So what skills should we be focusing on?

So we've figured out that lagging skills are behind challenging behaviours, and they emerge when the demands in the environment outstrip the skills a child has (aka, The Unsolved Problem).  We can't move on to coming up with solutions until we figure out what skills might need support.  How to do that?  Dr. Greene has a solution.  Read on for more info.

Rhonda

To help us figure out what lagging skills we might be dealing with, Dr. Greene has developed a one-page assessment tool he swears we can all use - the ALSUP, or Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems.  It's a list of lagging skills and unsolved problems.  Where do you get your hands on one?  Right here.  Dr. Green has made this tool and several others available on his website www.livesinthebalance.com.  I would definitely encourage you to go to the site and explore - after you're finished reading this blog, of course!

So why fill out the ALSUP?  It's to engage us (the adults) in a conversation, and helps us focus on the things we can actually do something about.  Dr. Greene suggests that the goal is to have a meaningful discussion about the degree to which each lagging skill applies to a particular child.  If you identify a lagging skill, the next step is to identify examples of when you're seeing it (the unsolved problems, which are conditions in which behaviours are occuring) and the degree to which it's occuring. 

Once that conversation has taken place, you can then move on to finding new ways to handling unsolved problems.  Dr. Greene identifies three options - Plan A, Plan B and Plan C. 

I'll start with Plan A.  This is the imposition of adult will, and you're doing it if you're saying "No," or "You can't" or if you're insisting tasks are completed, or you're taking away things like TV time until something is done.  This is pretty common, and won't generally set the stage for challenging behaviour in an ordinary kid.  However, Plan A is not the preferred approach for challenging kids, despite the name.  In fact, it's more likely to cause an explosion.  Why is that?  Because as Dr. Greene points out, challenging kids don't have a Plan A brain.  If the child doesn't have the skills to handle Plan A, you've placed a cognitive demand on him that outstrips his capacity to respond appropriately.  Plan A doesn't usually help to get the homework or other tasks done, and isn't helping the child to be more flexible, tolerate frustration more adaptively or solve problems more effectively.  It just sets the stage for more explosions.  The common sense solution - if Plan A isn't working, stop using it.

I'm going to skip Plan B for a moment and go straight to Plan C.  That's when you drop expectations completely, at least temporarily.  This isn't the same as giving in.  That's when you start with Plan A and throw your hands up in frustration.  With Plan C, you're intentionally and proactively decided to drop a given expectation, either because it's unrealiztic or you have other higher-priority expectations to pursue.  This can be really hard, but if you're not dealing with the explosions, you can start working on development of other skills.  Which leads us to...

Plan B!  This is the plan Dr. Greene refers to Collaborative Problem Solving.  It's fairly detailed, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to make you wait one more day for more info!