Lost at School by Dr. Ross Greene

Answers

"It's hard to imagine any educators, counselors, or parents who wouldn't benefit from reading this book. And their kids will benefit even more." Alfie Kohn
	Answers Have a question for Dr. Greene? Feel free to submit your question using the Contact page. In the meantime, here are a lot of the questions Dr. Greene answers in Lost at School. Just click on a category, then a specific question, and the answer will pop up. Repeat as needed! If you're unfamiliar with the Collaborative Problem Solving approach, you may want to read the What's Different page first.
	General questions about Collaborative Problem Solving. Question: A major premise of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach is that challenging behavior is a form of developmental delay. What research supports this idea? Answer Question: In Lost at School, you point out that kids with behavioral challenges aren’t usually challenging every second of every waking hour. Some kids are challenging at home and not at school, others at school and not at home, and others in both places. If it’s true that the kid is lacking skills, then why would he be lacking them in one place and not another? Isn’t the discrepancy in behavior between home and school proof that he’s choosing to behave one way in one place and another way in the other? Isn’t that a sign that the kid is doing well only when he wants to? Answer Question: In Lost at School, you say that this model doesn’t require that adults suspend all of their expectations so a kid won’t exhibit challenging behavior. Care to say more about that? Answer Question: Do you believe in holding kids accountable for their actions? Answer Question:Shouldn’t I still be using consequences for challenging behavior – even if I don’t think they’re working – so the other kids know I’m taking the challenging behavior seriously? Answer Question: Is it really fair to expect teachers – who are not trained as mental health professionals – to use Collaborative Problem Solving? Answer Question: It seems like you think teachers should be all things to all kids. Answer Question: Aren’t there some challenging kids who need meds? Answer Question: In the research literature, training cognitive skills to kids with challenging behavior often hasn’t fared very well. How is CPS different? Answer Question: Does CPS help with kids on the autism spectrum? Answer Question: How does CPS differ from other crisis management programs? Answer Question: How do poverty and culture impact the effectiveness of the CPS model? Answer Does the CPS model apply to kids who shoot people in our schools? Answer Questions About The Plans Question: Isn’t Collaborative Problem Solving really just a sophisticated form of battle picking? Answer Question: Does the CPS model mean there’s no such thing as setting limits anymore? Answer Question: You’ve written that simply communicating an expectation to a kid is not the same thing as using Plan A. Can you explain that further? Answer Question: So Plan B doesn’t undermine a teacher’s authority with the other kids in the class? Answer Question: It’s a Plan A world. If we’re doing Plan B with a kid, aren’t we setting him up for failure? Answer Question: For how long do the adults need to do Plan B with a kid? Answer Question: What if the kid doesn’t follow through on his part of the solution? Answer Question: What if the kid says he doesn’t care about your concern? Answer Question: Don’t adults’ concerns trump kids’ concerns? Answer Question: Don’t adult solutions trump kids’ solutions? Answer Question:What if the only solutions a kid can come up with are consequences? Answer Question: What if the kid just keeps repeating his original solution? Answer Question: What if the solutions a kid proposes are not realistic or mutually satisfactory? Answer Question:I understand the necessity of making sure that a challenging kid has the skills to participate in Plan B. But there are some kids who just won’t talk to me, even though I think they have the skills to do it. Answer Question: I couldn’t get past the Empathy step because the kid kept saying “I don’t know” when I inquired about his concerns. Suggestions? Answer Question: I was doing Plan B with a kid in my class and things seemed to be going well for a few weeks but then deteriorated again. What happened? Answer Question: I’m having trouble imagining doing Plan B with kids younger than 10 years old. Answer Question: Are there kids Plan B won’t help? Who need to be placed in programs outside of public schools? Answer Questions Collaborative Problem Solving in the Classroom Question: Doesn’t helping kids with behavioral challenges take a lot of time? Answer Question: I’m a classroom teacher, I have 25 kids in my class, I’m the only one in there, and I have a bunch of kids in who are on special education programs and need my attention. When am I going to do Plan B? Answer Question: Are there some challenging kids who are so volatile and unstable that academics need to be de-emphasized until things are calmer? Answer Question: Is CPS truly realistic in a middle, junior, or senior high school, where kids have multiple teachers who don’t always have a chance to communicate with each other? Answer Question: If I’m working within a teaching team, how do we determine which of us should be doing Collaborative Problem Solving with a given student on a particular problem? Answer Questions About Policies and Practices Question: If it’s lagging cognitive skills and unsolved problems that set the stage for social, emotional, and behavioral challenges in kids, what is the fate of the functional behavior assessment (FBA) routinely done in schools to better understand challenging behavior? Answer Question: Is it safe to assume that you’re not too enthusiastic about zero tolerance policies? Answer QuestionIs the CPS model a good fit with Response to Intervention (RTI)? Answer Question: : Our school system has been implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). It seems like there are some similarities between PBIS and CPS. Is that true? Answer Question: How do you incorporate Collaborative Problem Solving into an IEP? Answer Question: I’m a school principal. I’ve been trying to help my teachers use Collaborative Problem Solving, and it’s gone pretty well. But I have a few teachers who just aren’t doing it. Advice? Answer Question: : Do you ever run into school personnel who refuse to participate in learning about CPS because it goes outside of what they are paid to do? Answer Question: I understand the need for parents and teachers to collaborate with each other. But, as a teacher, what if I really can’t get the parents to work with me? Answer Question: How will I know if our school has “turned the corner” in our treatment of challenging kids? Answer
Lost at School