A Psycho-Education Skill Building Guide for Teachers:
Social Problem-Solving/Free Education and Teaching eBook
Carmen Y. Reyes
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Copyright 2010 by Carmen Y. Reyes
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**Contents**
--Social Problem-Solving Steps
--Describing the Conflict
--Teaching Children the Steps to Problem Solve
--Guidelines for Teaching Social Problem-Solving
--What to do if the Problem is Not Solved
Teaching Assertiveness Skills to Troubled and Anger-Prone Students
--Assertive Approaches
**Introduction**
These are dramatic times for teachers. In educating children, we have a difficult and demanding role. Like no other, our profession is responsible in ensuring that children develop emotionally, socially, and academically. As society evolves in complexity, so does our role. With so many social and emotional issues affecting directly a student’s potential for learning, we can no longer guarantee our success in educating children relying only on academic expertise. The fact is that, like adults, in coping with today society’s pressures and demands, children are paying a heavy emotional toll too. At alarming rates, more and more children and adolescents are experiencing all kinds of stress and trauma reactions, and at all levels of severity. This can turn into a chaotic scenario for teachers if it catches us ill prepared.
Since children’s affective and emotional status strongly influence in how they perform in the classroom, it is imperative for teachers to become acquainted with how students develop and function socio-emotionally. If we are going to remain effective in doing our job –thriving rather than simply surviving—we need direct access to the current ideas and latest development in psycho-education, a therapeutic model that blends psychological, sociological, biological, and educational theories and research.
How Habitually Disruptive and Acting-Out Students Benefit from a Therapeutic Model
Psycho-education, a multidimensional model to the education and treatment of children with emotional and behavioral difficulties, trains children in understanding how feelings and emotions relate to their behavioral difficulties. To help students change dysfunctional behavior, this therapeutic model contains a mixture of affective (emotions), cognitive (thinking), and behavioral (behavior) elements, so that acting-out students learn to recognize and understand how their emotions and way of thinking drive their particular pattern of behavior. This therapeutic model is based on the principle that behavioral change comes when children are able to understand the motives behind their behavior and are properly trained in productive and more positive ways of behaving.
What Therapeutic Teachers do for Difficult and Acting-Out Students
Focusing on the unique socio-emotional needs of the acting-out child, a therapeutic teacher develops an adult-child relationship that is conducive to a new insight, and is growth promoting. The therapeutic teacher coaches children in finding alternative ways of meeting their socio-emotional needs in a more effective and socially appropriate fashion. The teacher-student therapeutic relationship takes into full consideration the cognitive and affective factors that are influencing behavior, and involves the student in finding and implementing alternative ways of behaving. Students take an active role throughout this process in their own emotional and behavioral improvement.
A therapeutic model is deeply rooted in the belief that all troubled behavior is determined by a multiplicity of factors in interaction, and that, to be able to change problem behavior, every aspect of the child’s personality –feeling, thinking, and behaving—needs to be taken into account. The therapeutic teacher explains psycho-educational concepts and techniques to children, and trains disruptive and acting-out students in how to manage their own emotions and behavior. The therapeutic teacher develops an accepting and trusting relationship with the difficult student, seeing the child’s disruptive and acting-out behaviors as a challenge for both the teacher and the student to master, and a rich opportunity to help the student develop more productive ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving. The therapeutic teacher never “gives up” on the difficult student, perseverating in strengthening a mutually trusting relationship while implementing skilled child guidance techniques to help the child. The therapeutic teacher always uses a solution-oriented language, focusing on the possible and changeable when working with the student, and expressing to the child that…
Change is Possible
And
All Students Can Learn Behavioral Self-Control
Now You Can Develop Child Guidance Skills
To learn to cope with stressful or troublesome events, build positive attitudes and effective life skills, and achieve their social and academic goals, schools provide the ideal environment in which classroom teachers and related services personnel with the adequate training can teach psycho-educational skills to children. Teaching psycho-educational skills to students relates directly with the role of schools in preparing children to function effectively and to deal competently with society’s demands. When we teach psycho-educational skills to students, we are giving them the ability to understand and manage their own emotions and behavior, and we are assisting them in developing resilience in coping with further troublesome events along the road.
