Parent Coaching & Guidance
Your child is with you far more than they are with us. Coaching is the hour we spend teaching you what to do in meals, the school run and bedtime, in the language you actually speak at home.
Written by the Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center therapy team · medically reviewed by Dr Muhammad Suffyan, MB BS (GMC 8023727) · Last reviewed September 2026
About Parent Coaching
Parent coaching at Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center is the hour we spend teaching you what to do in the ordinary day — meals, the school run, bedtime — so your child gets dozens of short practices instead of one clinic hour a week. It is not a replacement for seeing your child when they need to be seen. It is how most of the progress actually happens. A consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes, in person in Model Town, Multan or online in Urdu or English.
You stay in the room. We watch you play, feed, dress or wait with your child and tell you what to try next. Grandparents and helpers can join. Roman Urdu messages are fine — start at bacha bolta nahi. What a session looks like: inside a coaching hour.
Contact owner Muhammad Salman Afzal first for any consultation. Coaching can run alongside speech, ABA, school readiness or psychology. It cannot replace a hearing test.
Who this is for
- Late talkers, when the parent is the person who hears every almost-word
- Behaviour that runs the house between sessions
- Families too far from Model Town for weekly visits — coaching works on video
- Younger children who will not sit on a video call; we coach you instead
- Parents who already bring their child in and want the other six days to count
- A diagnosis or a school letter you cannot yet turn into a Tuesday morning
How coaching is different from a course
A course is the same slides for every family. Coaching is built on your child this week: the word they almost said, the meltdown at homework, the meal they refused. We set two or three things to practise and review them next time. Home programs are the menu. Coaching is someone watching you cook.
The research on parent-mediated work is mostly about this shape: a trained person models, you try, they give one note, you try again. NICE’s autism guideline recommends parent mediation for pre-school social-communication work for exactly that reason. A leaflet you never open is not mediation.
In person or online
In the room in Model Town, or live over video across Pakistan and abroad. For a young child we do not need them on camera. We need you. When video is the wrong tool, online therapy says so. Related: speech, ABA, home programs. Online cluster: online parent coaching. We have no branch outside Multan.
Late talkers and behaviour — two different weeks
For a late talker, you hear every almost-word. We coach a pause so there is a slot to fill, and we map one word onto a routine they already love. Speech still sits with speech therapy when the child needs to be seen. Cluster: coaching for late talkers.
For behaviour, we name what the behaviour is doing — escape, attention, a request they cannot say, sensory load — then teach the ask that replaces it. Not a punishment programme. ABA: behavioural therapy. Noor: Noor Fatima. Cluster: coaching for behaviour. When feelings are the wall, psychology is Salman.
What to practise between calls
Two things, not twelve. If a strategy needs a laminated pack you will not open on Tuesday, it is the wrong strategy.
- One pause in one routine — hold the biscuit, wait, honour the look or the sound, then give it
- One instruction, said once, then five full seconds of waiting
- One replacement for the behaviour that runs the house (“help” or “finished”, a word or a card)
- The same response from whoever spends the afternoon with your child — parent, grandparent, helper
- A tick on the home practice log so the next call is about what actually happened
What coaching cannot do
It cannot replace a hearing test, a hands-on motor assessment, or therapy a child has to do themselves. It cannot put a branch in your city. If we think the child needs to be in the room, we say so that day. See what a session looks like.
How this programme works, in more depth
Each of these pages is one slice of the work — a session, who it is for, or what to try at home — linked back to this service.
What a session actually looks like
- 1You describe the routine that fails — breakfast, the door, bedtime.
- 2We watch you try it, live, and change one prompt.
- 3You practise the same two steps until the next call.
- 4If we think the child needs to be seen, not only coached, we say so that day.
Take a worksheet home
Print one sheet. Fill it in this week. Bring it to the consultation — a consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes.
Home practice log
One skill, a few minutes, one line of what happened. Bring it next time.
First–then board
The hard moment, then the promised good thing — set out before the fight starts.
ABC behaviour record
What happened before, the behaviour, what happened after. A fortnight is enough.
