Coping Power: Child Group Program: Facilitator Guide

Coping Power

editor-in-chief David H. Barlow, PhD scientific advisory board Anne Marie Albano, PhD Gillian Butler, PhD David M. Clark, PhD Edna B. Foa, PhD Paul J. Frick, PhD Jack M. Gorman, MD Kirk Heilbrun, PhD Robert J. McMahon, PhD Peter E. Nathan, PhD Christine Maguth Nezu, PhD Matthew K. Nock, PhD Paul Salkovskis, PhD Bonnie Spring, PhD Gail Steketee, PhD John R. Weisz, PhD G. Terence Wilson, PhD

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Programs That Work

Coping Power CHILD GROUP PROGRAM

F a c i l i t a t o r

G u i d e

John E. Lochman • Karen C. Wells • Lisa A. Lenhart

2008

Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2008 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP data on file ISBN 978-0-19-532787-8 Paper

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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

About ProgramsThatWork ™

Stunning developments in healthcare have taken place over the last several years, but many of our widely accepted interventions and strategies in mental health and behavioral medicine have been brought into question by research evidence as not only lacking benefit, but perhaps, inducing harm. Other strategies have been proven effective using the best current standards of evidence, resulting in broad-based recommendations to make these practices more available to the public. Several recent developments are behind this revolution. First, we have arrived at a much deeper understanding of pathology, both psychological and physical, which has led to the development of new, more precisely targeted interventions. Second, our increased understanding of developmental issues allows a finer matching of interventions to developmental levels Third, our research methodologies have improved substantially, such that we have reduced threats to internal and external validity, making the outcomes more directly applicable to clinical situations. Third, governments around the world and healthcare systems and policymakers have decided that the quality of care should improve, that it should be evidence based, and that it is in the public’s interest to ensure that this happens (Barlow, 2004; Institute of Medicine, 2001). Of course, the major stumbling block for clinicians everywhere is the accessibility of newly developed evidence-based psychological interventions. Workshops and books can go only so far in acquainting responsible and conscientious practitioners with the latest behavioral healthcare practices and their applicability to individual patients. This new series, Programs ThatWork™, is devoted to communicating these exciting new interventions to clinicians on the frontlines of practice.

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The manuals and workbooks in this series contain step-by-step detailed procedures for assessing and treating specific problems and diagnoses. But this series also goes beyond the books and manuals by providing ancillary materials that will approximate the supervisory process in assisting practitioners in the implementation of these procedures in their practice. In our emerging healthcare system, the growing consensus is that evidence-based practice offers the most responsible course of action for the mental health professional. All behavioral healthcare clinicians deeply desire to provide the best possible care for their patients. In this series, our aim is to close the dissemination and information gap and make that possible. This facilitator guide is designed to be used by clinicians who are running a children’s group for the Coping Power Program. Coping Power is a proven intervention aimed at teaching aggressive children how to recognize their feelings and display them appropriately without resorting to angry or violent behaviors. Over the course of two school years and 34 weekly group meetings, middle school students meet and participate in activities, exercises, and role-plays that reinforce the themes of the program. Topics include the importance of setting and achieving goals, using problem-solving methods to resolve conflicts, and using self-statements, relaxation, and distraction techniques to cope with anger arousal. This comprehensive guide uses an easy to follow session-by-session format to systematically deliver the intervention to children. It provides the facilitator or group leader with detailed procedures for working with children, including sample dialogues, role-play exercises, group activities, and homework assignments. David H. Barlow, Editor-in-Chief, ProgramsThatWork™ Boston, Massachusetts

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Contents

Chapter 1

Introductory Information for Child 1 Group Facilitators

Chapter 2

Child Group Logistics 31

Coping Power Child Program: Year 1 Chapter 3

Session 1: Group Structure and Behavioral Goal Setting Procedure 53

Chapter 4

Session 2: Goal Setting – Part I 61

Chapter 5

Session 3: Goal Setting – Part II 67

Chapter 6

Session 4: Organizational and Study Skills 71

Chapter 7

Session 5: Awareness of Feelings and Physiological Arousal Related to Anger – Part I 79

Chapter 8

Session 6: Awareness of Feelings and Physiological Arousal Related to Anger – Part II 85

Chapter 9

Session 7: Anger and Self-Control 91

Chapter 10

Session 8: Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping – Part I 97

Chapter 11

Session 9: Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping – Part II 103

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Chapter 12

Session 10: Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping – Part III 107

Chapter 13

Session 11: Relaxation and Overcoming Barriers to Self-Control 115

Chapter 14

Session 12: Perspective Taking – Part I 121

Chapter 15

Session 13: Perspective Taking – Part II 127

Chapter 16

Session 14: Perspective Taking – Part III 135

Chapter 17

Session 15: Perspective Taking and Problem Solving 143

Chapter 18

Session 16: Social Problem Solving – Part I 151

Chapter 19

Session 17: Social Problem Solving – Part II 157

Chapter 20 Session 18: Social Problem Solving – Part III 163 Chapter 21

Session 19: Social Problem Solving – Part IV 169

Chapter 22

Session 20: Group Creates Videotape – Part I 175

Chapter 23

Session 21: Group Creates Videotape – Part II 181

Chapter 24 Session 22: Group Creates Videotape – Part III 185

Coping Power Program: Year 2 Chapter 25

Session 23: Review From Previous Year 191

Chapter 26 Session 24: Organizational and Study Skills Review 197 Chapter 27 Session 25: Application of Social Problem Solving to Teacher Conflict 203 Chapter 28

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Session 26: Application of Social Problem Solving to Both Making Friends and Being Friends With Others 209

Chapter 29 Session 27: Application of Social Problem Solving to Group Entry and Negotiation With Peers 215 Chapter 30

