Parent Coaching

You are not a bystander in your child’s care. You are one of the most important parts of it.

Parent coaching at ANNA is a core part of how we support children and families who are participating in our center-based services. Research consistently shows that children make the most meaningful progress when the people who spend the most time with them are part of the learning process.

You do not need a background in therapy

Since you already know your child better than anyone, our role is simply to help you build on that knowledge with practical strategies that support your child’s skill development.

Why Caregiver Involvement Matters

Even when children receive many hours of therapy each week, those hours are only a small portion of their lives. The majority of learning happens in the everyday moments families share together. When parents understand and use naturalistic strategies during those moments, children often:

  • Use new skills more naturally
  • Retain skills more consistently
  • Generalize skills across different environments

Our Approach

Project ImPACT

ANNA’s parent coaching program uses Project ImPACT (Improving Parents As Communication Teachers), an evidence-based program developed by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of California San Francisco.

Project ImPACT was designed specifically to teach parents and caregivers the naturalistic strategies that are the foundation of NDBI. It is one of the most rigorously studied parent coaching models, with a strong evidence base across diverse families and children with a wide range of developmental profiles.
Juliya Krasnopolsky, BCBA at ANNA Juliya Krasnopolsky BCBA

How it works

How coaching sessions work

Parent coaching sessions are practical, collaborative, and tailored to your family. Sessions typically include:

  1. Setting priorities together

    Each session begins with a check-in about your child and your family’s current priorities.

  2. Learning new strategies

    Your BCBA introduces a specific strategy, explains why it works, and demonstrates how it connects to your child’s goals.

  3. Practicing with your child

    You practice the strategy directly with your child while your BCBA observes and supports you in the moment.

  4. Feedback and reflection

    Your BCBA provides supportive, collaborative feedback to help build confidence and refine the strategy.

  5. Bringing it home

    Together, you identify one or two simple strategies to try during everyday routines between sessions.

Benefits

What families gain from Parent coaching

Many families tell us that, in addition to learning new strategies, parent coaching supports them in better understanding their child. Caregivers often report feeling more confident:

  • Recognizing their child’s communication attempts

  • Supporting play and social engagement

  • Creating learning moments during everyday routines

  • Collaborating with their child’s care team

This is what effective autism support looks like in practice: building skills, building confidence, and building connection.

Advantages

How ANNA’s parent coaching approach is different

  1. Many parent coaching programs focus primarily on managing behaviors or working through structured curricula. At ANNA, our approach is grounded in the same naturalistic, child-led philosophy that shapes our clinical services.

  2. Rather than prescribing a rigid set of techniques, our clinicians work with you to understand your child’s unique communication style, motivation, and interests, and then teach you strategies that feel natural to both of you. The goal is not to turn parents into therapists. The goal is to help you feel more attuned, more confident, and more connected to your child throughout everyday life.

  3. Families who have experienced more traditional models of parent training often tell us that ANNA’s parent coaching feels meaningfully different. It is collaborative rather than prescriptive, and it centers the relationship between parent and child at every step.

FAQ

Have questions?
We have answers!

Parent coaching is a structured support model that teaches parents and caregivers practical strategies for supporting their autistic child's development in everyday life. Unlike clinical therapy, parent coaching focuses on building the caregiver's skills and confidence so that learning and connection happen throughout the day, not just during scheduled sessions. At ANNA, parent coaching is embedded into every family's program through our Project ImPACT-based parent coaching model.

Start a life-changing journey with your child

Every family’s journey starts at a different place. Some are ready to begin, some are figuring out where to start, and some have had difficult experiences with other providers and are approaching this carefully. Wherever you are, we look forward to meeting you there!

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