Teaching problem-solving skills to children with behavioral challenges

👥 Challenging behavior is a major concern for parents, teachers, and mental health services.

💡 The conventional wisdom on managing challenging behavior is flawed.

🤔 The guiding philosophy is that kids do well if they can.

🔑 Conventional wisdom that kids do well if they want to is wrong.

🧠 Research in the neurosciences shows that challenging kids lack necessary skills, not willpower.

📚 Challenging behavior in kids is similar to a learning disability in problem-solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance.

❗️ Challenging behavior in kids should not be attributed to laziness or lack of motivation.

🐶 Treating kids as lazy and unmotivated can lead to them actually behaving that way.

👶 Young kids may exhibit challenging behavior due to limited problem-solving skills and frustration tolerance.

📈 Development happens at different rates, and some kids may excel in certain areas while lagging behind in others.

🌟 Shifting the mindset to focus on understanding and supporting kids' struggles yields positive outcomes.

🧠 Skills like problem solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance need to be taught in actual situations.

👫 Collaborative problem solving with adults can help children develop these skills.

🔑 The process involves empathy, sharing concerns, and brainstorming mutually satisfactory solutions.

The process of collaborative problem solving involves empathy, asking questions, and providing reassurance.

It is important to proactively address predictable problems before they occur.

Rather than solving the problem for the child, the focus should be on finding a solution that addresses everyone's concerns.

🔑 Using collaborative problem solving can help reduce challenging behavior in children and improve relationships.

🔄 Practicing problem solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance is essential for both children and adults.

💡 Collaborative problem solving can be applied in various settings and is crucial for developing future-ready skills.

✨ The speaker believes that adults struggle to empathize with each other and find win-win solutions to problems.

🌱 The speaker envisions a future where the next generation of adults is more skilled at collaborative problem-solving.

🧒 The speaker argues that challenging kids deserve the same compassionate and effective approaches as those with recognized learning disabilities.