How I Made a YEAR of Parent Training Lessons in a Single Afternoon

We all know that parent training is an important – and required – part of ABA treatment. Not only that, planning what to work on with parents can be such a struggle.

I’ve been there. Not only did I struggle to create new and fresh content each week, I felt like I was failing miserably at making the training sessions valuable for the parents. I didn’t notice a change until I figured out the “secret recipe” for parent training, and I want to share those secrets with you!

In this article, I’m sharing the changes I made that helped me create a year’s worth of engaging, informative parent training lessons in a single afternoon. I’ll review:

• How I ditched the “fluff” and got right to the nuts and bolts of what parents REALLY want and need from parent training sessions
• How I used checklists and visuals to quickly and easily create a parent training curriculum that I can use over and over with ease

If you’re tired of struggling to create parent training content that matters and wanting to develop a system that you can use over and over again, keep reading below! Let’s go over how you can use my “secret recipe” to completely change your parent training sessions!

#1: Ditching the “fluff”

I spent wayyyy too many parent training sessions hoping that a parent would have enough that they wanted to talk about to fill the time slot. I hoped for spontaneous conversation, and instead all I got was a lot of awkward silence.

And worse than that, my blunder meant that my parent training sessions had no structure. Instead, I tried to pad the session time by adding “fluff” in terms of conversation, session updates, and reports from clinical staff.

And make no mistake – those things are important and are needed in parent training sessions. But what sessions ALSO need are direction, defined learning objectives, and a topic. Instead of waiting to find a skill deficit in need of targeting, I created a list of ABA skills and concepts that parents NEEDED to be successful with their child at home.

I was so tired of struggling to find content and plan for each parent training session, and I wanted a universal set of skills that ALL parents could benefit from learning. These skills covered a wide range of introductory ABA topics as well as more advanced topics to promote generalization of skills learned during sessions into the home with parents. When my checklist was completed, I had generated enough topics to cover OVER A YEAR AND A HALF of bi-weekly parent training sessions!

This checklist was a LIFESAVER! Because of it, I was able to plan a year and half’s worth of parent training topics that could be reused over and over again. The best part is, I am giving my parent training planning checklist away for FREE!

#2: Creating the Parent Training Curriculum of My DREAMS

The checklist that I generated in an hour paid off OVER and OVER again when it came to creating the content I needed for parent training sessions. I used the checklist to create visuals and infographics for families that summarized the parent training topic, made the topic relatable, and helped parents understand exactly WHY all of what we do in ABA matters.

And then, something magical happened: parent training sessions got better.

I wasn’t stressed leading up to parent training sessions. Our sessions became more lively, productive, and we actually had enough to discuss to last the whole time slot! Even better yet, parents LOVED having a “take home” after the session and appreciated the supplemental materials to help them better understand ABA as a whole. They were a complete and utter WIN.

If you’re wanting to use the same infographics I did to make your parent training sessions fun AND informative, you can grab our starter pack that gives you 6+ months’ worth of parent training materials in an instant download! This starter pack is designed to make parent training EVEN EASIER than the One-Year Parent Training Checklist, and covers essential topics like:

For a limited time, Better Behavior Solutions is offering the 6 Month Parent Training Curriculum for an incredible price – just $20 for the complete starter curriculum! This price will increase when the full curriculum is released, so hurry to secure your copy today!

There you have it, you now know EXACTLY how I saved myself a year of effort to create all the parent training I needed in one afternoon! I hope you find what you need to make the parent training of your dreams, too. Remember to grab your FREE Parent Training Checklist to streamline your own practice!