Challenging behavior can be, well, a challenge. Keep your cool with information, support and a sense of humor.
An important resource for parents of explosive children is Ross W. Greene's book, The Explosive Child. Dr. Greene, Director of the Collaborative Problem Solving Institute in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has contributed a great deal to our understanding and managment of explosive children and teens.
Says Greene:
“A major premise of this (approach) is that these children do not choose to be explosive and noncompliant – any more than a child would choose to have a reading disability – but are delayed in the development of skills that are crucial to being flexible and tolerating frustration.”
There is help available if you are the parent of an explosive child. As a parent you already wear many hats. As the parent of an explosive child you will have to also don detective and advocate hats.
Don't forget about self-care, it's one of the most important ways to help yourself and your child. When you are stressed, exhausted and discouraged, as many parents of explosive children are, it shows.
