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The Importance of Coding Competence for New PCIT Therapists

When learning coaching skills the trainee first learns to coach on a Level Two, labeling the parent’s verbalizations (especially PRIDE skills).  But, if they are not reliable coders, they won’t recognize the different verbalization categories, or won’t remember quickly enough, so won’t be able to label them out loud for the parent.  If they can’t quickly label the verbalizations for the parent, they will be very quiet, because if they can’t label what the parent is saying, how do they direct them to do something different (Level 1 coaching)?  How can they tell parents why it is important to use different PCIT skills (Level 3 coaching) if they are trying to keep up with which PRIDE skills the parents are using?  So if you move them forward and have them coach anyway, be prepared for quietness or creativity!  This is why knowing how to code well is important early on in training – so make sure your team devotes plenty of time to coding practice!  You might have your trainees take advantage of the video clips and transcripts on the PCIT web course.  You also might keep some videos of 5-minute coding assessments that your experts have coded and agree on.  You might also check on our web site to see if we are offering any coding practice!

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