Parent Coaching Through Occupational Therapy | Center Ring Therapy

What Is Parent Coaching in Occupational Therapy?

OT parent coaching is a collaborative process that helps caregivers understand challenges affecting a child's everyday participation and identify practical ways to respond. It may involve:

  • Supporting task initiation, planning, organization, and follow-through.

  • Understanding emotional and sensory regulation needs.

  • Adapting routines, transitions, and family responsibilities.

  • Supporting participation in social, recreational, and community activities.

  • Building independence while providing appropriate support.

The goal is to help parents find strategies that fit their child's abilities and their family's priorities.

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  • Yes. Occupational therapists can work collaboratively with caregivers to address challenges affecting a child's daily activities, participation, and independence. The focus and methods depend on the therapist's training, the family's goals, and the child's needs.

  • The terms can overlap, but they may describe different approaches. Parent training often teaches specific strategies or procedures, while coaching commonly emphasizes collaboration, reflection, problem-solving, and adapting strategies to individual situations. Center Ring Therapy primarily operates through a parent coaching model.

  • Not necessarily. Parent coaching may be provided on its own for appropriate goals or alongside direct occupational therapy, psychological treatment, educational support, or other services. The appropriate combination depends on the needs of the family.

  • Parent coaching can help caregivers identify when a child needs instruction, environmental support, opportunities to practice, or a different level of assistance. The aim is to support participation while allowing independence to develop at an appropriate pace.

Parents know their children best and play an important role in supporting development across everyday situations. Occupational therapy (OT) parent coaching helps families translate an understanding of their child's needs into practical strategies for home, school, and community life.

Parent coaching may address executive functioning, emotional and sensory regulation, routines, transitions, social participation, and growing independence. Rather than focusing only on behavior management, OT considers what makes an activity difficult and how changes to expectations, tasks, routines, or environments can support participation.

What Does the Research Explore?

Research relevant to OT parent coaching examines caregiver coaching, children's sensory experiences, family participation, and ways parents learn to apply strategies in daily life. The studies below address different aspects of this work; they do not all directly evaluate the effectiveness of OT parent coaching.

Allen, S., Knott, F. J., Branson, A., & Lane, S. J. (2021). Coaching parents of children with sensory integration difficulties: A scoping review. Occupational Therapy International, 2021, Article 6662724. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6662724

What the research explores: This scoping review examines occupational therapy approaches to coaching parents of children with sensory integration difficulties and summarizes the available research.

Bagby, M. S., Dickie, V. A., & Baranek, G. T. (2012). How sensory experiences of children with and without autism affect family occupations. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 66(1), 78–86. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2012.000604

This study explores how children's sensory experiences relate to family activities and occupations, highlighting the importance of considering sensory needs within everyday family life.

Kirby, A. V., Williams, K. L., Watson, L. R., Sideris, J., Bulluck, J., & Baranek, G. T. (2019). Sensory features and family functioning in families of children with autism and developmental disabilities: Longitudinal associations. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2019.031781

This longitudinal study examines associations between children's sensory features and family functioning over time in families of children with autism and developmental disabilities.

Pfeiffer, B., Coster, W., Snethen, G., Derstine, M., Piller, A., & Tucker, C. (2017). Caregivers’ perspectives on the sensory environment and participation in daily activities of children with autism spectrum disorder. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71, 7104220020. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2017.021360

This study examines caregivers' perspectives on how the sensory environment relates to children's participation in everyday activities.

Porter, L. M., Lane, S. J., Demchick, B. B., Sweeney, J. K., Mullens, P. A., & Kearney, B. E. (2023). Parents as adult learners in occupational therapy for children with sensory challenges: A scoping review. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 77(1), 7701205080. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2023.050078

What the research explores: This scoping review examines parents as adult learners in occupational therapy for children with sensory challenges and how caregivers can be supported in understanding and applying strategies.


Smith, S. L., Vaquerano, J., Humphreys, B. P., & Aytur, S. A. (2023). Parent satisfaction with a telehealth parent coaching intervention to support family participation. OTJR: Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 43(3), 531–539. https://doi.org/10.1177/15394492231164942

This study examines parent satisfaction with a telehealth parent coaching intervention designed to support family participation.

How This Research Informs Our Approach

At Center Ring Therapy, parent coaching starts with the family's priorities and the situations that are hardest to navigate. We work with parents to identify what may be getting in the way, understand the child's needs, and develop practical strategies that fit everyday life.

Our approach may include adapting routines and environments, supporting co-regulation, adjusting activity demands, and creating opportunities for children to practice skills. The goal is to help families identify useful next steps that support participation, confidence, and growing independence, not to make parents responsible for solving every challenge.

Understanding the Evidence

The research on this page includes scoping reviews, observational studies, and research on caregiver experiences and family functioning. These studies provide different kinds of information, and findings about sensory experiences or family participation do not automatically establish the effectiveness of a particular OT intervention.

We consider research in the context of the populations studied, the outcomes measured, and the limitations of the evidence. Individual care decisions should reflect each child's needs and each family's goals and circumstances.

This page was last reviewed by Hannah Swirnow, OTR/L, in 2026.