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Explosive Child, The: A New Approach For Understanding And Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children Paperback – May 1, 2014
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Print length304 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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PublisherHarperPb
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Publication dateMay 1, 2014
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Dimensions0.68 x 5.31 x 8 inches
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ISBN-100062270451
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ISBN-13978-0062270450
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“A truly remarkable book…. Dr. Greene skillfully provides us with both a framework and practical interventions for minimizing struggles with these children and enhancing their development…. What comes across on every page of this wonderful book is a genuine caring and compassion for these youngsters and their a families.” (Robert Brooks, Ph.D. , author of The Self-Esteem Teacher)
“An insightful, sensitive portrayal of children who need help--and how to help them.” (Myrna B. Shure)
“A user-friendly, practical guide for parents trying to help difficult, explosive children. This book will be of enormous benefit to such children and their families.” (Michael Jellinek)
“All parents should read this book, especially those with children who are out of control. Ross Greene presents a loving, rational, and research-based approach to dealing with problems that most parents have either felt were their own fault or were unsolvable. I could not recommend this book more highly.” (Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction)
“A must for the many parents, teachers, and professionals who attempt to guide, teach, and work with difficult, hard-to-manage, and easily frustrated children…. A must-read for our children’s sake and ours.” (Thomas H. Ollendick)
From the Back Cover
Screaming, swearing, crying, hitting, kicking, spitting, biting...these are some of the challenging behaviors we see in kids who are having difficulty meeting our expectations. These behaviors often leave parents feeling frustrated, angry, overwhelmed, and desperate for answers. In this fully revised and updated book, Dr. Ross Greene helps you understand why and when your child does these things and how to respond in ways that are nonpunitive, nonadversarial, humane, and effective.
Dr. Greene describes how best to:
- Understand the factors that contribute to challenging episodes.
- Identify the specific situations in which challenging episodes are likely to occur.
- Reduce or eliminate challenging episodes by solving the problems that cause them.
- Solve problems collaboratively (rather than unilaterally) and proactively (rather than reactively).
- Help your child develop the skills to be more flexible, solve problems, and handle frustration more adaptively.
- Reduce hostility and antagonism between you and your child.
With Dr. Greene's practical, expert guidance, you and your child will forge a new relationship based on communication and mutual respect.
About the Author
Ross W. Greene, Ph.D., is the originator of the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) model described in this book, an approach he has researched extensively, along with colleagues throughout the world. Dr. Greene served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years, and is currently Founding Director of the non-profit Lives in the Balance and adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech. He consults extensively to families, schools, and therapeutic facilities and lectures widely internationally. Vast free resources on the CPS approach can be found on the Lives in the Balance website (www.livesinthebalance.org).
Product details
- Publisher : HarperPb; 5th Revised ed. edition (May 1, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062270451
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062270450
- Item Weight : 8.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 0.68 x 5.31 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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The premise is based on delayed development. In the way that some kids struggle to read, write, coordinate, or empathise, others struggle to handle frustration, be resilient to not getting their own way, and struggle with being part of a team. As a parent these basic skills when missing are insane to deal with. Rather than focus on punishment, reward charts or other pointless techniques for my type of child (and we have failed at them all) the focus here is on helping parent to teach the missing skills, whilst acknowledging some of their own baggage along the ways
So far I’m seeing subtle but noticeable change in my self and my daughter. Episodes are shorter with less intense reaction on both sides (particularly mine) and a more amenable child. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a “fix” but makes intolerable family life quite acceptable.
To this reading at their Whitts end and cynical, maybe my situation might give some context. We were falling apart as a family of four, and as a scientist and engineer father with a doctor wife who is NOT an earth mother the scientific approach here is well thought out and impactful.
Will report back when I have more direct results to talk about.

I have three daughters, one of whom is dyslexic and was diagnoised with learning and cognitive difficulties when she was 7-years old, although now the professionals seem to think she is showing all the signs of a child with ADD. Either way, no great advice has ever come from the so called professionals on how to handle my daughters difficult and explosive behaviour. In some cases what advice has been given has more often than not exacerbated the problem for her and the whole family.
This is the only piece of literature I have come across that has made any great sense to me both as a parent and as a human being. The writer has a great deal of compassion and respect for both children and parent by telling you there is no such thing as a difficult child or an attention seeking child. The techniques used within the book deals directly with the brain and its learning pathways and explains the scientific basis for the theories behind the methods. The solutions work on learning to understand the child and coaching them to grow the missing ‘cognitive’ pathways they lack rather than ‘managing’ the behaviour via reward or punishment – which never really works particularly on children like my daughter. It has helped us see that our expectations as parents are sometimes too high for her, and that re-focusing our priorities are helping her deal with life in a much healthier way. We think more in terms of compromise and understanding, exploring her decision making rather than sticking to a mind set of "it’s my way or the highway". In return we are starting to see a reduction in her ‘difficult’ behaviour such as the stubbornness and the screaming tantrums and their duration. Our daughter feels she has more control over her decisions even though sometimes those decisions are not always the correct ones. It has helped us to see that she's not a difficult child, nor are we failing as parents. She has a processing disorder, and instead of trying to bend her to our will and trying to get her to meet the expectations of others, we are teaching her the skills to reason through her frustrations and decision-making. It isn't easy, and it's very slow going and frustrating at times, but thanks to this book we no longer operate from a place of hopelessness. It is also helping us to better communicate with our teenage daughter who at times seems to have a bigger behavioural issue than my 10-year old!

