Early childhood and family support program staff can increase adherence to family support principles by using the principles as benchmarks against which program practices can be judged as consistent or inconsistent with the principles. Program staff can also pay attention to degree of adherence to family support principles by routinely asking program participants to provide feedback about program quality. Parent judgments of staff helpgiving practices show that practitioners are better at using relational helpgiving practices like active listening compared to helpgiving practices that support and strengthen parent competence and confidence.