The National Mental Health Association by Hess Robert E.;

Author:Hess, Robert E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1702108
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Problem-Solving Skills Training

After having taught the word concepts and other prerequisite problem-solving skills, the intent is then to have children enter into games and dialogues that encourage the emergence of the major interpersonal problem-solving thinking skills. Interspersed with stories and simple role-playing games (to maintain interest), this section of the formal program is divided into three parts: (a) alternative solutions, (b) consequences, and (c) solution-consequence pairing. Solutions and consequences are elicited from, not given to, children. As children grasp the concepts presented and generate this kind of thinking, they can decide and evaluate for themselves what and what not to do when confronted with an interpersonal problem.

In the alternative solutions lessons, the goal is to stimulate children to think of as many different solutions as possible to everyday interpersonal problem situations presented to them. Our research has shown that both well adjusted and poorly adjusted youngsters express forceful (e.g., grabbing, hitting) solutions to problems. The difference is that the better adjusted child is also more likely to think of a greater number of other possible solutions. Given this, the idea is to add, not take away from the total solution repertoire of poor problem solvers. Any solution offered by a child that is relevant to the problem is accepted. Having discovered that the process of generating multiple solutions is more important to adjustment than content, children are encouraged to think of all the different ways they can solve the same problem.

The goal of the consequences training lessons (what might happen next?) is to guide children to think about what might happen next if a particular solution is carried out. We have found that when children think and evaluate the consequences of their own ideas, they are more likely to carry them out than when told by an adult what and what not to do. Telling the child solutions and whether or not they are good ones does not help the child to think when problem situations arise, defeating the very process the program is intended to encourage. Children are encouraged to name all the consequences they can to their own solutions, whether pros or cons, and then to decide whether their idea is a good one. This is how children learn to evaluate their own ideas.

The lessons pairing solutions and consequences (What can I do? Is that a good idea?) encourage children to offer a solution to a problem, follow it up with a consequence, return to the same problem for a second solution and its possible consequence, and so on. Such exercises offer experience in linking pairs of solutions and consequences: “If I do this, that might happen. If I do that, something different might happen.”

In order to give the flavor of a typical day’s lesson to encourage alternative-solution thinking, the following lesson from the program script is presented in some detail (Shure & Spivack, 1978). Prior to this lesson, the script carefully instructs the teacher in the purpose of the alternative-solution lessons, general techniques in handling the materials (e.

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