What Is PMTO?
Overview
Parent Management Training Oregon model, developed by Gerald R. Patterson and his colleagues at the Oregon Social Learning Center, is an evidenced based best practice approach that recognizes the vital role parents play as being the primary change agents within their family. Parents are supported and encouraged as they learn skills they can utilize to provide appropriate care, instruction and supervision for their children. Specialists utilize role-play and problem solving to promote the development of parents’ skills. Sessions with parents are structured yet flexible to deal with specific family needs and crises as they arise.
PMTO Core Parenting Practices
Encouragement: Parents encourage their children to demonstrate positive behaviors.
Limit Setting: Parents remain consistent in their delivery of effective consequences in order to promote pro-social behavior.
Problem Solving: The family system works together in setting goals, brainstorming, evaluating solutions and carrying out plans.
Monitoring: Parents track children’s whereabouts and ensure adult supervision for activities.
Positive involvement: Parents show love and concern for their children by providing positive attention and participating in activities with children.
PMTO Supporting Parenting Practices
Directions: Promotes children’s cooperation and helps parents stay focused on the positive.
Tracking: Notes progress of what is working and what may need to be adjusted for success.
Emotional Regulation: Learning ways to maintain a well-regulated emotional state to cope with everyday stress and be available for learning and interactions.
Communication: The best parent-child relationships are characterized by lots of positive communication and interaction.
PMTO Intervention Model
In order to assist specialists with learning, and staying certified in PMTO, sessions are videotaped. These videos primarily focus upon the efforts of the specialist, however the family is included in the video taping. Videos are seen by trainers and coaches in order to provide coaching regarding the implementation and sustainability of PMTO. Specialists are encouraged to participate in individual and group coaching sessions, which provide praise and support as well as the opportunity to problem solve various situations they may encounter. These videos are also utilized to ensure the fidelity of the PMTO model is upheld, and families are receiving the best possible service.
Who can benefit from PMTO?
PMTO is tailored for serious behavior problems for youth from preschool through adolescence.
- Overt antisocial behavior (noncompliance, aggression, defiance, hyperactivity, fighting)
- Covert antisocial behavior (lying, stealing, truancy, fire setting)
- Internalizing problems (depressed mood, peer problems, deviant peer association)
- Delinquency
- Substance Abuse
- School Failure
PMTO can be applied to families with multiple problems:
- Parents with mental health challenges (depression, anxiety, antisocial)
- Adverse contextual problems (poverty, poor neighborhoods, health problems)
- Family transitions (divorce, re-parenting, moves, new births, deaths)
- Marital conflict
What Parents Are Saying
“PMTO has helped bring my family closer together and helped my children flourish.”
“You can never learn too much to be a better parent, and you can learn a lot here.”
“I learned great tools to work with to be an effective, safe and loving parent!”
“PMTO has taught me to stay calm and control my emotions which helps my child do the same.”