Session 28: Sibling Conflict and Problem Solving 221

Chapter 31

Session 29: Application of Social Problem Solving to Peer Pressure 227

Chapter 32

Session 30: Refusal Skills 233

Chapter 33

Session 31: Problem Solving About Neighborhood Problems, Deviant Peer Groups, and Centrality of Group Membership 239

Chapter 34

Session 32: Group Creates Peer Pressure Poster 247

Chapter 35

Session 33: Positive Quality Development and Peer Relationships 251

Chapter 36

Session 34: Review and Termination of the Coping Power Program 255

Chapter 37

End of the Year Party 261 References 263 About the Authors 277

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Chapter 1

Introductory Information for Child Group Facilitators

Background Information and Purpose of This Program The Coping Power Program is based on a contextual social-cognitive model of childhood aggression (Lochman & Wells, 2002a; Lochman, Wells, & Murray, 2007), which is a risk marker for later adolescent substance use and delinquency and can usefully serve as conceptual framework for cognitive-behavioral intervention. This model indicates two relevant sets of potential mediators of adolescent antisocial behavior: (1) child level factors (e.g., Tremblay & LeMarquand, 2001), including children’s poor social-cognitive and decision-making skills, poor self-regulation, perceived peer context, and poor ability to resist peer pressure, and (2) contextual factors, including poor parental caregiver involvement with, and discipline of, the child (e.g., Wasserman & Seracini, 2001). It is assumed that broader contextual risk factors, such as the level of neighborhood violence (Luthar, 1999), affect these mediational processes and children’s subsequent behavior. The Coping Power Program, based on this model, is provided primarily to preadolescent and early adolescent aggressive children and their parents. The Coping Power Program includes a child component, consisting of a 34-session group intervention, and a coordinated 16-session parent component; both of these are designed to be delivered over a 16- to 18-month period of time. On the basis of outcome research (Lochman & Wells, 2004), we strongly recommend that the Coping Power parent and child components be used together, since the best effects are achieved through a combination approach. Nevertheless, the components can be used alone with appropriate attention to minor adaptation. The Coping Power Program is often delivered near the time of children’s transition to middle school. Intervention can begin in the

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year prior to the middle-school transition (typically fifth grade) and continue into the first year in middle school (typically sixth grade), although the program is generally developmentally appropriate for children from the middle elementary school grades through the middle years of middle school, and can be used to cover grades 3 to 7. Use with younger or older children requires further adaptation. The Coping Power Program has been delivered to target children who have been identified by teacher and parent ratings of children’s aggressive behavior as being relatively high in aggressive behavior problems, as well as to children who meet diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. The Coping Power child and parent components have been developed to be delivered in tandem, with certain topics designed to come up at common times in the parent and child groups. However, as previously mentioned, the child and parent groups can be conducted individually and separately with minor modifications. This guide provides therapists with an overview of the Coping Power Program with an emphasis on the child component; a companion guide provides an overview of the parent component. Child component group sessions can take place at children’s schools (after school, before school, or during nonacademic homeroom periods) in preventive interventions or when used by school-based mental health clinicians, or at mental health outpatient clinics. The program has primarily been offered in group session format, although we have used the program in individual therapy sessions with relatively minor adaptations. Child group sessions are designed to last for 50–60 minutes. The group sessions usually included four to six children. When receiving Coping Power group sessions, it is recommended that each child also receive a brief individual session every four to six weeks to encourage generalization of intervention effects. The Coping Power child component program addresses the socialcognitive deficits identified in prior studies, as detailed in the following sections. These skills were also the focus of our previously evaluated 18-session Anger Coping Program, and the Coping Power child component was derived from the earlier Anger Coping Program (Larson & Lochman, 2002; Lochman et al., 1987).

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Disorder or Problem Focus Some children fall outside the normal or typical variations of externalizing behaviors (Lochman, Barry, Powell, Boxmeyer & Holmes, 2008). Within this group of disruptive children, aggression is a frequent and particularly concerning complaint. Aggression is one of the most stable problem behaviors in childhood with a developmental trajectory toward negative outcomes in adolescence, such as drug and alcohol use, truancy and dropout, delinquency, and violence (Lochman & Wayland, 1994; Lochman, Powell, Whidby, & Fitzgerald, 2006). Children’s aggressive behavior patterns may escalate to include a wide range of severe antisocial behaviors in adolescence (Loeber, 1990), and this negative antisocial trajectory may even continue into adulthood in the form of antisocial personality disorder. Childhood aggressive behavior can thus have serious and negative implications for a child’s future. The negative effects are not limited to the aggressive individual, however, as aggressive behavior by definition has the potential to cause harm or injury to others. In today’s schools, aggressive bullying, which may be verbal, physical, or psychological, is increasingly being recognized as a serious problem (Rigby, 1996). Bullying is a deliberate act with the intent of harming the victims (Farrington, 1993). Examples of direct bullying include hitting and kicking, charging interest on goods and stealing, name calling and intimidation, and sexual harassment. Other forms of bullying that are more indirect (i.e., relational bullying) include spreading rumors about peers and gossiping (Ireland & Archer, 2004). Children who display high levels of aggressive behavior often exhibit additional externalizing behaviors and may meet criteria for a disruptive behavior disorder diagnosis such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Conduct disorder is defined as follows: ■

A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that violates the rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules. These behaviors fall into four main groupings: 1) aggressive conduct that threatens physical harm to other people or animals;

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2) nonaggressive conduct that causes property loss or damage; 3) deceitfulness and theft; and 4) serious violations of rules. Three or more characteristic behaviors must have been present during the past 12 months. Oppositional defiant disorder is defined as follows: ■

A recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that persists for at least 6 months and is characterized by the frequent occurrence of at least four of the following behaviors: losing one’s temper, arguing with adults, actively defying or refusing to comply with request or rules of adults, deliberately doing things that will annoy other people, blaming others for one’s own mistakes or misbehavior, being touchy or easily annoyed by others, being angry and resentful, or being spiteful or vindictive.

