1 / 13

Understanding and Solving Challenging Behavior in Children

This resource focuses on collaborative problem-solving to address challenging behavior in children. It emphasizes understanding the underlying skills and issues causing the behavior and promoting proactive solutions. The six key themes include prioritizing problem-solving over behavior modification, recognizing behavior as communication, and addressing lacking skills. Adults play important roles in identifying and solving problems, engaging children in the process, and teaching necessary skills. The resource provides assessment tools and options for handling unsolved problems.

bridgettew
Download Presentation

Understanding and Solving Challenging Behavior in Children

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SIX KEY THEMES • Emphasis is on problems (and solving them) rather than on behaviors (and modifying them)…upstream(not downstream) • Challenging behavior is simply the signal…the fever…the means by which a child communicates that he/she is having difficulty meeting certain expectations • Behaviors are not the only observable data…unsolved problems are observable too 1

  2. SIX KEY THEMES • The problem solving is collaborative rather than unilateral • Something you’re doing with the kid rather than to him • The problem solving is proactive rather than emergent • This is possible only if we answer two important questions: whyand whenis this kid challenging? • Understanding comes before helping 2

  3. SIX KEY THEMES • Kids do well if they can • If the kid could do well, he would do well • Not True: • Attention-seeking • Manipulative • Coercive • Unmotivated • Limit-testing • Doing well is preferable • We’ve been focused on motivation when we should have been focused on skills 3

  4. WHAT SKILLS ARE BEHAVIORALLY CHALLENGING KIDS LACKING? • Executive skills • Language processing/communication skills • Emotion regulation skills • Cognitive flexibility skills • Social skills 4

  5. ANSWER TO THE QUESTION WHEN: The Clash of the Two Forces Challenging episodes occur when the demands being placed upon a person outstrip his or her skills • “unmet expectations” = “unsolved problems” • results in “incompatibility episodes” LAGGING SKILLS EXPECTATIONS 5

  6. ADULT ROLES IN THE LIVES OF BEHAVIORALLY CHALLENGING KIDS • Identify lagging skills and unsolved problems • Solve problems collaboratively and proactively • Promotes a problem solving partnership • Engages kids in solving the problems that affect their lives • Produces more effective, durable solutions • Simultaneously teaches skills 6

  7. ASSESSMENT OF LAGGING SKILLS AND UNSOLVED PROBLEMS (ALSUP) 7

  8. THE PROBLEM SOLVING PLAN 8

  9. OPTIONS FOR HANDLING UNSOLVED PROBLEMS PLAN A: Solve the problem unilaterally PLAN B: Solve the problem collaboratively PLAN C: Set the problem aside for now

  10. PLAN A Solve the problem unilaterally • The adult decides what the solution is and imposes it, often accompanied by adult-imposed consequences • “I’ve decided that…” • PLAN A causes incompatibility episodes in challenging kids • PLAN A is not a partnership • PLAN A does not involve kids in solving the problems that affect their lives • PLAN A provides no information whatsoever about the factors making it difficult for the kid to meet a given expectations…solutions arrived at through Plan A are “uninformed” 10

  11. TIMING IS EVERYTHING INCOMPATIBILITY EPISODES ARE HIGHLY PREDICTABLE CRISIS MANAGEMENT: Intervention is reactive and occurs emergently, in the heat of the moment (“What should I do when?”) CRISIS PREVENTION: Intervention is planned and occurs proactively, well before highly predictable incompatibility episodes occur again (“What am I going to do before?”) 11

  12. PLAN C Set the problem aside for now Not about giving in or capitulating… it’s about prioritizing (and stabilizing) • EMERGENCY C: “OK” • PROACTIVE C: • don’t bring it up • an agreed-upon interim plan for tabling the problem for now Good parenting and good teaching mean being responsive to the hand you’ve been dealt 12

  13. PLAN B Solve the problem collaboratively • Empathy Step (gather information so as to identify child’s concerns) • Define Adult Concerns Step (identify adult concerns) • Invitation Step (collaborate on a solution that is realistic and mutually satisfactory) 13

More Related