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

Now in a revised and updated 6th edition, the groundbreaking, research-based guide to understanding and parenting challenging children who frequently exhibit severe fits of temper, from a distinguished clinician and pioneer in the field.

What’s an explosive child? A child who responds to routine problems with extreme frustration―crying, screaming, swearing, kicking, hitting, biting, spitting, destroying property, and worse. A child whose frequent, severe outbursts leave his or her parents feeling frustrated, scared, worried, and desperate for help. Most of these parents have tried everything for effective child behavior management―reasoning, explaining, punishing, sticker charts, therapy, medication―but to no avail. They can’t figure out why their child acts the way he or she does; they wonder why the strategies that work for other kids don’t work for theirs; and they don’t know what to do instead.

Dr. Ross Greene, a distinguished clinician and pioneer in the treatment of kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges, has worked with thousands of explosive children, and he has good news: these kids aren’t attention-seeking, manipulative, or unmotivated, and their parents aren’t passive, permissive pushovers. Rather, explosive kids are lacking some crucial skills in the domains of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem solving, and they require a different approach to parenting.

Throughout this compassionate, insightful, and practical book, Dr. Greene provides a new conceptual framework for understanding their difficulties, based on research in the neurosciences. He explains why traditional parenting and treatment often don’t work with these children, and he describes what to do instead. Instead of relying on rewarding and punishing, Dr. Greene’s Collaborative & Proactive Solutions model provides a form of non-punitive discipline that promotes working with explosive children to solve the problems that precipitate explosive episodes, and teaching these kids the skills they lack.

This compassionate and practical guide provides a new path forward for families. Inside, you’ll discover how to:

• Identify Lagging Skills: Learn why explosive kids lack crucial skills in flexibility, frustration tolerance, and problem-solving, and how this understanding changes everything about your approach.
• Solve Problems Collaboratively: Master the parent-proven process of working with your child to solve the problems that precipitate explosive episodes, instead of just managing the behavior.
• Implement Evidence-Based Parenting Strategies: Apply Dr. Greene's research-backed model to nurture your child's development and reduce conflict, without resorting to punishments that don’t work.
• Transform Family Dynamics: Move from a state of constant crisis to one of connection and mutual understanding, helping your child feel heard and restoring peace to your household.