Although not an explicit part of the diagnosis, aggression may accompany the characteristic pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior associated with a diagnosis of ODD. More severe disruptive behaviors including aggression toward people or animals, destruction of property, theft, and deceit are associated with CD. Prevalence rates for these diagnoses are estimated to be from 2% to 16% of the general population for ODD and from 1% to more than 10% for CD (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). It is noteworthy that some researchers are beginning to identify psychological features that are linked to subsequent psychopathy (Barry et al., 2000; Pardini, Lochman & Frick, 2003; Pardini, Lochman, & Powell, 2007). These youth, who display manipulation, impulsivity, and remorseless patterns of interpersonal behavior, are usually referred to as “callous” or “unemotional” and are considered to be conceptually different from youth diagnosed with CD (Cleckley, 1976; Hart & Hare, 1997). Children who display associated narcissistic features are also at risk for heightened rates of externalizing behavior problems (Barry, Thompson, Barry, Lochman, Adler, & Hill, 2007). Symptoms associated with ODD are age-inappropriate, usually appearing prior to 8 years of age and no later than adolescence (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). These symptoms include angry, defiant, irritable, and oppositional behaviors and are usually first manifested in the home environment. The diagnosis of ODD should be made only if these behaviors

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occur more frequently than what would be typically expected of same-aged peers with a similar developmental level. CD symptoms such as fire setting, breaking and entering, and running away from home are more severe and may become evident as early as the preschool years, but these behaviors usually occur beginning in middle childhood to middle adolescence. Less severe symptoms (e.g., lying, shoplifting, and physical fighting) are observed initially, followed by intermediate behaviors such as burglary; the most severe behaviors (e.g., rape, theft while confronting a victim) usually emerge last (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). It is particularly important for those who provide services to children and adolescents to be aware of the symptoms of ODD and to provide intervention, because ODD is a common antecedent to CD. Furthermore, a significant subset of those individuals diagnosed with CD, particularly those with an early onset, subsequently develop antisocial personality disorder (ASPD; American Psychiatric Association, 2000). See Table 1.1 for DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for ODD and CD. In terms of gender, ODD is more prevalent in males than in females prior to puberty, though the rates are fairly equal after puberty. ODD symptoms are typically similar in males and females, with the exception of males exhibiting more confrontational behavior and having more persistent symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Rates of CD diagnoses, particularly the childhood-onset type, are more common in males than in females. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2000), males with CD usually evidence symptoms such as “fighting, stealing, vandalism, and school discipline problems” and females usually engage in “lying, truancy, running away, substance use, and prostitution.” Childhood disorders rarely occur in isolation, so comorbidity issues are important to consider when treating children within clinical populations (Hinshaw & Lee, 2003). ODD and CD are often observed in conjunction with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), academic underachievement and learning disabilities, and internalizing disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety disorders). Among youth with CD and ODD, 50% also have a diagnosis of ADHD (Hinshaw & Lee, 2003). Furthermore, the hyperactive-impulsive subtype of ADHD is more closely associated with aggression than the inattentive subtype. ODD in conjunction with ADHD increases the likelihood for the development of early-onset CD symptoms (Hinshaw, Lahey, & Hart, 1993; Loeber, Green,

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Keenan, & Lahey, 1995). Children with disruptive behaviors are at a greater risk for school dropout and thus becoming part of a deviant peer group in their neighborhood. Moreover, children with both conduct problems and depressive symptomatology are more likely to engage in substance use as adolescents than those children with conduct problems alone.

Diagnostic Criteria for ODD and CD In Table 1.1 we list the DSM-IV-TR criteria for ODD and CD.

Table 1.1 Diagnostic Criteria for Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic Criteria for ODD

DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic Criteria for Conduct Disorder

A pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior lasting at least 6 months, during which four (or more) of the following are present:

A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated, as manifested by the presence of three (or more) of the following criteria in the past 12 months, with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months:

1. Often loses temper 2. Often argues with adults 3. Often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules 4. Often deliberately annoys people

Aggression to People and Animals 1. Often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others 2. Often initiates physical fights

5. Often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior

3. Has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others (e.g., a bat, brick, broken bottle, knife, gun)

6. Is often touchy or easily annoyed by others

4. Has been physically cruel to people

7. Is often angry and resentful 8. Is often spiteful or vindictive

5. Has been physically cruel to animals 6. Has stolen while confronting a victim (e.g., mugging, purse snatching, extortion, armed robbery) 7. Has forced someone into sexual activity Destruction of Property 8. Has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the intention of causing serious damage 9. Has deliberately destroyed others’ property (other than by fire setting)

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DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic Criteria for ODD

DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic Criteria for Conduct Disorder Deceitfulness or Theft 10. Has broken into someone else’s house, building, or car 11. Often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations (i.e., “cons” others) 12. Has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim (e.g., shoplifting, but without breaking and entering; forgery) Serious Violation of Rules 13. Often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, beginning before age 13 years 14. Has run away from home overnight at least twice while living in parental or parental surrogate home (or once without returning for a lengthy period) 15. Is often truant from school, beginning before age 13 years

There are no separate codes based upon age of onset for ODD.

CD, Childhood-Onset Type: Onset of at least one criterion characteristic of CD prior to age 10 years CD, Adolescent-Onset Type: Absence of any criteria characteristic of CD prior to age 10 years

There are no specified levels of severity for ODD.

CD, Unspecified Onset: age of onset is not known Mild: few if any conduct problems in excess of those required to make the diagnosis and conduct problems cause only minor harm to others Moderate: number of conduct problems and effect on others intermediate between “mild” and “severe” Severe: many conduct problems in excess of those required to make the diagnosis or conduct problems cause considerable harm to others

Development of This Treatment Program and Evidence Base A series of research studies have been conducted with the Coping Power Program, and its predecessor, the Anger Coping Program. In addition to case studies (Boxmeyer, Lochman, Powell, Yaros, & Wojnaroski, 2007;

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Lochman, Boxmeyer, Powell, Wojnaroski, & Yaros, 2008) that have indicated how the program can be used and adapted with individual cases, efficacy, effectiveness, and dissemination studies described in this section have provided the evidence base for the Coping Power Program.

