Where the advice comes from.

Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS).

Developed by Dr. Ross Greene (The Explosive Child; Lives in the Balance), CPS reframes "challenging behaviour" as the symptom of unsolved problems and lagging skills, not wilful defiance. It teaches caregivers to identify the specific situations that trigger difficulty, name the underlying skill gap, and solve the problem collaboratively with the child. Parenta's tone — calm, curious, never punitive — is heavily shaped by this work.

Greene, R. (2014). The Explosive Child. HarperCollins.

Floortime / DIR.

The Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based (DIR) model, and its parent-led practice "Floortime," was developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder. It centres relationship-based, child-led play as the engine of social and emotional growth in autistic children, in deliberate contrast to compliance-based approaches. Parenta leans on DIR/Floortime when it offers connection-first strategies for autistic kids.

Greenspan, S. & Wieder, S. (2006). Engaging Autism. Da Capo.

Polyvagal Theory.

Dr. Stephen Porges's work on the autonomic nervous system gives Parenta its language for what's actually happening during a meltdown, a shutdown, or a "freeze." We talk about regulation, co-regulation, and felt safety because Polyvagal Theory makes those terms precise rather than fuzzy.

Porges, S. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. Norton.

Relationship Development Intervention (RDI).

Developed by Dr. Steven Gutstein, RDI emphasises building dynamic intelligence — flexible thinking, perspective-taking, and resilience — through guided parent-child interaction rather than scripted skill drills. Parenta draws on RDI when it suggests parent-side adjustments rather than child-side targets.

Gutstein, S. (2009). The RDI Book. Connections Center.

Sensory integration.

The sensory integration framework, originating with Dr. A. Jean Ayres and now practiced widely by occupational therapists, gives Parenta its vocabulary for sensory profiles — proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, auditory, interoceptive — and for the difference between sensory seeking and sensory avoiding.

Ayres, A. J. (1979 / 2005). Sensory Integration and the Child. WPS.

What we don't draw from.

Parenta does not generate advice based on compliance-first behaviour modification, "extinction" responses to autistic distress, or "tough-love" approaches that frame the child as the adversary. These are deliberate omissions. →

How we use these frameworks.

These works inform the system prompt, the conversational tone, the onboarding questions, and the structure of the child profile card. The AI is not literally running a CPS protocol or scoring you against a DIR rubric. Think of these as the lens, not the engine.

What we'll add next.

We are reading actively in neurodiversity-affirming practice and emerging research. If something belongs on this page that isn't here, write to .research@parenta.app