Abstract
This Perspectives paper advances understanding of coaching in pediatric rehabilitation. We compare three coaching approaches designed for pediatric rehabilitation: Coping with and Caring for Infants with Special Needs (COPCA), Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC), and Solution-Focused Coaching in Pediatric Rehabilitation (SFC-peds).
Our objectives are to contrast the theory underpinning the approaches, discuss the evidence for outcomes and hypothesized mechanisms of change, consider the necessary mindsets of effective coaches, and propose directions for research and practice.
The coaching approaches have different theoretical bases and are designed for specific contexts, yet are similar in their mechanisms of change and intended outcomes. There is growing evidence of important effects of coaching on coachees' goal achievement, empowerment, and capacity building. Studies indicate that stakeholders value coaching, and provide a preliminary understanding of the mechanisms, including engagement and self-efficacy, by which coaching approaches support clients' self-directed and sustained change. Open, curious, and client-centered practitioner mindsets are fundamental to effective coaching.
Coaching is a distinctive group of relational, goal-oriented, and evidence-based approaches that support goal achievement and empowerment. These approaches reflect and advance an ongoing paradigm shift in pediatric rehabilitation-a movement from therapist-as-expert approaches to those that build empowerment and capacity.Implications For RehabilitationCoaching is a distinctive group of theory-based approaches that support clients' goal achievement and empowerment, and build capacityCoaching practitioners are collaborative facilitators who assist clients and families with their own discovery of solutions that fit their everyday contextsThe evidence suggests that coaching triggers engagement and self-efficacy, which are the mechanisms by which changes in longer-term outcomes occurOpen, curious, and client/family-centered practitioner mindsets are fundamental to effective coaching.