Earlier Outcome Research With the Anger Coping Program The Coping Power Program was developed from earlier intervention research conducted by Dr. Lochman and his colleagues with the Anger Coping Program, starting with initial positive behavioral changes found in an uncontrolled pilot study (Lochman, Nelson, & Sims, 1981). The Anger Coping Program, unlike the later Coping Power Program, had only an intervention component for children, with no parent component. In a subsequent controlled study, 76 aggressive and disruptive fourth- to sixth-grade boys were randomly assigned to: Anger Coping-Goal Setting (AC-GS), Anger Coping (AC), Goal Setting (GS), and an Untreated Control (UC) condition (Lochman, Burch, Curry, & Lampron, 1984) groups. The boys in the AC and AC-GS groups reduced their independently observed disruptive-aggressive classroom behavior and had reduced parent ratings of aggression, while the boys in the GS and UC conditions became worse on these measures by the 1-month follow-up. The improvement on the parents’ ratings indicated that the interventions’ effects had generalized out of the school setting. Secondary analyses indicated that certain subject characteristics significantly predicted intervention outcome. Within the two cognitive-behavioral conditions, the boys who demonstrated most behavior change had the poorest initial social problem-solving skills (Lochman, Lampron, Burch, & Curry, 1985). In another study of child characteristics that predict child-only intervention outcomes, Lochman, Coie, Underwood, and Terry (1993) found that a social relations program that included cognitive-behavioral and social-skill training components adapted from the Anger Coping Program had significant impact at post-intervention and at a 1-year follow-up only with aggressiverejected children and not with rejected-only children. A long-term, 3-year follow-up study of the preventive effects of the Anger Coping Program found that, in comparison to the untreated aggressive

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group, the boys in the Anger Coping Program had significantly lower rates of marijuana and drug involvement and lower rates of alcohol use, and they maintained their previously noted improvements in self-esteem and in social problem-solving skills (Lochman, 1992). In all these areas, the Anger Coping boys were functioning in the same range as that of the nonaggressive boys at follow-up. However, there were no longer-term preventive effects on delinquency, and the classroom behavioral improvements faded. Only a subset of Anger Coping boys who had received a second-year booster intervention maintained their reductions in passive off-task classroom behavior, a result suggesting that a longer intervention period might be necessary to enhance the maintenance of overt classroom behavioral change. These findings were encouraging, especially because of the longer-term reduction in substance use for the Anger Coping children, and led to the inclusion of the Anger Coping Program as a promising, empirically supported intervention for aggressive children in critical reviews of the intervention literature (e.g., Brestan & Eyberg, 1998; Greenberg et al., 2001; Leff, Power, Manz, Costigan, & Nabors, 2001). This series of Anger Coping studies indicated the need for a broader, multicomponent intervention to have more lasting impact on serious antisocial outcomes, thus the development of the Coping Power Program.

Coping Power Program: Efficacy Study The Coping Power Program described in this chapter includes a child component and a parent component. It was derived from the socialcognitive contextual model described in greater detail later in the chapter. In an initial efficacy study of the Coping Power Program, Lochman and Wells (2002a; 2004) randomly assigned 183 aggressive boys (60% African-American, 40% white non-Hispanic) from Durham, NC, to one of three conditions: a cognitive-behavioral Coping Power child component, combined Coping Power child and behavioral parent training components, and an untreated control group. The two intervention conditions took place during fourth and fifth grades or fifth and sixth grades, and intervention lasted for 1.5 school years. Screening of risk status took place in 11 elementary schools, and was based on a multiple-gating approach using teacher and parent ratings

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of children’s aggressive behavior. The at-risk boys were in the top 22% of boys according to teachers’ ratings of all the students in their classrooms. Analyses of outcomes at 1-year follow-up indicated that the intervention cells (child component only; child-plus-parent components) showed reductions in children’s self-reported delinquent behavior, and in parent-reported alcohol and marijuana use by the child and improvements in their teacher-rated functioning at school during the follow-up year, in comparison to the high-risk control condition (Lochman & Wells, 2004). The Coping Power intervention effects on lower rates of parent-rated substance use and of delinquent behavior at the 1-year follow-up than for the control condition were most apparent for the children and parents who received the full Coping Power Program with both child and parent components. In contrast, boys’ teacher-rated behavioral improvements in school during the follow-up year appeared to be primarily influenced by the Coping Power child component. Mediation analyses, using path analytic techniques, indicate that the intervention effect for both of the intervention cells on the delinquency, parent-reported substance use, and teacher-rated improvement outcomes at 1-year follow-up were mediated by intervention-produced improvements in children’s internal locus of control, parents’ consistency in disciplining their children, children’s attributional biases, children’s person-perception skills, and children’s expectations that aggression would not work for them (Lochman & Wells, 2002a).

