Welcome to Mayo Clinic Cooperation Coach
A Parent's Guide to Helping Kids Cooperate
Mayo Clinic Cooperation Coach uses a series of videos and guided questions to help caregivers increase their kids' cooperation and decrease anger and other emotional outbursts.
The best way to change children's behavior is for caregivers to use firm expectations, rewards and consequences as expertly as possible. Changing what you do as a caregiver does not mean that a child’s misbehavior is your fault. Rather, we know that you are the most important person in your child’s life and so you can have the biggest influence on his or her behavior.
Develop Behavior Management Expertise for Your Children
Most of what you learn in this program, such as time-out and reward systems, may already be familiar to you. However, using these strategies the way most parents do is usually not enough to help children cooperate and stay calm when they are dealing with behavioral and emotional problems.
Instead, these kids need more structure, so you have to be an expert in behavior management - at least for a while. Our objective is to help you build expertise in using these common parenting approaches. Then, we will support you as you make gradual changes.
Together, we will work towards making you a behavior management expert.
Is this program right for me?
Any caregivers who are frustrated with their child or children arguing, yelling, having tantrums, or refusing to do what is asked can benefit from this program.
Some examples of problems that caregivers might work on include:
- Kids with ADHD or ODD (oppositional defiant disorder)
- Kids arguing and refusing to do what parents ask them to
- Kids having trouble cooperating with treatment for anxiety or other issues
The strategies in Mayo Clinic Cooperation Coach can be used with children of all ages, but fit best with those between ages 2 and 12. For example, younger children often need a more simplified, play-based approach to these same parenting strategies. Conversely, teenagers often are able to collaborate with their parents in problem solving and learning communication.
Seeking Help
The tools in Mayo Clinic Cooperation Coach is not meant to replace a professional. Getting help with your child and yourself can be challenging, including choosing the right treatment.
If you ever feel like you need help, contact your doctor, therapist, counselor, or the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology to schedule an appointment.
Table of Contents
Mayo Clinic Cooperation Coach recommends that you go through the modules in sequence.
Bird's Eye View
Module 0: Overview of Concepts
Understanding The Problem
Module 1: Providing Clear Expectations
Positive Reinforcement
Module 2: Encouraging Good Behavior
Enforcing Consequences
Module 3: Discourage Misbehavior
Wrap Up
Module 4: Summary, Forms and Finding Help