Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach

"Wow! This is a wonderful book for helping practitioners explain a no-nonsense approach to working with parents and teachers for helping children with behavior problems. While there really is nothing new in this book--the proverbial old wine in new bottles--the new bottles are fantastic! I am a practitioner and I've quickly adopted the strategies outlined in this book in my parent training sessions and in my consultation with teachers to explain complex concepts. I highly recommend it for professionals with a background in behavior therapy. However, I would not recommend this to parents or teachers because there seems to be an assumption that the reader is a practitioner.

The only criticism I would offer (for practitioners) is that the concept of "lagging skills"--which is used to justify collaborative problem solving--is not adequately described or cited. It's tangentially related to the neuropsych literature, but it's not clear how. So I'm a little lost how to use this information and the reframe, but everything else in the book is worth its weight in gold."
~ Written on 2008-09-17

"This is a phenomenal book! It presents a refreshing perspective in the treament of children with emotional and behavioral disorders and challenges everything I've ever learned about working with these kids. It is full of rich details, examples and step-by-step instructions to walk you through the collaborative problem solving process. It is perfect for parents, educators, and clinical staff. It will definitely change my practice."
~ Written on 2008-08-12

"In this book I finally found an explanation for the frustrating behaviors of my child. Reading it changed the dynamics of our family and greatly improved our functioning. Many of the books on these children, including Dr. Greene's Explosive Child, provide descriptions of difficult behaviors and suggestions as to how to address these behaviors, but none provided a detailed explanation of what is happening for the child and how that creates these behaviors. This book is a must read for all parents, teachers, and providers who work with difficult children whose behaviors seem to defy the traditional explanations. "
~ Written on 2008-02-18

"I'm a clinical therapist with 18 years' experience. Several years ago I attended Dr. Green's training and was very impressed. So much in the mental health field, for working w/ behaviorally challenging kids and parents, focuses on rewards and consequences - basic behavioralism - which only works part of the time for part of the population. This is a wise and effective alternative, and one in consonance with what we're learning about why explosive kids are that way. My specialty areas are complex trauma and attachment disorders, which aren't mentioned as root causes for the difficulties in self-regulation skills for (I believe) a majority of explosive kids, which I think is an oversight. However, Dr. Green's creation of interventions which address the effects of these skill deficits remains an outstanding acheivement. His "Plan A, Plan B, Plan C" model is easily explained by clinicians and understood by parents. His model keeps parents empowered, gives them reasonable guidelines for which plan to use when, strengthens both kids' and parents' abilities to problem-solve in a connective, caring way, and gives kids hope for their own growth and change. "
~ Written on 2007-12-31

"In my line of work as a behavior consultant, I read A LOT of research journals. However, this dry book was much harder to plow through and so I gave up and ordered a different book! For a parent or professional who is trying to help an especially difficult child, this is just NOT a user-friendly book. "
~ Written on 2007-11-09