Unfortunately, a great deal of this very much-needed information from the psycho-educational literature never reaches teachers. In this Psycho-Education Skill Building Series, we recognize and address this need. Now we can train teachers to resolve students’ behavior problems by applying therapeutic techniques based on psycho-educational principles. Grounded in the author’s strong psychological and educational background and expertise, the Psycho-Education Skill Building Series takes full advantage of current psychological and educational theory and research to train teachers in the child guidance techniques they need to become skillful behavior managers and behavior change promoters.
**Social Problem-Solving**
Most schoolchildren never learned how to handle problems or conflicts in a constructive and assertive way. As a result, students’ way to deal with problematic situations is by resorting to aggressive behaviors, arguing, and/or fighting, making the problem worse. Students who lack proficiency in coping with problems or conflicts using problem-solving techniques show more behavioral problems than their more proficient peers do. For these reasons, one of the most important things teachers can do to decrease conflicts between students in the classroom is to give children a tool for resolving social problems. Teachers too benefit from analyzing students’ most challenging behaviors, and exploring solutions for disruptiveness and conflict, using general problem-solving techniques.
As with most therapeutic techniques, the problem-solving process is based on talking. Throughout the problem-solving steps, children are trained to verbalize the conflict in a descriptive and positive, not confrontational way. The therapeutic teacher helps the students reframe the problem or conflict at hand as a manageable challenge, and guides the students through the steps by asking questions and coming up with possible solutions. This way, troubled, anger-prone, and acting-out students learn that problems are a normal part of life, and that problems may have more than one solution.
In terms of our teaching, teachers feel challenged and energized when we perceive our students’ disruptive behaviors as actions capable of change, and believe that our most difficult students are capable of learning new and more positive behaviors. The social problem-solving approach is a behavior management technique that teachers can easily incorporate as an integral part of their behavior management system.
Informally, we can start teaching a student to problem solve by asking questions like, “What do you think you need to do to solve this problem right now? Okay, what is the first thing you need to do to make this happen? And the second thing you can do?” When we regularly question children this way, we are teaching them how to think to problem solve, without giving them the answers or solutions; in other words, we teach children how to think, not what to think. With this valuable problem-solving strategy, we help children focus on solutions, teaching them the important lesson of seeking their own solutions to problems and conflict.
We can also model the process of social problem-solving by letting students see how we handle our own common problems; for example, “Hmmm… I wonder what my problem is here. Let me see what I can do… I think I will try… Did it work? Okay that did not work out too well; let me try this other strategy instead…” Simple tasks like solving a long math algorithm or planning for an activity are useful in showing children the steps to problem solve. We can also use real or made up social problem situations (e.g., bullying or fights between siblings), so that students practice using the social problem-solving steps.
Most problems or conflicts in the classroom happen between students. Social problem-solving helps each child in conflict differentiate between the facts (what happened) and the student’s interpretation of the facts. Bloomquist (1996) says that problem-solving helps develop:
-Situation interpretation; that is, a description of what happened as opposed to the student’s personal interpretation.
-Alternative thinking; for example, “What is another way of looking at this problem?”
-Perspective taking or the ability to take the point of view of others and understand how the other person is feeling. (Walking in someone else’s shoes, e.g., “How would you feel if someone calls you ‘fatso’?”)
Bloomquist also adds that, through problem-solving, children stop and figure out if they are seeing the situation correctly or not. Students need to look for the evidence, and state their own role, as well as the other child’s role, in creating the problem. The author recommends that we guide children to use social problem-solving using either:
-Open-ended discovery; for example, “What can you do? I am confused… Explain it to me. How could you solve this problem? What is the first step? What you can do next? Okay, now, what is the next step?” Alternatively,
-Forced-choice directed discovery questions; for example, “You could try _____ or you could try _____. What do you think will work best?”
When we are handling conflicts between students, our focus should be about helping to shape future interactions between the students, not about setting who is right and who is wrong. Social problem-solving is predominantly a cooperative process that should help children develop a “we” attitude (“This is a problem that we both share”). We help children focus on collaborating by answering questions such as:
-What is the problem we are having?
