ac.care

4. Behavioural Strategies

Repair parenting is also known as therapeutic or reparative parenting. This type of parenting requires carers to have a different set of skills for caring for children who have experienced abuse or neglect as this is very different to your normal parenting methods. Using repair parenting assists in the development of healthy attachments. The following video captures a foster carer in the UK who discusses Therapeutic Parenting. This video is also featured in the Shared Lives full day training sessions for generalist foster carers.

PACE is a model developed by Dan Hughes which assists caregivers to develop safe and secure relationships with children to assist in repair parenting. Once a stable relationship has been built through PACE, the model is able to be adapted to use in response to challenging behaviours.

Playfulness – having fun with the child and assisting them to join in on fun.

Acceptance – not judging but accepting the behavioural choices the child makes and the feelings behind these choices.

Curiosity – wondering with the child about the meaning behind the behaviour and why they do the things they do.

Empathy – the quality of “feeling with” a child, feeling compassion for their struggles or suffering. Playfulness should be used where appropriate.

PACE assists caregivers to develop safe and secure relationships with children to assist in repair parenting. Once a stable relationship has been built through PACE, the model is able to be adapted to use in response to challenging behaviours. Listen to Dan Hughes talk about his PACE model in the following Video: