About PMTO™
What is PMTO?
PMTO is an empirically supported treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing child behavior problems and promoting healthy child development. Trained practitioners empower parents and other caregivers to serve as primary treatment agents for their children. Parents learn effective family management practices that promote social skills and cooperation and prevent, reduce and reverse the development of moderate to severe conduct problems in youngsters. Although the program has been tested with children and adolescents ages 3 – 16, we prefer to focus on ages 4-12.
Core components of PMTO:
- Skill Encouragement to promote pro-social behavior
- Limit Setting to provide mild negative consequences for problematic behavior
- Monitoring and Supervision of youngsters’ whereabouts, activities, peers, and adult influences
- Problem Solving to prevent problems and address day-to-day family living issues
- Positive Involvement in youngsters’ interests, activities, and social development
Supporting components of PMTO:
- Giving effective directions
- Observing and tracking behavior to increase awareness
- Active listening and effective communication skills (applied within the family with other adults)
- Promoting school success (at home and in school)
Important therapeutic strategies in PMTO:
- Promoting the development of effective parenting practices
- Promoting united parenting approaches for all caregivers
- Preventing and managing resistance to change during the therapeutic process
- Active learning through modeling, role-play, and problem solving