Coping Power Program: Effectiveness Studies Given these positive findings from the efficacy study, the next research questions examined whether the Coping Power Program has similar positive effects in other settings and with personnel who are more equivalent to typical school and agency staff. Several types of effectiveness and dissemination studies have been conducted with the Coping Power Program, including studies described later of intervention effects on children’s aggressive behavior and problem-solving skills among aggressive deaf children (Lochman et al., 2001) and among children with CD and ODD in Dutch outpatient clinics (van de Wiel, Matthys,

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Cohen-Kettenis, Maassen, Lochman, & van Engeland, 2007; van de Wiel, Matthys, Cohen-Kettenis, & van Engeland, 2003; ZonnevylleBender, Matthys, van de Wiel, & Lochman, 2007). In a more extensive effectiveness study, the effects of the Coping Power Program (the combined child and parent components) as an indicated preventive intervention directed at high-risk children were compared with the effects of a universal, classroom-level preventive intervention (Lochman & Wells, 2002b). A total of 245 male and female aggressive fourth-grade students (78% African-American) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Children were selected from 17 elementary schools in Durham, NC. A greater proportion of these schools were in the inner-city and in high-poverty areas than was the case for the prior efficacy study. Intervention began in the fall of the fifth-grade year, and was delivered by personnel more equivalent to counselors and social workers in school settings who had higher case loads and less opportunity for home visits. At post-intervention, the three intervention conditions (Coping Power alone; Coping Power plus classroom intervention; classroom intervention alone) produced lower rates of substance use than in the control cell (Lochman & Wells, 2002b). Children who received both interventions displayed improvements in their social competence with peers, and their teachers rated these children as having the greatest increases in problem-solving and anger-coping skills. The Coping Power Program also produced reductions in parent-rated and teacher-rated proactive aggressive behavior, and increases in teacher-rated behavioral improvement. A 1-year follow-up of this sample replicated the findings of the prior efficacy study. Coping Power children were found to have lower rates of self-reported substance use and delinquency and lower levels of teacher-rated aggressive social behavior at school, in comparison to the control children (Lochman & Wells, 2003). Recent analyses conducted with growth curve modeling have found that at 3-year follow-up after the end of treatment, positive intervention effects on youths’ problem behaviors at school have been maintained (Lochman, Qu, Chen, Roth, Barth, & Wells, 2007). In a second type of effectiveness study, an abbreviated form of the Coping Power Program (24 child sessions, 10 parent sessions) was delivered to children and parents in a rural-to-suburban Southern city. Two hundred and forty children who had been identified as being in the

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top 30% of aggressive children in their schools were randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions. Children receiving Coping Power during fifth grade had significant reductions in teachers’ behaviors by the end of intervention, in comparison to control children (Lochman, Boxmeyer, Powell, Roth, & Windle, 2006). This finding indicates that the intervention could be transported to a different setting in a somewhat abbreviated form.

Coping Power Program: Dissemination Studies The Coping Power Program, which had produced effects with hearing children in the prior studies, was adapted and disseminated in this study for use with deaf children (Lochman et al., 2001). Deaf children in a residential school were screened for aggressive behavior (N ⫽ 49) through use of teacher ratings, and were randomly assigned by classroom to the Coping Power Program or to a wait-list control condition. The children in the Coping Power Program attended group sessions and their teachers and dormitory staff received training to influence the context around the children, but there was no component for parents. The Coping Power parent component was used as a guide for training of teachers and dormitory staff, and the Coping Power child component was adapted to meet the needs of the deaf children. According to teacher ratings, Coping Power children displayed behavioral improvement across the intervention year in comparison to control children (effect size: .5), and the Coping Power children displayed significant improvements in their social problem-solving skills and in their communication skills. This small-scale dissemination study suggested that the Coping Power Program could be adapted to meet the needs of specialized populations in residential settings, such as deaf children who have unique communication difficulties. In a Coping Power dissemination study of Dutch children with disruptive behavior disorder, Dr. Walter Matthys and his colleagues developed a briefer Dutch version of the Coping Power Program following training from Dr. Lochman in the Coping Power Program. Dr. Matthys examined its effects in a treatment study in which 77 ODD and CD children in a child psychiatry outpatient clinic were randomly assigned

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to Coping Power or to a care-as-usual (C) condition. Children in both conditions displayed significant improvements in disruptiveness at the end of treatment and at 6-month follow-up, but the Coping Power children had significantly greater reduction in overt aggressive behavior by post-treatment (van de Wiel et al., 2007). These positive treatment outcomes of the Coping Power Program occurred even though the Coping Power intervention staff had significantly less clinical experience than the care-as-usual therapists. The Coping Power Program was also found to be highly cost-effective (van de Wiel, et al., 2003). A 4-year followup study of this sample found that Coping Power had a preventive effect in producing significantly lower marijuana and tobacco use, in comparison to the control condition, indicating long-lasting effects of the intervention on substance use with a sample of disruptive behavior disorder children (Zonnevylle-Bender, Matthys, van de Wiel, & Lochman, 2007).

What Is Coping Power Based On?

Risk and Causal Factors Within a Contextual Social-Cognitive Model The contextual social-cognitive model (Lochman & Wells, 2002a), which is derived from etiological research on childhood aggression, indicates that certain family and community background factors (neighborhood problems; maternal depression, low social support, marital conflict, low socioeconomic status) have both a direct effect on children’s externalizing behavior problems and an indirect effect through their influence on key mediational processes (parenting practices, children’s social cognition and emotional regulation, children’s peer relations) (Lochman, Barry, Powell, Boxmeyer & Holmes, 2008). A child’s developmental course is set within the child’s social ecology, and an ecological framework is required (Lochman, 2004). Risk factors that are biologically related will be noted first, followed by contextual factors in the model and, finally, by their impact on children’s developing social-cognitive and emotional regulation processes. The malleable child and parent risk factors within this model serve as the targets for intervention in the Coping Power Program, and this

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model of risk factors can be used to assess children to adapt the program to various subtypes and individual children.