-What can we do to solve this problem?
-What are some plans that we can use?
-What is the best plan?
-Did our plan work? (Bloomquist, 1996)
Social Problem-Solving Steps
Most problem-solving models include the following steps:
Step 1: Problem recognition; that is, acknowledging that a problem exists
Step 2: Problem definition; for example, what is (my, our) problem?
Step 3: Generating solutions through brainstorming or listing. This involves answering, what (I, we) can do?
Step 4: Evaluating the alternatives: poor, good, better, or best
Step 5: Selecting the best alternative
Step 6: Planning how to implement the best alternative or solution; for example, how can (I, we) do it? Alternatively, what is (my, our) plan?
Step 7: Doing the plan
Step 8: Evaluating the plan. Here, children answer, (am I, are we) using the plan? In addition, how (am I, are we) doing?
Step 9: Verifying the outcome, did it work? If not, the child or children select another solution and try again
To summarize, social problem-solving is the process that defines, organizes, and guides children’s behavior.
Describing the Conflict
It is important that children describe the conflict behaviorally by objectively answering who, what happened, when, and where. To describe behavior, train students to use the snapshot technique; “If you (child) show me (teacher) a video or picture of what happened, what exactly I would see?” Each student should also describe what he or she wants using behavioral terms; for example, “I want Ronny to give me back my eraser,” as opposed of using an accusatory or blaming tone. Help students see the problem as something that everybody shares, not something for what a single child is responsible. For example, rather than blaming William for pushing in line, describe the problem as “pushing in line;” something that affects everybody in the classroom, including William.
Teaching Children the Steps to Problem Solve
Students can use a checklist similar to the following one to ensure that they follow all the steps to problem solve:
-Step 1: Recognize that a problem exists
-Step 2: Define the problem
-Step 3: Identify a goal (what do you want?)
-Step 4: List alternative ways of getting what you want (generating alternatives)
-Step 5: Narrow your choices to those that seem more realistic
-Step 6: Make a decision (choose one possible solution)
-Step 7: Develop a plan
-Step 8: Put your plan in action
-Step 9: Assess if your plan worked (verify your solution)
If the original plan did not work, the student or students select another solution, and repeat the last three steps. To generate alternatives, the students can brainstorm, or they can adopt a solution from a similar problem. To develop a specific goal, the students can answer:
-What you will do
-Where
-When
-How often
-For how long
Bedell and Lennox (1997) recommend the following strategies to find solutions to social problems:
-Strategy 1: brainstorming
-Strategy 2: changing the frame of reference (walking in the other person’s shoes)
-Strategy 3: Thinking of somebody that is good at problem-solving (real or imaginary), e.g., “What would Mr. Evans or Spiderman do in this situation?”
-Strategy 4: adopting a solution from a similar problem
Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, and Gillham (1995) advice children to follow these steps when dealing with angry thoughts and social problems:
-Step 1: Slow down. Stop and think. Replace a “hot thought” (angry thought) with a “cool thought;” for example, “Chill out, I can handle this.” A cool thought helps the child figure out what to do, so that the child considers all the information and alternatives available.
-Step 2: Perspective taking. Take the other’s child perspective. To know what the other child may be thinking, look at his face or ask him a question; for example, “Why did you do that?”
-Step 3: Set a goal. Think of what you would like to have happened to set your goal. List things you can do to reach your goal.
-Step 4: Choose a path/plan of action. List all the paths and decide which one offers the best solutions (pros and cons, good and bad consequences of each, short-term and long-term). The best solution is the one with many plusses and not too many minuses.
-Step 5: How did it go? Check if it worked.
The authors also recommend that teachers discuss and demonstrate each step, going slowly and step-by-step
Guidelines for Teaching Social Problem-Solving
Model the steps. Talk out loud using the problem-solving steps. Have children practice with easier problems first, and make sure that the problem-solving plan is manageable in terms of what children are expected to do.
Make sure the plan is specific, and something children can visualize doing.
