Synopses & Reviews
It could happen at the grocery store. At a restaurant. At school. At home. Meltdowns are stressful for both child and adult, but Dr. Baker can help! Author of the award-winning
Social Skills Picture Book series, Dr. Jed Baker offers parents and teachers strategies for preventing and managing meltdowns. His 20+ years of experience working with children on the autism spectrum, combined with his personal experiences raising his own children, have yielded time-tested strategies, and results! Dr. Baker offers an easy-to-follow, 4-step model that will improve your everyday relationships with the children in your life: 1) Managing your own emotions by adjusting your expectations, 2) Learning strategies to calm a meltdown in the moment, 3) Understanding why a meltdown occurs, and 4) Creating plans to prevent future meltdowns. Helpful chapters include:
- Meltdowns: When rewards and punishments are not enough
- What are meltdowns made of?
- Accepting and appreciating our children
- De-escalating a meltdown
- Understanding why repeat problems occur
- Creating a prevention plan
- Demands
- Waiting
- Threats to self-image
- Unmet wishes for attention
Review
"Jed Baker, in this excellent book, gives us the tools to deal with and prevent out-of-control behavior. Wisely, he leads us grown-ups to understand how to change our own behavior in order to help our children change theirs." Carol Stock Kranowitz "Author of best-seller The Out-of-Sync Child"
Synopsis
It could happen anywhere: at the grocery store, at a restaurant, at school, or at home. Meltdowns are stressful for both child and adult, but Dr. Baker can help
Author of the award-winning Social Skills Picture Book series, Dr. Jed Baker offers parents and teachers strategies for preventing and managing meltdowns. Over twenty years of experience working with children on the autism spectrum combined with his personal experiences raising his own children have yielded time-tested strategies--and results Dr. Baker offers an easy-to-follow, four-step model that will improve your everyday relationships with the children in your life, including managing your own emotions by adjusting your expectations, learning strategies to calm a meltdown in the moment, understanding why a meltdown occurs, and creating plans to prevent future meltdowns.
Helpful chapters include: Meltdowns: When rewards and punishments are not enough
What are meltdowns made of?
Accepting and appreciating our children
De-escalating a meltdown
Understanding why repeat problems occur
Creating a prevention plan
And more
Synopsis
If you have a child with challenging behavior problems, this book was written for you! Many components of Dr. Bakers approachbased on years of applied researchwere initially intended for children on the autism spectrum. However, over the years, he has discovered that they are equally applicable to all children with behavior problems. In the first two chapters you will learn what a meltdown is and why children have them. In the subsequent eight chapters, you will learn what to do about them. This book offers logical, flexible strategies for dealing with out-of-control behaviors.
About the Author
Having earned his MA and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Albany, Dr. Jed Baker is a behavioral consultant for several New Jersey school districts where, nearly two decades ago, he organized a group to help children with social communication problems. That group expanded and ultimately became the Social Skills Training Project under Dr. Baker’s directorship. Dr. Baker also presents lectures all over the world on social skills training, and is on the board of directors of the Asperger’s Syndrome Education Network, Inc. (ASPEN). His work has been featured on ABC News and Nightline.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
THE PROBLEM
Chapter 1: Meltdowns: When rewards and punishments are not enough
- What is a meltdown?
- The usual parenting advice: start with rules and consequences
- The limits of discipline: when rewards and punishments no longer work
- But aren’t meltdowns just manipulative behavior?
- Can we really expect no more meltdowns?
- An overview of the four-step model for reducing meltdowns
Chapter 2: What are meltdowns made of?
- Fight, flight or freeze response
- Temperament
- Difficulties with abstract thinking and perspective taking
- Inflexibility
- An explosive combination
THE SOLUTION
Chapter 3: Accepting and appreciating our children
- Controlling our own frustration
- Building competence
- Avoiding learned helplessness
- The 80/20 rule
- Anticipating frustration as part of learning
- When to avoid power struggles
Chapter 4: De-escalating a meltdown
- How to de-escalate a meltdown
- Distractions
- When too much distraction can make things worse
- Helping children find their own distractions and calming strategies
- Steps for creating self-calming strategies
Chapter 5: Understanding why repeat problems occur
Understanding the triggers
- The ABCs of behavior: Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence
- Getting the ABCs: Interviews and observations
- Seeing the pattern
Chapter 6: Creating a prevention plan
- The components of a good prevention plan
- A prevention plan for Kevin
- The four types of meltdown situations
- Plans for the Four Types of Meltdown Situations
Chapter 7: Demands
- Do your schoolwork
- Try it, it’s delicious
- Hurry up, the bus is coming
- Clean up
- Let’s go to the party
Chapter 8: Waiting
- Just wait
- You can’t always get what you want
- Okay, time to stop playing
Chapter 9: Threats to self-image
- Winning isn’t everything
- It’s okay to make mistakes
- But names will never hurt you
Chapter 10: Unmet wishes for attention
- I can’t play with you now
- Don’t be jealous
- Time to go to bed
Chapter 11: Closing thoughts: Finding your own way
References