Biological and Temperament Factors With regard to biological and temperamental child factors, some prenatal factors such as maternal exposure to alcohol, methadone, cocaine, and cigarette smoke and severe nutritional deficiencies (Brennan, Grekin, & Mednick, 1999; Delaney-Black et al., 2000; Kelly, Davis, & Henschke, 2000; Rasanen et al., 1999) have been found to have direct effects on child aggression. However, in diathesis-stress models it is more commonly found that aggression is the result of interactions between child risk factors and environmental factors (Masten, Best, & Garmezy, 1990). Thus, risk factors such as birth complications, genes, cortisol reactivity, testosterone, abnormal serotonin levels, and temperament all contribute to children’s conduct problems, but only when environmental factors such as harsh parenting or low socioeconomic status are present (Coon, Carey, Corley, & Fulker, 1992; Dabbs & Morris, 1990; Raine, Brennan, & Mednick, 1997; Scarpa, Bowser, Fikretoglu, Romero, & Wilson, 1999). Examples of these diathesis-stress models abound in the literature on child-level risk factors. Birth complications involving preeclampsia, umbilical cord collapse, forceps delivery, and fetal hypoxia increase the risk of later violence among children, but only when the infants subsequently experience adverse family environments or maternal rejection (Arseneault, Tremblay, Boulerice, & Saucier, 2002; Raine et al., 1997). Higher levels of testosterone among adolescents and higher cortisol reactivity to provocations are associated with more violent behavior, but only when the children or adolescents live in families where they experience high levels of parental abuse or low socioeconomic status (Dabbs & Morris, 1990; Scarpa & Raine, 2000). Children who have a gene that expresses only low levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) have a higher rate of adolescent violent behavior, but only when they have experienced high levels of parental maltreatment (Caspi et al., 2002). Similar patterns of findings have been obtained when children’s temperament characteristics have been examined as child-level risk factors. Highly

14

active children (Colder, Lochman, & Wells, 1997), children with high levels of emotional reactivity (Scaramella & Conger, 2003), and infants with difficult temperament (Coon et al., 1992) are at risk for later aggressive and conduct problem behavior, but only when they have parents who provide poor monitoring or harsh discipline. The children’s family context can serve as a key moderator of children’s underlying propensity for an antisocial outcome.

Contextual Family Factors There is a wide array of factors in the family that can affect child aggression and conduct problems, ranging from poverty to more general stress and discord within the family. Children’s aggression has been linked to family background factors such as parent criminality, substance use, and depression (Barry, Dunlap, Cotton, Lochman, & Wells, 2005; Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998; McCarty, McMahon, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2003), low socioeconomic status and poverty (Sampson & Laub, 1993), stressful life events (Barry et al., 2005; Guerra, Huesmann, Tolan, VanAcker, & Eron, 1995), single and teenage parenthood (Nagin, Pogarsky, & Farrington, 1997), marital conflict (Erath, Bierman, and Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, in press) and insecure, disorganized attachment (Shaw & Vondra, 1995). All of these family factors are intercorrelated, especially with socioeconomic status (Luthar, 1999), and low socioeconomic status assessed as early as preschool has predicted teacher- and peer-rated behavior problems at school (Dodge, Petit, & Bates, 1994). These broad family risk factors can influence child behavior through their effects on parenting processes. Starting as early as the preschool years, marital conflict likely causes disruptions in parenting, which in turn contribute to children’s high levels of stress and consequent aggression (Dadds & Powell, 1992). Both boys and girls from homes in which marital conflict is high are especially vulnerable to externalizing problems like aggression and conduct disorder, even after controlling for age and family socioeconomic status (Dadds & Powell, 1992).

15

Parenting Practices Some of these contextual family processes have their effect on children’s behavior by disrupting parenting. Depressed mothers have higher rates of inconsistent parenting over time, and inconsistent parenting is the proximal mediator of children’s problem behavior (Barry, Dunlap, Lochman, & Wells, 2008). Parenting processes linked to children’s aggression (e.g., Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Shaw, Keenan, & Vondra, 1994) include (1) nonresponsive parenting at age 1, with pacing and consistency of parent responses not meeting children’s needs; (2) coercive, escalating cycles of harsh parental nattering and child noncompliance, starting in the toddler years, especially for children with difficult temperaments; (3) harsh, inconsistent discipline; (4) unclear directions and commands; (5) lack of warmth and involvement; and (6) lack of parental supervision and monitoring as children approach adolescence. Parental physical aggression, such as spanking and more punitive discipline styles, have been associated with oppositional and aggressive behavior in both boys and girls. Low parental warmth and involvement contribute to parents’ use of physically aggressive punishment practices. Weiss, Dodge, Bates, and Petit (1992) found that ratings of the severity of parental discipline were positively correlated with teacher ratings of aggression and behavior problems. In addition to higher aggression ratings, children experiencing harsh discipline practices exhibited poorer social information processing even when controlling for the possible effects of socioeconomic status, marital discord, and child temperament. It is important to note that although such parenting factors are associated with childhood aggression, child behavior also affects parenting behavior in a bidirectional manner (Fite, Colder, Lochman, & Wells, 2006). Children’s temperament can moderate the relation between parenting practices and children’s problem behaviors (Colder, Lochman, & Wells, 1997). Poor parental supervision has also been associated with child aggression. Haapasalo and Tremblay (1994) found that boys who fought more often with their peers reported having less supervision and more punishment than boys who did not fight. Interestingly, the boys who fought reported having more rules than the boys who did not fight, suggesting the possibility that parents of aggressive boys may have numerous strict rules that are difficult to follow.

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Parents’ attributional styles, or the way they think about the causes of their children’s behavior, and the effectiveness of various parenting techniques are related to childhood aggression (Baden & Howe, 1992; Dix & Lochman, 1990). For example, mothers of conduct-disordered children are more likely to see children’s misbehavior as intentional and to attribute the causes to stable factors within the child that are outside of the mother’s control. Research also suggests that poor parental problem-solving skills in interactions with their children are linked with their children’s aggression and behavior problems (Pakasiahti, Asplund-Peltola, & Keltlkangas-Jarvinen, 1996).

