‘Kids Do Well if They Can’ Dr. Ross Greene

A child psychologist and psychology professor, Dr Ross Greene is best known for developing Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), a researched-based method of working with children displaying challenging behaviours. He describes this as a ‘non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care.’
He is also the founding director of Lives in the Balance, an organisation which provides free CPS-based resources to parents, teachers and caregivers to help them support children who are struggling.
The emphasis is on working with children empathically and collaboratively, rather than scolding and punishing them, which only makes matters worse.
Greene’s central belief is: children do well if they can, not if they want to.
In other words, disruptive and destructive behaviour in children – and, indeed, in adults – results from them not being equipped with the skills to do what is being demanded of them, whether those skills be intellectual or emotional, or both.
It is not, then, through imposing your will as a parent or caregiver, or fixating on motivation and incentives, that you help children to change destructive behaviours.
Rather, it is through listening to and working alongside them, with patience and compassion, that you can start to deal with their problems and build the skills they need to thrive.

Websites:    drrossgreene.com;       www.livesinthebalance.org

Books: Raising Human Beings (2016); The Explosive Child (1998)

Video: ‘Dr Ross Greene on Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child’ – www.youtube.com/watch?v=P14zWfIzuFU;
‘Autism Ontario Webinar: Understanding Challenging Behaviour with Ross Greene’ – youtu.be/_05MMD_S4kM

Audio: podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dr-ross-greene/id391404394