Make sure the plan is positive, stating what the child or children are going to start doing (e.g., “William will walk in front of the line”); not what the child is going to stop doing (e.g., “William will stop pushing in line”).
Help children word the problem in a way that leads to a solution.
Make sure the solution selected will be helpful in the long-term as well as in the short-term.
Teach children to evaluate their thinking; for example, “Was that a good idea?”
Teach children to evaluate their approach to solving problems, e.g., “What other options or choices you have here?”
Help children express “likes” (“I like…” “I want…”); not “dislikes,” or the opposite of what they want.
Turn children’s concern into a specific goal. For example, if the child feels rejected by his peers and has no friends, a specific goal would be for the child to talk to a classmate (selecting a student that is cooperative), and inviting the classmate to play during recess.
Use a trial period to evaluate the results; for example, two weeks. If the child does not reach the goal, modify the original plan and/or select an easier goal.
Teach children a shortcut to problem solve:
-What do I want?
-What steps do I need to do (one, two, and three)?
-Did it work?
Children can mentally recite these steps when dealing with angry feelings and troublesome situations.
Model and have your students practice how to ignore teasing; also, how to maintain a positive classroom environment by taking turns and sharing. In addition, make sure that children know exactly what do you mean by _____ (e.g., being nice to others, staying on task, or paying attention). In setting your classroom standards, be specific and descriptive; for example, what are the behaviors that are telling you that children are paying attention?
What to do if the Problem is Not Solved
Even with a good plan, chances are that children are not going to be able to solve some problems. We need to teach students that:
-Problems are a normal part of life and they are inevitable. Most probably, someone else had the same problem before.
-We can do something to solve most problems, but not all problems.
-Most problems will not be solved immediately; they take time.
-When children do not solve the problem immediately, they should try another way but not give up.
When the problem remains unresolved, we can ask the student or students if they know why they did not solve the problem. The class can provide feedback and offer new solutions for the students to try.
Some social problems are beyond our students capabilities to solve; and even beyond the teacher’s capabilities. If you suspect some kind of child abuse or neglect, refer the situation to the school’s counselor, and to the school’s administration immediately.
**Teaching Assertiveness Skills to Troubled and Anger-Prone Students**
Anger-prone, aggressive, and acting-out students need to understand that they can change the way other people respond to them by changing the way they respond to other people. It is important for these students to understand that how they say something (e.g., shouting and cursing) is as important as what they say.
The skill of assertiveness relates strongly with the skill of social problem-solving. Assertiveness is one of the most effective ways of resolving conflicts. When a student is proficient in communicating her wants and needs assertively, she can let another child know when the other child’s behavior is bothering her without hurting the other’s child’s feelings, without getting angry herself, or provoking a fight. Assertiveness enables troubled and anger-prone children to communicate what they want in a more effective way, taking into consideration both their own personal rights and the rights of the other child.
Bedell and Lennox (1997) define assertiveness as a verbal behavior that reflects the child’s choice to consider what the other child wants while attempting to get her own wants met. Assertiveness contrasts with aggressiveness, which is a verbal behavior that reflects the child’s choice to disregard what the other student wants while attempting to get her own wants met. The focus in assertiveness is on yourself; that is, in stating your feelings, your rights, and your needs that you deliver using “I” messages. On the contrary, the focus in aggressiveness is on the other child; attacking the other child verbally and/or physically. Aggressive verbal messages are “you” messages; for example, “You are a jerk!”
An assertive request uses “I” statements of the kind, “When you _____ (problem behavior), I feel ____ (personal reaction or feeling), and I want _____ (goal).” This is in sharp contrast with a “you” or aggressive message, which is limited to attacking the other child’s personality or character; for example, “What’s wrong with you?” “You are stupid!” or “You make me angry.” An aggressive message regularly results in the other child counter reacting; in other words, the recipient of the aggressive message gets angry too. It is important that children understand that when they use “you” or aggressive messages there is a strong chance that they are not going to get what they want; that is, aggressive messages do not help in solving the problem.