Contextual Peer Factors Children with disruptive behaviors are at risk for being rejected by their peers (Cillessen, Van IJzendoorn, Van Lieshout, & Hartup, 1992), although other factors including the racial makeup of classrooms also contribute to children’s peer rejection (Jackson, Barth, Powell, & Lochman, 2006). Childhood aggressive behavior and peer rejection independently predict delinquency and conduct problems in adolescence (Lochman & Wayland, 1994; Miller-Johnson, Coie, Maumary-Gremaud, Bierman, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2002). Aggressive children who are also socially rejected tend to exhibit more severe behavior problems than children who are either aggressive only or rejected only. Similar to bidirectional relations evident between the degree of parental positive involvement with their children and children’s aggressive behavior over time (Bry, Catalano, Kumpfer, Lochman, & Szapocznik, 1999), children’s aggressive behavior and their rejection by their peers both reciprocally affect each other (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2004a). Children who have overestimated perceptions of their actual social acceptance can be at particular risk for aggressive behavior problems in some settings (Pardini, Barry, Barth, Lochman, & Wells, 2006). Despite the compelling nature of these findings, race and gender may moderate the relation between peer rejection and negative adolescent outcomes. For example, Lochman and Wayland (1994) found that peer rejection ratings of African-American children within a mixed-race

17

classroom did not predict subsequent externalizing problems in adolescence, whereas peer rejection ratings of Caucasian children were associated with future disruptive behaviors. Similarly, whereas peer rejection can predict serious delinquency in boys, it can fail to do so with girls (Miller-Johnson, Coie, Maumary-Gremaud, Lochman, & Terry, 1999). As children with conduct problems enter adolescence they tend to associate with deviant peers. It is believed that many of these teens have been continually rejected from more prosocial peer groups because they lack appropriate social skills and, as a result, turn to antisocial cliques as their only means for social support (Miller-Johnson et al., 1999). The tendency for aggressive children to associate with one another increases the probability that their aggressive behaviors will be maintained or will escalate because of modeling effects and reinforcement of deviant behaviors (e.g., Dishion, Andrews, & Crosby, 1995). The relation between childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency is at least partially mediated by deviant peer group affiliation (Vitaro, Brendgen, Pagani, Tremblay, & McDuff, 1999).

Contextual Community and School Factors In addition to family interaction problems, peer rejection, and involvement in deviant peer groups, neighborhood and school environments have also been found to be risk factors for aggression and delinquency over and above the variance accounted for by family characteristics (Kupersmidt, Griesler, DeRosier, Patterson, & Davis, 1995). Exposure to neighborhood violence increases children’s aggressive behaviors (e.g., Colder, Mott, Levy, & Flay, 2000; Guerra, Huesmann, & Spindler, 2003) and their beliefs about aggression (Guerra et al., 2003), and begins to have heightened effects on the development of antisocial behavior during the middle childhood, preadolescent years (Ingoldsby & Shaw, 2002). Neighborhood problems have effects on parenting behaviors (Pinderhughes, Nix, Foster, Jones, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2001) and have a direct impact on children’s aggressive, antisocial behaviors (Greenberg, Lengua, Coie, Pinderhughes, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1999; Schwab-Stone et al., 1995), above and beyond the effects of poor parenting practices. Early onset of aggression and violence has been associated

18

with neighborhood disorganization and poverty partly because children who live in lower socioeconomic status and disorganized neighborhoods are not well supervised, engage in more risk-taking behaviors, and experience the deviant social influences that are apparent in problematic crime-ridden neighborhoods. Schools can further exacerbate children’s conduct problems, as children experience frustration from academic demands and from peer influences. The density of aggressive children in classroom settings can increase the amount of aggressive behavior emitted by individual students (Barth, Dunlap, Dane, Lochman, & Wells, 2004; Kellam, Ling, Mersica, Brown, & Ialongo, 1998).

Social Information Processing Based on children’s temperament and biological dispositions, as well as children’s contextual experiences from their family, peers, and community, they begin to form stable patterns of processing social information (Dodge, Laird, Lochman, Zelli & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2002) and regulating their emotions. Children’s emotional reactions such as anger can contribute to later substance use and other antisocial behavior, especially when children have not developed good inhibitory control (Pardini, Lochman, & Wells, 2004). The contextual social-cognitive model (Lochman & Wells, 2002a) stresses the reciprocal interactive relationships between children’s initial cognitive appraisal of problem situations, their efforts to think about solutions to the perceived problems, children’s physiological arousal, and their behavioral response. The level of physiological arousal will depend on the individual’s biological predisposition to become aroused, and will vary depending on the interpretation of the event (Williams, Lochman, Phillips, & Barry, 2003). The level of arousal will further influence the social problem solving, operating either to intensify the fight-or-flight response or interfere with the generation of solutions. Because of the ongoing and reciprocal nature of interactions, it may be difficult for children to extricate themselves from aggressive behavior patterns. Aggressive children have cognitive distortions at the appraisal phases of social-cognitive processing because of difficulties in encoding incoming

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social information and in accurately interpreting social events and others’ intentions. They also have cognitive deficiencies at the problemsolving phases of social-cognitive processing shown by their generating maladaptive solutions for perceived problems and having non-normative expectations for the usefulness of aggressive and nonaggressive solutions to their social problems. In the appraisal phases of information processing, aggressive children have been found to recall fewer relevant cues about events (Lochman & Dodge, 1994), base interpretations of events on fewer cues (Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, & Brown, 1986), selectively attend to hostile rather than neutral cues (Gouze, 1987), and recall the most recent cues in a sequence, with selective inattention to earlier presented cues (Milich & Dodge, 1984). At the interpretation stage of appraisal processing, aggressive children have been shown to have a hostile attributional bias, as they tend to excessively infer that others are acting toward them in a provocative and hostile manner (Dodge et al., 1986; Lochman & Dodge, 1994). These attributional biases tend to be more prominent in reactively aggressive children than in proactively aggressive children (Dodge, Lochman, Harnish, Bates, & Pettit, 1997). The problem-solving stages of information processing begin with the child accessing the goal that the individual chooses to pursue, and this will then affect the responses generated for resolving the conflict, which occurs in the next processing stage. Aggressive children have been found to have social goals that are more dominance and revenge oriented and less affiliation oriented, than is the case for nonaggressive children (Lochman, Wayland, & White, 1993). The fourth information-processing stage involves a generative process whereby potential solutions for coping with a perceived problem are recalled from memory. At this stage, aggressive children demonstrate deficiencies in both the quality and the quantity of their problem-solving solutions. These differences are most pronounced for the quality of the solutions offered, with aggressive children offering fewer verbal-assertion solutions (Joffe, Dobson, Fine, Marriage, & Haley, 1990; Lochman & Lampron, 1986), fewer compromise solutions (Lochman & Dodge, 1994), more direct-action solutions (Lochman & Lampron, 1986), a greater number of help-seeking or adult intervention responses (Rabiner, Lenhart, & Lochman, 1990), and more physically aggressive responses (Pepler, Craig, & Roberts, 1998) to hypothetical vignettes describing interpersonal conflicts. The nature of the

