Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative ... (ISBN 1593852037)

Refreshing Ideas:
Greene and Albon present some fantastic ideas about what makes kids behave the way they do and how to respond to them. It is a well written, thought provoking book. I found it to be an extremely easy read but loaded with conceptual richness. It is not an intellectual work as much as a wake up call to the understanding and treatment of children.

Too Technical to be Helpful:
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.

Insightful and compassionate approach:
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.

Wonderful book for those working with difficult children:
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.

Refreshing perspective:
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.