In Dr. Ross Greene’s 2014 book Lost at School, he continues to develop his model, Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS), as described in his earlier books The Explosive Child and Treating Explosive Kids. The CPS approach, guided by the philosophy “Kids do well if they can,” views children’s challenging behavior as a reflection of lagging skills in various domains (cognitive, emotional, social, communication, and learning) that must be taught to children. Difficult behaviors, then, are addressed by engaging in discussions with the child in order to collaboratively identify how these challenges may be hindering their success, with the ultimate goal of developing a solution together to the problem at hand. In Lost at School, Dr. Greene details strategies for identifying problems contributing to challenging behavior, provides guidance to support educators and parents’ interactions with children, and makes practical recommendations for planning and collaboration among educators, parents, and children.

Dr. Ross Greene is a child psychologist, author of books on the CPS approach, including The Explosive Child and Lost and Found, and the founder of Lives in the Balance, a non-profit organization dedicated to disseminating the CPS approach.

Greene, R. W. (2014). Lost at school: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them. (Revised 2^nd edition). New York, NY: Scribner.