The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children

A groundbreaking approach to understanding and parenting children who frequently exhibit severe fits of temper and other intractable behaviours, from a distinguished clinician and pioneer in this field, now updated to include the most recent research.

Almost everyone knows an explosive child, one whose frequent, severe fits of temper leave his or her parents standing helpless in their fear, frustration, and guilt. Most of these parents have tried everything—reasoning, behaviour modification, therapy, medication—but to no avail. They wonder if their child is deviant or just plain bad.

Dr. Ross Greene has worked with thousands of explosive children, and he has good news: these kids aren't bad, and neither are their parents. Rather, explosive children suffer from a physiological deficiency in frustration tolerance and flexibility. Throughout this compassionate book, Dr. Greene demonstrates why traditional treatments don't work for these kids and offers a new conceptual framework for understanding their behaviour, along with new language to describe it. He explains the latest neuroscience findings about the importance of flexibility, and, most important, he shows parents specific, practical ways they can recognize the signs of an impending explosion, defuse tension, and reduce frustration levels for the entire family.

• For parents, psychologists, educators and ADHD groups.
• In addition to the scientific foundation of the book, Greene addresses parents in practical ways that will help show results in difficult children and their effect on families.

An explosive child's behavior — severe noncompliance, temper outbursts, and verbal or physical aggression — often leaves parents feeling frustrated, guilt-ridden, and overwhelmed. Dr. Ross Greenewill help you gain the confidence and knowledge you need to handle these situations competently and lovingly. In The Explosive Child, now fully updated and revised, he provides a sensitive, practical approach to helping your child at home and at school, including:

• Understanding the factors that contribute to your child's explosions
• Reducing hostility and antagonism between the child and adults
• Anticipating situations in which the child is most likely to explode
• Focusing less on reward and punishment and more on communication and collaborative problem-solving
• Helping your child develop the skills to be more flexible and handle frustration more adaptively

With Dr. Greene's practical, expert advice, you and your child will forge a new relationship based on communication and mutual respect.

Now updated with the latest developments in this field, this guide for parents of easily frustrated, chronically inflexible children lays out a practical approach to helping children at home and school, and shows parents how to handle their child's difficulties competently and with compassion.

Ross W. Greene, PhD, is Director of the the non-profit Lives in the Balance (www.livesinthebalance.org), which he founded to advocate on behalf of kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges and their caregivers, and to disseminate the model of care he originated, Collaborative Problem Solving. He is also Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, on the professional staff at the Cambridge Health Alliance, Senior Lecturer in the school psychology program in the Department of Education at Tufts University, and adjust Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech. In addition to providing outpatient care, he consults to schools, inpatient units, and residential and juvenile detention facilities. Dr. Greene's research focuses on the classification and treatment of explosive children, long-term outcomes in socially impaired children with ADHD, and student-teacher compatibility. He has written extensively on behavioral assessment and social functioning, school- and home-based interventions for children with disruptive behavior disorders, and student/n-/teacher compatibility. Previously, Dr. Greene served as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.