Ross Greene - Children do Well if they Can

I have read two of Dr Greene's books, "The Explosive Child" and "Lost at School" and have been a participant of one of Greene's workshops. What I value most about his work is his token slogan:

If you have the attitude that kids do well if they want to then the reason the kid is not doing well is because they don't want to. With this philosophy then in order to change behaviour you need the student to want to do well and you focus on making him want to do well. How do you do that? Reward good behaviour! 

Ross Greene asks, "What human being does not want to do well?" Doing well is always preferable to not doing well. If a kid could do well why wouldn't they? What if you take away the element of choosing to do well or not do well and look instead at what is in the child's way of doing well. You main role changes to figuring out the problem (what is getting in the way) instead of rewarding good behaviour and punishing the bad.

The Ross Greene model is based on the premise that challenging behaviour occurs when the expectations being placed on a kid exceed the kid’s capacity to respond adaptively, and that some kids are lacking the skills to handle certain demands and expectations.

If you believe a kid is challenging because of lagging skills and unsolved problems, then rewarding and punishing may not be the ideal approach.

We use Dr Greene's Assessment of Lagging Skills when discussing a vulnerable student. 

Fillable ALSUP
https://www.livesinthebalance.org/sites/default/files/ALSUP%20060417.pdf

ALSUP Guide
https://www.livesinthebalance.org/sites/default/files/ALSUP%20Guide%20060417.pdf


Today I was fortunate to see another version of the ALSUP created and used by an administrator in another school board and I loved the adaptations made.

I like how it has the added column to show an example and the frequency is expanded. I will be using this in my next school meeting for sure!


Ross Greene's Website
https://www.livesinthebalance.org/about-cps