The book was recommended to me by a number of people, but I must say the title put me off a little. I advocate for neurodiversity, I'm autistic and ADHD myself and have been subjected to people calling me "dramatic" or "over-reactive" in the past, so a book called "The Explosive Child" made me feel like a child was being blamed for their responses to things. However, I trust the people who recommended it to me, and over a year after buying it I started to read. I now know why you should never judge a book by its cover (or its title).
Dr Greene makes it abundantly clear throughout the book that "kids do well if they can," that they are not deliberately "explosive" and that preconceived notions of children behaving in certain ways to being manipulative, attention-seeking, lazy, unmotivated, etc need to be left behind. He's also quick to clarify that parents aren't to blame either, and that most have tried incredibly hard to help their children and only want what's best for them, they just have been on a misguided path, or haven't had the tools to help.
So, if it's not wilful bad behaviour, and kids will "do well if they can," what's the problem?
Lagging skills, and unsolved problems.
These were a complete eye opener for me. Not only do my children score incredibly highly on the lagging skills list, I do too! We are all "explosive," we all could be termed "behaviourally challenging" (a term that Dr Greene does admit isn't perfect, but it's better than most of the other available 'labels') and I now know why. We simply (though it's not simple to change) don't have the skills a lot of other people have to cope with demands, problem solving, maintaining focus, handling transitions and change etc. I'm not going to list them all - you'll have to read the book for that - I will say that out of twenty-four lagging skills listed on pages 34 & 35, I have fifteen. I'm not sharing my children's scores as it's not my data to share, but I was shocked that I scored so highly. The good news is that by following the suggestions in the book, my lagging skills will be improved over time in conjunction with my children's. How cool is that?
Greene goes on to talk about the "truth about consequences," which tend to be the go-to parenting strategies (and the cornerstone of unsolicited advice, usually given alongside lines such as "making a rod for your own back," and "in my day, children got a good slap.") Needless to say, Greene asserts that traditional parenting methods using consequences and a "do as I say" attitude doesn't work. Let's face it, if it did, you wouldn't be reading the book. There's a lot more to it than the example I've given but, again, you'll need to read the book.
Following these truths, Greene describes the three plans which parents can (though possibly shouldn't in one case) use to address unsolved problems with their children:
Plan A - "Solving a problem unilaterally through the imposition of adult will." Spoiler alert: this is what you're probably doing already, and it's unlikely to work with children (and adults) who have a number of "lagging skills" - if it did, you wouldn't have any unsolved problems.
Plan B - "Solving a problem collaboratively." Sorry, another spoiler: this is the whole point of the book, and the plan that you're encouraged to follow. The rest of the book talks you though how to do this with your child - including a section on how to collaboratively problem solve with children who have little or no spoken communication.
Plan C - "Setting aside an unsolved problem, at least for now." This isn't "giving up." It's not "letting the child 'win.'" It's deciding that some unsolved problems are not high priorities, and they are ones you'll come back to later. This doesn't mean that you use Plan A for them in the interim - you literally set them aside. I know I'm going to struggle with this part, but reading the rationale behind it, I know it's important I do.
The rest of the book talks you through Plan B: the hows, whens, whats, and whos. There's a chapter dedicated to talking you though how Plan B would work in a school setting, and I think it's an important book for educators to read.
The main points I've taken away are:
- That quote I've already used: "Kids do well if they can."
- Behaviours which challenge aren't designed to manipulate, and they're not because a child 'can't be bothered' to do what's being asked of them.
- Plan A - the style that's adopted by the majority of adults - doesn't help a child solve problems more effectively.
- Plan A teaches a child that they must submit and do what they're told at all cost.
- Plan B ensures that everyone's needs are met.
- Unsolved problems and lagging skills are the issue, not the child or their behaviours.
- Adults need to learn how to actively listen to children.
- That just because we've struggled with all of this, it doesn't mean I'm a bad parent, or that they're bad kids.
I highly recommend this book to all parents, and those who work with children. Particularly if your child has episodes of behaviours which challenge, but actually this approach will (I think) be good for all children.
One thing (from an autistic perspective) that struck me was how opposite to ABA it is, but how it will address the same 'issues' (for want of a better word). Therefore, I'm going to add the book to my list of "things which are better than ABA" when I'm asked for alternatives, both from desperate parents and from argumentative people on the internet.
For ND readers: I didn't like the phrase "behaviourally challenged" - Dr Greene doesn't really either. However, it doesn't affect what's being said, and the message clearly tells me that the skills and methods presented in the book align with our philosophies. It's not about changing a child, making them fit in, or blaming them for behaviours. It's about collaborating so all parties have their needs met, therefore reducing the number of explosive episodes. It's about wholeheartedly listening to the child (or adult if it's two adults using the strategy) and being equally responsible for coming up with a solution, and nobody's idea being considered more valuable than the other's. If you can get past the label, and can excuse a couple of mentions of "with an Autism Spectrum Disorder," then I think you will agree with the overarching principles, and find them a useful tool.


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