For Bedell and Lennox (1997), a problem exists when the child wants something and does not know how to get it. In other words, a problem is a want or a need that is not satisfied. Developing proficiency in assertiveness skills says Schaefer (1994), trains children in how to:
-Give an objective description of the offending behavior or problem; for example, “You’ve been teasing me a lot…”
-Express the feeling or personal reaction associated with the offending behavior; “…and that makes me feel bad.”
-Make a request for a new behavior. Here the child is expressing a want or a need; for example, “I want you to stop teasing me.”
Schaefer warns that just telling the other child to stop a behavior will not necessarily make the other child stop the behavior. However, the other child may be willing to change his behavior if he receives a good suggestion or alternative about what to do instead. To make a request for a new behavior the author proposes that children try one of these four assertive responses:
Description of the Problem Behavior:
I was reading this book and you took it. I did not like when you did that.
Assertive Approaches:
-Let us discuss this, or let us talk about this.
- Please move somewhere else, or do something else; for example, “Please get a different book or find something else to do.”
-Let us share, or let us read the book together.
-Wait now and you will get it later or you will get it later.
Assertiveness is all about making requests. Bedell and Lennox (1997) identify three kinds of requests:
-no conflict (both children agree on the solution)
-conflict (there is no agreement)
-request for behavior change
More specifically, to make a request:
-Have the student tell what he wants from the other child in a clear and direct way. For example, “Stop being mean” does not clearly describe the behavior wanted.
-Have the student state what he wants in a way that shows sensitivity to the wants and feelings of the other child. The child can accomplish this by telling what he wants from the other child using behavioral language; that is, describing what he expects the other child to do.
-Only when requesting a change in behavior, have the child making the request tell what he wants from the other student to stop doing, indicating how the unwanted behavior is making him feel. For example, “I want you to stop calling me names. I feel embarrassed when you do that.”
-Have the children compromise. When students compromise, both children get what they want at least partially, and neither child gets everything of what he wants. Compromising requires change from both students.
If the original request is not granted, have children provide an alternative in the form of a no-conflict request, “If you _____, then I ____.”
When what both children want is still in conflict, the student receiving the original request has the right to refuse that request. When one child refuses a request, either child can offer an alternative or a new compromise. Because an assertive request considers both children’s wants and needs, making a new offer often results in a compromise. Help children understand that making an offer means that each child must sacrifice something of what he wants, but at least each child will get part of his wants met (Bedell and Lennox, 1997). Each time a student makes an offer for a compromise, the offer indicates that the child is trying to find a way to solve the problem. Combined with social problem-solving, assertiveness is a powerful tool for setting conflicts between students.
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**References**
Bedell, J. R., & Lennox, S. S. (1997). Handbook for communication and problem-solving skills training: A cognitive-behavioral approach. NY: John Wiley.
Bloomquist, M. L. (1996). Skills training for children with behavior disorders: A parent and therapist guidebook. NY: Guilford Press.
Schaefer, C. E. (1994). How to influence children: A handbook of practical child guidance skills. (Second Edition). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Seligman, M. E., Reivich, K., Jaycox, L., & Gillham, J. (1995). The optimistic child. NY: Houghton Mifflin.
**About the Author**
Carmen Y. Reyes, MSE, has more than twenty years of experience as a self-contained special education teacher, resource room teacher, and educational diagnostician. Carmen has taught at all grade levels, from kindergarten to post secondary. She is an expert in the application of behavior management strategies, and in teaching students with learning and behavior problems. Her classroom background, in New York City and her native Puerto Rico, includes ten years teaching emotionally disturbed/behaviorally disordered children and four years teaching students with a learning disability or mental retardation. Carmen has a bachelor’s degree in psychology (University of Puerto Rico) and a master’s degree in special education with a specialization in emotional disorders (Long Island University, Brooklyn: New York). She also has extensive graduate training in psychology (30+ credits). Carmen is the author of 40+ books and articles in psycho-education and in alternative teaching techniques for students with low academic skills. To preview Carmen’s books (You can sample the first 45% of the books free) and download the free eguide, Persuasive Discipline: Using Power Messages and Suggestions to Influence Children Toward Positive Behavior, visit her profile page at Smashwords.com. To read the complete collection of articles, visit Carmen’s free blog, The Psycho-Educational Teacher.
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