Collaborative Problem Solving®

The CPS Philosophy states, “Kids (people) do well if they can” as CPS is for Everyone! If they are not doing well there is something getting in the way so parents and teachers need to figure out what so we can help. This is an unconventional approach to dealing with problem behaviour. We believe kids want to behave and that their challenging behaviour is a result of not having the cognitive skills to meet the expectations place upon them.

With Collaborative Problem Solving we learn to solve problems and teach skills through a relational approach called Plan B. Plan B is a specific structured problem-solving conversation we have with the child/youth. The Plan B ingredients are:

• Empathy – clarifying the child’s concern
• Sharing the adult concern
• Collaborating: brainstorming, assessing and choosing a solution that address both sets of concerns

The CPS model helps us pursue our high priority expectations, reduce challenging behaviour, solve chronic problems durably, build cognitive skills and create, or restore, a helping relationship.

How does CPS support Mental Health?

Dr. Stuart Ablon, Director of Think: Kids at Harvard/Mass. Brigham General Hospital:

Through our work, we have shown that parents, teachers, and other adult caretakers can learn and practice an evidence-based approach to mental health care that can be used in everyday life. Our research has proven that when adults practice Collaborative Problem Solving with kids across a wide range of diagnoses, their specific symptoms lessen. In fact, how they are doing overall improves—not just behavioral difficulties. How does it work? The Collaborative Problem-Solving approach builds and strengthens relationships, decreases conflict and stress, and builds neurocognitive skills, which improves mental health functioning broadly.

Pollastri, AR, Wang L Eddy, CJ, Ablon, JS. An Open trial of Collaborative Problem Solving in a naturalistic outpatient setting. Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 00, 2022, 1-13. A version of this article originally appeared on Psychology Today.

Research evidence below shows CPS helps in families and schools

-statistically significant reductions in symptoms and severity of challenging behaviours as well as parental/teacher stress
-significant improvements in parental/teacher competence, child’s autonomy and parent-child interactions

I am so glad I joined this class with my husband. I am not a perfect parent but my husband was really struggling with our 4 year old. There was lot of crying and struggle everyday. My husband still doesn’t want to be on screen, he still listens to all that you say. From the last class, there has been so much change!! Thank you!
Regards, Devina – Halton Parent

Reduce Bullying With CPS – Rethinking Bullying Prevention: Moving Beyond the Label

In addition to teaching academic skills, schools have always strived to provide a safe, caring environment in which all students can thrive, socially as well as academically. Recent high profile situations involving bullying have highlighted how difficult this task can be. A variety of bully prevention programs exist which have been shown to reduce bullying behavior, particularly at the elementary level. However, schools continue to struggle with students who engage in repeated physical and/or social aggression toward others, and who do not seem to respond to these programs. Typically, these students then receive a variety of consequences, including behavior contracts, detentions, suspensions, and sometimes even expulsion. We frequently hear stories about students who continue to engage in aggressive behaviors toward others, despite repeated consequences. Clearly, those types of interventions are not getting the job done and we at Think: Kids believe that there is a reason for that.

There is a growing research base suggesting that students who engage in aggressive behavior toward others have specific thinking skill deficits, especially in the areas of empathy, perspective taking, and interpersonal problem solving. Contingency management approaches are not designed to teach these complicated skills and thus the students continue to engage in this unacceptable behavior. Further, consequences such as suspensions and the like run the risk of increasing the social disconnection in these students who already struggle with connecting with others in a genuine, empathic manner. Sometimes, realizing that there are some lagging skills, these students will be put into
direct instruction, social skills groups. However, we often hear problems related to the fact that the student does not buy in to the goals of the group, or that there are difficulties transferring the skills to general environment.

Our goal, like everyone else’s, is to reduce this very concerning behavior. And because our explanation guides our intervention, we need to accurately assess the reasons for these behaviors in order to change them. We also need to move beyond the label of bullying toward more specific problems to be solved. Changing a “bully” can seem like an overwhelming task. However, working on a specific unsolved problem (such as a student hitting another student during a game at recess, or a student threatening another student in the hall or through technology such as text or instant messages) is more manageable. By engaging the student in a collaborative discussion of the problem, not only do we reduce the challenging behavior, but we also are able to teach the lagging skills while building a relationship with the student that could quite possibly change the trajectory of that student’s life for the better.

By understanding what is happening from the student’s perspective, we stand a better chance of increasing the student’s buy-in to the process, thus helping the student take responsibility for his or her actions and increasing the likelihood of coming up with something that solves the problem once and for all. And the more of these problems we solve, the safer everyone feels. And that is good for all kids.

Source: Think:Kids (www.thinkkids.org) program in the Dept. of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital © Mass General Brigham Incorporated.

Besides challenging kids, who else can benefit from CPS? Everyone!

CPS is applicable to diverse human interactions, especially those that can result in conflict. CPS can be applied to interactions between classmates, siblings, couples, parents and teachers, employees and supervisors, and nations. All people benefit from learning how to identify and articulate their concerns, hear the concerns of others, and take each other’s concerns into account in working toward mutually satisfactory solutions.

Adapted from www.thinkkids.org