Parenting Support for Parents in Difficulty: An Operational Model

Various studies have shown that almost all behavioural and learning problems in children are caused by adults creating the conditions for the learning of inappropriate behaviours. This occurs either because they do not know how to deal with the child's problem behaviours, or because they know what to do but are completely unable to implement it.The need to work directly with parents to promote the development of children with atypical development, considering parents as co-therapists, has been summarised by the term “parent training”. But do parents really need to be “trained”, “reprimanded” or “corrected” in the performance of their institutional role? Definitely NOT.Parents do not have a deficiency or a problem that requires specific training. Rather, they are people who need help in the daily task of parenting a child with a neurodevelopmental disorder. An alternative, broader and more inclusive term for Parent Training, which encompasses various interventions aimed at supporting parents in their difficult daily role, is “Parenting Support”.