The How-To Program (forward below by SDT Parenting Editors: Mireille Joussemet & Genevieve Mageau)
By Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish (2012) | Joanna Faber & Julie King (2017)
“The How-to Program" was developed by Faber and Mazlish (1974, 1980, 2000, 2010) and is based on Ginott’s work (1959, 1961, 1965). In empirical research, autonomy support has been operationalized as: (1) acknowledging the child’s feelings and perspective, (2) offering meaningful rationales for rules and requests, and (3) providing choice and opportunities for initiative taking (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989; Koestner et al. 1984; Mageau & Joussemet, 2023). This definition, used in a host of studies demonstrating the benefits of parental autonomy support on children (Joussemet et al. 2008), was also based on Ginott’s writings. Given that Ginott’s work informed both the operational SDT definition of autonomy support and the specific parenting skills included in the "How-to Parenting Program", it is not surprising that this program perfectly captures what it means to provide autonomy support [and effectively promotes this parenting component (Mageau et al., 2022; Joussemet et al., 2014, p. 950).
As editors of the parenting topic page, we strongly recommend trying these 30 autonomy-supportive parenting skills!
Version for Children: https://amzn.to/4aiaHGd
Version for Toddlers: https://amzn.to/3VFi1qL
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