Collaborative ProblemSolvingSM CPS

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Collaborative Problem-SolvingSM (CPS)

• Teaching Children with Social, Emotional, and
  Behavioral Challenges
• J. Stuart Ablon, Ph.D.
• CPS Institute, Department of Psychiatry
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Harvard Medical School

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Children do well if they can...

• if they cant, we adults need to figure out why,
  so we can help

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• Your explanation guides your intervention...

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Conventional Wisdom

• Because of inconsistent, noncontingent
  parenting, the child has learned that
  explosive/noncompliant behavior is an effective
  means of seeking attention or coercing adults
  into giving in.

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Logical Intervention

• Train and motivate adaptive behavior through an
  intensive, consistent program of contingent
  consequences and ignoring.

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Specific Components of Operant Approach

• List of Target Behaviors
• (priority is compliance)
• Menu of Rewards and Punishments (differential
  reinforcement)
• Currency System

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Limits of Operant Strategies

• What Operant Strategies Can Do
• - teach basic lessons about right from wrong
• - facilitate extrinsic motivation

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Limits of Operant Strategies

• facilitate teaching/learning of basic lessons
  (right from wrong)
• It is highly likely that the child already knows
  the basic lessons (dont hit, dont swear, dont
  explode), and is already aware of the
  consequences for these behaviors
• Reward and punishment programs dont teach
  complicated skills well

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Limits of Operant Strategies

• facilitate extrinsic motivation (to perform
  behaviors one is already capable of consistently
  performing)
• If a child does not yet have the skills to behave
  adaptively, adding incentives will not accomplish
  the mission
• Motivational programs make the possible more
  possible, but they dont make the impossible
  possible
• It is highly likely that the child is already
  motivated (not to be miserable)

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Unconventional WisdomIts a Learning Disability

• The child is delayed in the development of
  crucial cognitive skills -- often including
  flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance,
  and problem-solving -- or has significant
  difficulty applying these skills when they are
  most needed.

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Definition of Maladaptive Behavior

• Maladaptive behavior -- including, but by no
  means limited to, explosions -- occurs when the
  cognitive demands being placed upon a person
  outstrip the persons capacity to respond
  adaptively.

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Logical Intervention

• Identify and teach the lagging skills setting the
  stage for, and solve the problems precipitating,
  maladaptive behavior (while maintaining adults as
  authority figures).

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True Fact 1

• There is no quick fix.

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True Fact 2

• There is no cookie-cutter.

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CPS Overview

• Because the CPS model views maladaptive behavior
  as the byproduct of a learning disability, the
  emphasis is on entirely different
• assessment raw material (cognition, not
  behavior)
• Whats going on in this kids head that we wish
  wasnt?
• What isnt going on in this kids head that we
  wish was?
• goals of intervention (teaching lacking thinking
  skills and solving problems, not teaching adults
  to be more effective at imposing their will and
  ensuring that kids have the incentive to comply)

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Special Considerations for Schools/Systems

• Youre going to need a philosophy
• (Children do well if they can)
• and a vision, a mission, and goals specific to
  kids with social, emotional, and behavioral
  challenges
• (What is our purpose? What do we hope to
  become? How must we behave, and what specific
  steps must we take, to make our vision and
  mission a reality?)

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Special Considerations for Schools/Systems

• Youre going to need a relationship
• - Almost irrespective of therapeutic modality,
  the best predictor of success in helping people
  change is the relationship between helper and
  helpee
• - Helping is messy
• - Helping is a working alliance, a two-way
  collaborative process, a two-person team effort
• - Helping is not something that helpers do
  to students rather, it is a process that
  teachers and students work through together

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Special Considerations for Schools/Systems

• Youre going to need a community of learners
• - students
• - staff
• - parents

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Important Themes

• Fair does not mean equal
• In our classroom, everyone gets what they need
• In our classroom we help each other

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Special Considerations for Schools/Systems

• Youre going to want a voice
• - Teachers and staff need
• - To have their concerns addressed
• - Permission to innovate
• - Permission to admit lacking knowledge
• - Permission to evolve from traditional roles
• - Permission to create a culture of optimism and
  caring
• - Requires a certain type of leader

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Special Considerations for Schools/Systems

• Youre going to need an open mind
• Current disciplinary practices do not work for
  the 10 percent of students to whom they are
  applied (and arent needed for the 90 percent of
  students to whom they are never applied)
• The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other
  nation
• Differentiated discipline is no different than
  differentiated instruction
• Doing the right thing always takes less time than
  the alternative

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Important Themes

• Remain calmly optimistic and relentlessly
  persistent in the face of all odds
• All change is incremental
• Dont wait for somebody else to start
• You are never alonefind your allies
• Never forget Its about the kids

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Food For Thought (for all kids)

• If you teach a child that someone always has to
  win and someone always has to lose, when does
  s/he learn the skill of solving problems in a
  mutually satisfactory manner (win/win)?
• If you teach a child that winning depends on
  being bigger and stronger (might makes right),
  what do you do when s/he is bigger and stronger
  than you?
• If you teach a child that adults are the only
  ones with good ideas, when does the child learn
  that s/he has good ideas?

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Additional Information/Resources

• www.ccps.info
• web-based seminars
• Advanced Trainings
• E-newsletter
• new books, DVDs, trainings

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Additional Information/Resources
www.thinkkids.org