PACE Parenting is a nurturing approach that helps parents connect deeply with their children through Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy. This method encourages trust, emotional safety, and healthy communication within the family.
Therapeutic and attachment-informed parenting use PACE-an acronym for Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy-as a restorative way to engage with a child. It has been developed under the auspices of Dyadic Developmental Practice by clinical psychologist Dr. Dan Hughes, thus presenting a trauma-informed way of meeting the needs of developing a warm, trusting relationship between a parent and child.
What PACE Parenting Refers to?
The term “playful” speaks to an approach characterized by joy, lightness, and spontaneity. It is designed to ease tension, make the child feel safe, and enhance bonding between parent and child.
Acceptance: Consists of recognizing and validating a child’s internal experience without judgment. Acceptance, in this way, builds emotional safeness for the child by reducing shame, the unwelcomed feeling that can accompany his/her intentions, or behaviors.
Curiosity: This is the interest in understanding what is happening inside the child, rather than holding on to negative judgments in response to challenging behavior. This stance helps parents understand deeper needs and opens pathways to connection.
Empathy: You place yourself in the child’s emotional experience with an understanding of accompanying feelings without offering solutions: This conveys genuine care and understanding.
Why PACE Works: Benefits in Brief
The Development of Secure Attachment
PACE is founded in attachment theory and proven to nurture a securely emotional basis that is paramount for trauma-touched children or inconsistent caregivers.
Support Emotional Regulation and Trust
Informed by PACE, these interactions build the sense of being heard and validated for the child, decreasing defiance, emotional dysregulation, and disconnection from caregivers.
Healing From Past Relationships
In PACE-based training for children with disrupters of attachment from traumatic beginnings, they learn what emotional health looks like, helping them establish trust and overcome relational barriers.
How To Use PACE: The Practice
Play: With toddlers and teens alike, throw a few fun moments into daily life-games, dancing, goofy stories-to make your child feel safe and share joy with you.
Acceptance: Affirm the child’s feelings before reprimanding the misbehavior. Accept the emotion even if the behavior warrants correction.
Curiosity: Be gentle inquiring about what you perceive their motive was- “I wonder what made you feel that way?” This takes the place of judgment, fosters exploration, and creates connection.
Empathy: “Wow, that sounded really hard. I am here with you.” This encourages emotional connection and diminishes isolation.
PACE Parenting isn’t about perfect parenting; it’s a relational stance. In Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy, correcting takes second place to making connections; understanding takes precedence over simply managing. And the outcome for children is that they feel safe, accepted, and grown in their emotional competence to thrive.