Collaborative Problem Solving

Conventional parenting centers on the concept that children “do well if they want to”. That leads to the adults in their lives trying out various methods to make the children “want to.”

Collaborative Problem Solving takes a different angle. It’s core belief is that children “do well if they can”. The key distinction is acknowledging that challenging behavior is often the result of lagging skills and unsolved problems. In other words, the child wants to do well, to succeed, but can’t because something is getting in the way.

Course correcting starts with a lens shift - reframing how we view challenging behaviors. We must first recognize that challenging behavior occurs when the demands and expectations we place on children exceed their skills, such as frustration tolerance, flexible thinking and problem solving. When we view challenging behavior from this framework we can identify the skills to be taught and get to teaching!