A Step-by-Step Guide to the Five Components of Coaching Interaction Style

TEAM EI Colorado Vision: Every child and family served by EI Colorado has access to a primary provider in addition to a diverse team of early interventionists that possess expertise to build family capacity to support the child in everyday learning

Purpose: Use this document as a guide to ensure the five components of a coaching interaction style are utilized with families, caregivers, and colleagues during visits and formal and informal teaming discussions. All components should be clearly and intentionally communicated to the family and occur within the context of naturally occurring routines.

• Joint Planning -  A conversation that occurs at the beginning and end of each visit,  between the coach and the learner, to describe and discuss how effectively the learner was able to implement new strategies between visits and embed them into daily routines

  • Beginning of visit

    • Review the last visit plan

    • Review this visit plan

  • End of visit

    • Review plan for in-between visits (functional, not homework)

    • Make a plan for the next visit

• Observation - Examination of another person’s actions to develop new skills, strategies, or ideas. The coach may observe the learner, and/or the learner may observe the coach

  • This is clearly communicated to the caregiver before it occurs

  • Ideas to consider during observation:

    • What are some questions you ask when preparing to do an observation?

    • What can you do if what you want to observe does not happen during your visit?

    • What can you learn from observation?

• Action/Practice - Spontaneous or planned events that occur within the context of a daily routine that provide the learner with opportunities to use the information discussed with the coach and/or to practice new or existing skills

  • Show strategies AND allow caregivers the opportunity to practice

  • Model the action and allow time for practice

    • Hopeful modeling (ineffective practice)

      • Demonstrating a strategy with the hope that the family will notice and adopt it without explicit guidance

    • Intentional modeling (effective practice)

      • Purposefully demonstrating, explaining, and engaging the family to ensure they understand and can apply the strategy independently.

  • Sample questions to consider during Action/Practice:

    • What did you think about that?

    • How does that match with what you might do?

    • How could you do that if I weren’t here?

    • Would you be willing to try it?

• Reflection - Provides the learner the opportunities to analyze current strategies and refine their knowledge and skills to obtain the intended outcome(s)

  • It is a key part of adult learning

  • It is a collaborative problem-solving process

  • Types of reflection questions can include:

    • Awareness

      • What have you tried?

      • What happened?

    • Alternatives

      • What ideas do you have?

      • What could you do/try?

    • Action

      • What is the first thing you will do/try?

      • When will you do this?

      • When do you think we should check in on this plan?

    • Analysis

      • How did that work?

      • How does that compare with what you hoped would happen?

      • What do you feel went well between last time and today’s visit?

  • Reflective questions should be:

    • Open-ended

    • Build on the adult's previous experience

    • Identify what worked or did not work

    • Generate new strategies, ideas, and solutions

  • Sample questions to consider during Reflection:

    • How did that work for you?

    • What were you thinking you might do differently next time?

    • How did that match with what you wanted to have happen?

    • What do you think was the best thing that just happened?

• Feedback - Provides the learner with information, affirmation, acknowledgment, encouragement, and suggestions

  • Types of feedback can include:

    • Affirmative

      • Acknowledges that what the family/caregiver is sharing with the provider is understood

    • Informative

      • Allows the family/caregiver to hear new ideas after they have had time to reflect

    • Evaluative

      • Ensures the family/caregiver that the provider agrees with and/or reinforces their idea

    • Directive

      • This should be used rarely, and only in situations where a dangerous situation is present