sets, emotions, mindsets, attitudes, thinking, beliefs, values,
motivation etc of an individual or a small group, in order to help them
be better. Child Coaching
is fundamentally all about achieving behavioral change (what
children do and say).
Psychology:
Is the study of emotion, cognition, and behavior, and their
interaction.
A critical aspect of psychology concerns the
science of behavior change. This involves the study and the discovery of principles
and laws that govern behavior, the extension of these principles, and
the development of an applied technology to facilitate positive, lasting
changes in behavior.
To accomplish
substantive and sustained behavior change in a child, certain
psychological methods must be used and specific protocols
followed:
The change process in coaching, in essence, is a psycho-logical one and
thus requires a specialist tools, skills and finesse on the part of the
child coach.
In order to help children change
significant facets of their behavior it is essential that child coaches
use proven change models and processes from the behavioral sciences.
From the perspective of today's behavioral sciences (incorporating
neuropsychology,
neuroscience and neurocoaching) -there are
exciting "new proven strategies" how to change behavior and
employ next generation, evidence-based models, tools and techniques etc
available to be co-opted by the professional child coaching discipline.
Change Agents:
A change agent is a person who is formally conducting a
change effort. The change agent is involved in all steps of the
process of change.
Child Coaches are Change Agents -however
most child coaches are only traditionally taught to assist children and their
families / caregivers to make life skill changes and
as a consequence only see them fail in the process of behavior transition:
Yes, change is situational and physical, like applying new skills.
But, there is a transition period, a psychological process, which
children must pass through to come to terms with the new learning,
skill, situation etc. Transition starts with an ending. When
you move forward, you have to have an ending of where you were. For a
child to successfully make a change, they must leave the past/where
they were. This takes expert guidance by a
professionally trained child behavior coach in the use of proven psychological
methodologies.
Transition has a period in a 'neutral zone' where little
momentum is achieved:
This psychological period of transition is much slower than the
physical change/learning how to execute new actions. When a
child moves to
a new area, the physical change usually occurs fast. But the inward
psychological transition happens much more slowly because instead of
becoming a changed individual as fast as a child can change outwardly,
they actually
struggle for a time in a state that is neither new nor old. The child feels like they have let go of one trapeze and are
waiting for the next one to appear.
The 3 Phase Psychological Re-orientation of
Change: Ending – Neutral Zone – and New Beginning:
You can only make a new beginning if you first make an ending and
spend some time in the neutral zone. However, most child coaches are
trained only to
start with the new beginning without finishing the old. These coaches,
who have not been trained in the use of the behavioral sciences, tend to take a performance deficit approach with children and spend
much of their time in the 'New Beginning' zone concentrating on the
application of a new skill etc. They
fail to pay important attention to the endings (of why a child was
where they were to then become committed to move on)
and the existence of the neutral zone (of how to successfully make
the transition/the move/the journey from the old to the new).
A child coach needs to establish
what a child first needs to move forward:
A child needs to feel understood and be heard and have time to wrestle
with many emotions such as; denial, fear, anxiety,
uncertainty, confusion, frustration, apathy, scepticism and isolation.
Questions and issues concerning self exploration, self awareness, self
control and self expression must also be addressed. Other
questions include: What do they need to get on with the transition?
What are they holding onto? What do they need to leave behind? What
can they bring with them?
Parent's
Psychological Contract of Support with their children:
For
optimum results a child coach must also spend a considerable amount of their
time with the child's family and/or caregivers. During the
transition phase it is also important that the child coach has the child's
support group provide a climate of
openness and risk-taking. The child is encouraged to be open
with their support group about what they are going to change. It helps that
the child's family are also "fellow travellers" in
the journey of change and are also trying to improve their
parenting skills.
Child Coaches -are the bridge builders across the Neutral Zone:
Unless successful transition takes place, behavioral change will not work. The
neutral zone is the critical time for the coach to
ensure the child is able to achieve sustainable renewal and
development. It is critical that a child coach be taught how
to employ the latest, behavioral science based change skills and tools necessary to guide
and support children through this time of
transition to achieve genuine, measurable, lasting behavior change and new skills.
The Behavioral Coaching Institute's Certified Master Child Coach and
Diploma Courses -elite
training in the use of evidence-based psychological methodologies:
The Behavioral Coaching Institute's
invitational, fast-tracked
Certified
Child Behavior Coach Courses (international Self-Study
Format) meets the critical needs for child coaches to be trained in the use of validated,
reliable psychology-based tools and techniques. Read
More
>....
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