Hannah explains how she used sleep training methods with baby Ben
Many infant sleep programs don't identify as sleep training, but continue to offer selected elements of extinction or graduated extinction methods, at the same time as the approach is promoted as gentle or responsive. There is no evidence that these hybrid programs decrease frequency of night waking. In contrast, The Possums Sleep Program offers a genuine paradigm shift, because it's built from the foundations up on altogether different principles (with five preliminary evaluations showing efficacy).
In the video below, Hannah doesn't necessarily know that she's been using sleep training techniques, because the advice she's received about baby Ben's sleep has been given to her as if it is the best, most evidence-based way. These days, sleep coaches might refer to their programs as responsive settling or gentle settling or holistic sleep approaches, but when you look closely, they are still built from sleep training principles, which are a form of first wave behaviourism - or extinction methods, these days usually graduated extinction methods. You can find out about sleep training and the problems with labelling sleep training as responsive here.
When you listen to Hannah, you'll find that the way she's been trying to deal with Ben's sleep comes from the sleep training approaches.
Sometimes the names given to sleep training methods are confusing. For example, sleep training approaches are often described as being gentle, or as a kind of responsive settling. Because the neuroscience clearly shows that responsive care is best for your baby's development, many health professionals and sleep coaches are now using methods which they themselves genuinely believe are different to sleep training. But sleep training methods inevitably advise you to ignore or deliberately delay responses to your little one's communications or cues.
Recommended resources
What is meant by baby or toddler sleep training and will it help your little one wake less at night?
The historical context in which sleep training arose
Sleep training often makes baby or toddler sleep worse
Why watching for tired signs can make sleep worse when you have a baby or toddler
Our babies and toddlers don't resist or fight sleep, though you might hear this said
Do babies become overtired and overstimulated?
Do toddlers become overtired and overstimulated?
What is the Neuroprotective Developmental Care Contextual Model of Infant Sleep (NDC-MIS)?