Book a consultation
Contact owner Muhammad Salman Afzal first. No referral needed. A consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes.
The idea behind the work (in the books)
Coaching is not a personality lecture. It is one adult showing another adult a prompt, then fading. These are the books behind that shape. We are not a certified Hanen, Incredible Years or ESDM centre.
Hanen — Observe, Wait, Listen
The Hanen Centre’s OWL is a three-beat pause: watch what the child is already doing, wait longer than feels polite, then listen for the look, the sound or the word. We coach that pause in the meal or the play you already have. Naming Hanen is not a certificate.
Kazdin — Parent Management Training
Alan Kazdin’s PMT treats the parent as the person who delivers the consequence, because that is where the behaviour lives. Praise the ten quiet seconds. Make the replacement easier than the old behaviour. We use that idea for hitting, refusing and the homework war — not as a branded PMT course.
Bandura — social learning
Albert Bandura showed that children (and parents) learn by watching someone do the thing, then trying it with a note. That is why we do not post a leaflet and hope. We watch you try it live.
Rogers and Dawson — parent as therapist
The Early Start Denver Model book puts the parent inside the hour, not in the waiting room. The trials used far more intensity than a weekly coaching call. We take the parent-in-the-room idea, not the certified dose.
What the research tells us
This isn’t just our opinion — it’s grounded in published research. Here are a few findings from trusted, independent sources:
NICE CG170 recommends that social-communication intervention for autistic pre-school children be parent-mediated, using play-based strategies, therapist modelling and (where useful) video feedback, adjusted to the child’s developmental level. Coaching is that mediation. It is not a substitute for seeing a child who needs to be seen.
— NICE Clinical Guideline CG170 — Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: support and management. View sourceOono, Honey and McConachie’s Cochrane review (2013, 17 trials, 919 children) found strong evidence that parent-mediated early intervention changes parent–child interaction (shared attention, parent synchrony). Evidence that the child’s language and adaptive skills change was smaller and less certain. We print the strong finding and the uncertain one.
— Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews — Oono, Honey and McConachie (2013), CD009774. View sourceCheng, Smith, Butler, Taylor and Clayton (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2023) meta-analysed parent-implemented interventions across 51 effect sizes. Overall benefits were moderate (Hedges’ g about 0.55), smaller when studies had lower risk of bias (g about 0.47). Adaptive behaviour and life-skills effects were the smallest. Coaching helps; it is not a guarantee of independence.
— Cheng et al., Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2023). View source
Other ways we can help
Speech Therapy
Help for late talkers, unclear speech, stammering and language delay, through play your child enjoys.
Motor & Daily Skills
Motor, handwriting and self-care skills, built up through purposeful play.
ABA Therapy
ABA and positive-behaviour support for autism, ADHD and hard-to-manage behaviour.
Parent Coaching: your questions answered
Does my child have to sit on the screen?
Not for coaching. For a young child we watch you play with them. If they will not come near the camera, we still work with you.
Is this the same as a parenting course?
No. A course is generic. Coaching is your child this week, two or three practices, then a review.
What if you think my child needs to be seen, not just coached?
We say so. Coaching cannot replace a hearing test, a hands-on assessment, or therapy a child has to do themselves.
Can grandparents or a helper join?
Yes, and it often helps. The person who spends the afternoon with your child should hear the same two strategies, or the week unravels.
Do you have a branch in my city?
No. One centre, Model Town, Multan. Everything else is online. We will never tell you we have a branch we do not have. See online coaching.
Is coaching instead of ABA or speech?
No. It is how those hours survive the other six days. Speech still sits with speech therapy when the child needs to be seen. Behaviour still sits with ABA when the function of the behaviour has to be worked out in the room.
Worried about your child? Let’s talk.
A short, friendly conversation is the best first step. Call, text or WhatsApp us — we’ll listen and guide you, with no pressure.
MPS Road, Block A Model Town, Multan (near Bloomfield Hall School, Street No. 2) · Mon–Fri, 2 PM – 6 PM