Okay, let's identify those problems, so we can start the New Year solving them!
Remember (as I've explained in previous posts), challenging behaviour is not "the problem". The problem, or unsolved problems, are examples of times when a child's lagging skills are making it difficult to respond adaptively to specific demands. Challenging behaviour is an indicator that your child is lagging skills.
I know...I keep saying I'm going to write about collaborative problem solving and then I start writing about something else....like lagging skills.
Be patient with me a little while longer.
You ask your child to do his/her homework and he/she has a meltdown. What expectation is the child having difficulty meeting? The problem is that he's not doing his homework (note: the problem is not the difficult behaviour). When identifying the unsolved problem, keep free of challenging behaviour and adult theories and try to be specific. He has difficulty doing his homework after school, before supper, after supper? Does he have difficulty with all homework or just math, english, science? Is it the writing, reading? So these are some of the skills he may be lacking. Dr Ross Greene has a worksheet for writing down those unsolved problems and identifying some of your child's lagging skills; the ALSUP. Print it out and start using it. As I've identified in this paragraph, there may be a lot of lagging skills behind each problem.....don't worry about it. As you (and your child) solve the problem, the lagging skills will be taught indirectly.So write your list.....all the problems you want to help your child solve. Dr. Greene suggests you choose at most 3 unsolved problems to work on at one time, beginning with the problems that are the most severe and the most frequent. I would just start with one and as you solve that one, you can tackle the next. You've identified the unsolved problems!
In my next post, I will have you find the Plan B Flowchart and help you with the steps of the collaborative problem solving technique!
