eHealth Coaching: Counseling Characteristics of Coaches Used With Parents

Abstract

Background: Parents experience challenges managing hearing aids for young children. Counseling strategies can facilitate parent learning and enhance parent–professional partnerships. The purpose of this study was to identify clinician communication behaviors and missed opportunities during an eHealth intervention. Method: This study consisted of a qualitative analysis of a subset of the data from a randomized controlled study that included 37 parents of children under 42 months of age who use behind-the-ear hearing aids. These parents participated in coaching via phone calls and viewed instructional videos. The calls were audio-recorded and analyzed for themes within the categories of question asking, responding to parent emotions, engagement in a shared process, and missed opportunities for each category. Results: Themes were identified within each category. Trends included greater use of close-ended questions over open-ended questions, frequent responses to parent emotions, and engagement in a shared process through providing information and exploring progress on parent goals. Missed opportunities occurred within each category. Conclusions: Coaches' communication behaviors demonstrated support for parent learning that was positively received. Joint planning to address parent challenges was a missed opportunity to support parent behavior changes regarding hearing-aid routines.