ABOUT US
We teach life coaching skills you can use every day
to help you see your child and yourself with new eyes.
Changing what you see changes how you respond.
Nowhere will you find a simpler or more positive approach for coaching children or yourself. We believe that children are inherently great and our job as parents and teachers is to help them see it. We provide simple tools for finding hidden greatness in your child and yourself.
The Language of Listening® heart model is a simple coaching tool for bringing out the best in your child and yourself in just three steps.
And we’ve got the results to prove it. For over ten years thousands of parents and teachers using Language of Listening have seen the children in their care become straight-talking problem-solvers who know their strengths. No bribes, no punishment; just parents and teachers understanding and enjoying their kids.
So what’s the secret?
SAY WHAT YOU SEE.
SAY WHAT YOU SEE® is the core of all of our programs.
Whether applied to children or yourself, saying what you see opens your eyes to a deeper kind of listening that begins with your eyes and ends with your heart. The connection that is created by this powerful coaching skill can change difficult moments into rewarding ones in an instant.
SAY WHAT YOU SEE gives you one place to start:
- to respond rather than react;
- to de-escalate and prevent tantrums,
- to change discipline issues into creative CAN DO solutions,
- to put children in touch with their hidden STRENGTHs.
SAY WHAT YOU SEE is the missing step in parenting, teaching, and personal growth.
We are here to deliver Language of Listening coaching skills to the world:
Our Premises (Your Coaching Perspective):
- Everything children do and say is a communication.
Children must continue to communicate until they are heard. - All children have every possible inner strength.
Children act according to who they believe they are. - All behaviors are driven by 3 healthy needs: experience, connection, power.
Whatever children are doing is already meeting their needs. - All growth is through acceptance.
Children set exactly the right level of challenge for growth.
Here’s how it works.
If you’ve ever tried to change or control your reactions, you know the kind of heroic effort it takes to react positively, respectfully, or lovingly when you are sure the behavior you are seeing is selfish, insolent, disrespectful, rebellious, mean, etc. You also know how bad it feels when you slip up, yell, punish, or try to stay positive as you watch everything start to spiral down!
You can reverse the downward spiral in one step.
Since what you SEE is the source of your reactions, changing how you see things changes your reactions automatically — without you even trying! The source is where breakthroughs occur and your fresh start begins as your child’s coach.
Changing how you see, changes how you react, which changes how children react to you. Simple.
Our simple 3-step approach turns everything around.
Language of Listening® coaching is simple because it always starts with one thing: SAY WHAT YOU SEE® — the missing step in parenting and personal growth that allows you to understand and connect first. It’s the life coaching skill of VALIDATION.
Saying what you see is always the right thing to do because what to say comes from the child — any child, any age. (It works with adults, too, including yourself!)
SEEING is the key. Since what you see is different in each situation, what you say (out loud or to yourself) is too. Rather than teaching what to say, we teach how to see. What to say is right in front of you!
As one parent said, “It’s like learning to see with new eyes.”
How can saying what you see change any moment with a child into a rewarding one?
As you follow your child’s lead by SAYing WHAT YOU SEE, you will begin to see the world from your child’s point of view. This is one of the delights of raising and working with children. Of course, your child is spirited — when everything is amazingly important, exciting and happening right now, who wouldn’t be?
Sometimes your child’s spirited behavior is something you like and sometimes it’s something you don’t like. Here’s where your guidance comes in to help your child navigate the world. This is where you take the lead.
When you see something you like, add a STRENGTH by pointing out what your child did that proves they have that strength. When you see something you don’t like, add a CAN DO to give your child an acceptable alternative. Remember, since you always start with SAY WHAT YOU SEE (SWYS), you will have connected first. Adding STRENGTHs and CAN DOs are the guidance part of the approach that helps children build self-confidence and solve their own problems in a way that’s okay with you.
For example, when it’s time to put toys away, your coaching might sound like this:
SWYS: “You're lining up those pieces and grouping them by color.”
STRENGTH: “That’s organized.”
SWYS: “Looks like you want to finish organizing…”
Boundary: “…and it’s time for dinner.”
CAN DO: “Hmmm. Must be something you can do.”
Your interest and understanding create the unmistakable feeling that you are on the child's side and give your child the chance to come up with a solution that works for you both like:
Child's Solution: "I'll finish this part now and the rest after I eat."
STRENGTH: "You figured out a way to do both!"
Where a sudden demand like, “Stop playing, and come to the table now!” would create resistance, the respect you model by connecting first, acknowledging the child’s strength, and giving them some say in ending the play, brings out respect and cooperation in the child.
Simple steps; surprising results.
Because Language of Listening® is a coaching language it keeps you in the present moment. Saying what you see allows you to meet the child right where they are in any activity or emotion, see STRENGTHs you might’ve missed, and find CAN DOs that will work for you both.
At first, you can suggest CAN DOs, but once children get the pattern, all you need to say is, “Must be something you CAN DO…,” and they’ll create solutions on their own. Voilà! Creative problem solving becomes another STRENGTH that you get to point out.
When children recognize and identify with their STRENGTHs, they act accordingly. Children naturally like to do things they are proud of and want to be their best selves. No prodding needed.
Shifting behaviors by shifting beliefs is the hallmark of Language of Listening coaching.
These simple coaching skills not only accelerate personal growth for your child, they do the same for you. When seeing your child’s STRENGTHs and offering CAN DOs is a struggle for you, your child has led you to a point of personal growth. SAYing WHAT YOU SEE to yourself takes you on from there.
Your child is spirited, you are worldly. Coaching is where the two meet. You have much to learn from each other. The new world you can create starts here:
We would love to hear from you.
Feel free to Contact Us at any time about our work, our website, or other possibilities for working together.
