Our Vision
We envision a world where all communities value positive parenting and caregiving education that foster healthy relationships essential for the well-being of all.
Our Mission
At ParenTeach Institute, we provide evidence-based parenting and caregiving education that teaches transformative relational life skills.
What are the benefits of parenting & caregiving education?
After over 25 years teaching parenting and caregiving education, we’ve learned that early parenting and caregiving education provides the skills needed to create a nurturing, supportive environment for children which leads to their overall development and well-being. Skills included are:
An understanding of the various stages of child development, enabling caregivers to provide age-appropriate care, activities, and support.
Communication skills that help develop positive relationships with children, improving understanding and reducing conflicts.
Effective discipline strategies that help parents guide their children's behavior in a positive and constructive manner, promoting a secure environment.
Emotional support practices that help children navigate their feelings and build emotional resilience.
Techniques to encourage positive behavior, reinforcing healthy habits that create a peaceful family atmosphere.
An appreciation for the importance of self-care for parents and caregivers, recognizing that their well-being directly affects their ability to care for their children effectively.
An understanding of the various stages of child development, enabling caregivers to provide age-appropriate care, activities, and support.
Communication skills that help develop positive relationships with children, improving understanding and reducing conflicts.
Effective discipline strategies that help parents guide their children's behavior in a positive and constructive manner, promoting a secure environment.
Emotional support practices that help children navigate their feelings and build emotional resilience.
Techniques to encourage positive behavior, reinforcing good habits that create a peaceful family atmosphere.
An appreciation for the importance of self-care for parents and caregivers, recognizing that their well-being directly affects their ability to care for their children effectively.
Our Programs At A Glance
ParenTeach Institute offers a number of evidence-based positive parenting education courses for people of all ages and backgrounds. Classes can take place in person or online in a number of settings, such as in schools, hospitals, pediatric offices, community centers, therapist offices, and privately. We are constantly validating, modifying, and improving our curriculum based on research and evaluation, as well as measured feedback from each of our participants. For this reason, PTI delivers cutting-edge innovative, universal, parenting and caregiver courses that teach child development, problem-solving skills, non-violent discipline, and positive parent-child communication in order to prevent unintentional harmful parenting practices, promote Early Relational Health, ensure healthy social and emotional development of children, strengthen families, and improve school readiness and achievement, so every child can live up to their full potential.
Parenting Essentials is a series of 8 parenting videos that provide useful tips and tools that caregivers can put into practice immediately. Parenting Essentials is additionally offered as an instructor-led unit, called Parenting Essentials Plus, that also includes a comprehensive student workbook.
ParentABLE is our evidence-based curriculum, which provides a foundational understanding of positive parenting & caregiving practices. ParentABLE is offered in both an instructor-led format and as a self-service course, called ParentABLE On-Demand.
Parenting Fundamentals is a program that trains and certifies agencies, educators, and individuals to teach a series of evidence-based courses focusing on age-appropriate positive parenting and caregiving skills for current caregivers.
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From the Founder of ParenTeach Institute,
Katharine Bensinger
In 1994 while working as a family therapist at a community mental health center in Chicago, I witnessed many children and parents going through traumatic experiences; divorce, domestic violence, children with anxiety and struggling with self-regulation. I also witnessed something else. Many of these overwhelmed parents used unintentional harmful parenting practices. They had trouble communicating with their children and disciplining effectively, not because they didn’t love their children, but because they were never taught positive parenting and caregiving skills.
This is why in 1996 we began to develop highly effective, evidence-based parenting education programs. ParenTeach Institute knows that the quality and stability of a child’s parental relationships determine the level of their self-confidence, mental health, motivation to learn, academic achievement, ability to resolve conflict without violence, and positive caregiving skills. Since launching our first program, Parenting Fundamentals, we have added a number of online and in person positive parenting and caregiving courses that allow large numbers of individuals and facilitated group classes to have access to positive parenting and caregiving education.
Our Proud Partners
Quoting about ParenTeach Institute from our documentary,
Every single thing that we become as adults has its roots in the early caregiving experiences you have. If people learned more about how to be great parents, there would be so many more people who would be productive, creative, nurturing and compassionate members of our society.
- Dr. Bruce Perry, MD, PhD
Child Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist
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