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social problem-solving deficits for aggressive children can vary depending on their diagnostic classification. Boys with a diagnosis of CD produce more aggressive and antisocial solutions in vignettes about conflicts with parents and teachers, and fewer verbal and nonaggressive solutions in peer conflicts, in comparison to boys with ODD (Dunn, Lochman, & Colder, 1997). Thus, children with CD have broader problem-solving deficits in multiple interpersonal contexts, in comparison to children with ODD. The fifth processing step involves a two-step process: first, identifying the consequences for each of the solutions generated, and second, evaluating each solution and consequence in terms of the individual’s desired outcome. In general, aggressive children evaluate aggressive behavior as more positive (Crick & Werner, 1998) than children without aggressive behavior difficulties. Children’s beliefs about the utility of aggression and about their ability to successfully enact an aggressive response can operate to increase the likelihood of aggression being displayed, as children who hold these beliefs will be more likely to also believe that this type of behavior will help them to achieve the desired goals, which then influences response evaluation (Lochman & Dodge, 1994). Deficient beliefs at this stage of information processing are especially characteristic for children with proactive aggressive behavior patterns (Dodge et al., 1997) and for youth who have callous or unemotional traits consistent with early phases of psychopathy (Pardini, Lochman, & Frick, 2003). Recent research has found that these beliefs about the acceptability of aggressive behavior lead to deviant processing of social cues, which in turn lead to children’s aggressive behavior (Zelli, Dodge, Lochman, Laird, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1999), indicating that these information-processing steps have recursive effects rather than strictly linear effects on each other. The final information-processing stage involves behavioral enactment, or displaying the response that was chosen in the preceding steps. Aggressive children have been found to be less adept at enacting positive or prosocial interpersonal behaviors (Dodge et al., 1986). This interpretation would suggest that improving the ability to enact positive behaviors may influence aggressive children’s belief about their ability to engage in these more prosocial behaviors and, thus, functions to change the response evaluation.

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Schemas Within the Social-Cognitive Model Schemas have been proposed to have a significant impact on the information-processing steps within the contextual social-cognitive model underlying cognitive-behavioral interventions with aggressive children (Lochman, Magee, & Pardini, 2003; Lochman & Wells, 2004). Schemas can involve children’s expectations and beliefs of others (Lochman et al., 2003) and of themselves, including their self-esteem and narcissism (Barry et al., 2008). Early in the information-processing sequence, when the individual is perceiving and interpreting new social cues, schemas can have a clear, direct effect by narrowing the child’s attention to certain aspects of the social cue array (e.g., Lochman, Nelson, & Sims, 1981). A child who believes it is essential to be in control of others and who expects that others will try to dominate him or her, often in aversive ways, will attend particularly to verbal and nonverbal signals about someone else’s control efforts, easily missing accompanying signs of the other person’s friendliness or attempts to negotiate. Schemas can also have indirect effects on information processing through the influence of schemas on children’s expectations for their own behavior and for others’ behavior in specific situations. Lochman and Dodge (1998) found that aggressive boys’ perceptions of their own aggressive behavior was

Community Context Neighborhood Problem

Family Context Maternal Depression Low Social Support Marital Conflict Low SES Parent Aggression

Parenting Practices Context

Child Social Cognition and Self Regulation

Proximal Aggressive Behavior

Violence and Delinquency

Substance Abuse Child's Perception of Peer Context

Figure 1.1

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Model of Youth Antisocial Behavior (Lochman, 2006).

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Academic Failure

primarily affected by their prior expectations, whereas nonaggressive boys relied more on their actual behavior to form their perceptions.

Risks and Benefits of This Treatment Program Across a series of efficacy, effectiveness, and dissemination studies, there has been evidence for the utility of the Coping Power Program in reducing children’s later delinquency, substance use, and problem behaviors at school. However, it is evident that not all children improve when using the program. Analyses of moderating factors have not identified systematic subtypes of children with regard to race, gender, or initial level of severity of problem behavior who may be less likely to be responsive to the program (e.g., Lochman & Wells, 2003, 2004); such analysis will remain a focus of future research. A particular risk to be considered when using the program has to do with the aggregation of aggressive children into groups. Prior research has found that group interventions with antisocial adolescents sometimes have iatrogenic effects, and can produce worse outcomes for these youth through iatrogenic effects, and can produce worse outcomes for these youth through iatrogenic effects due to deviancy training among the youth (Dodge, Dishion, & Lansford, 2006). We have not found overall iatrogenic effects in the Coping Power studies, but undoubtedly in some groups of youth the impact of the program is limited by negative peer influences. This risk requires careful attention by the therapist, and will be noted in Chapter 2.

Alternative Treatments A variety of alternative treatments exist at different developmental levels (Lochman, Pardini, Phillips, & McElroy, 2005) and are summarized here.

Preschool and Early Elementary School Several programs developed for the preschool and early elementary school years have shown positive outcome effects, and these include the

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Incredible Years program, parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), Early Risers, and Fast Track. Webster-Stratton’s (1984, 1994) Incredible Years Training Series includes videotape modeling parent training, typically administered in a therapist-led group. During these groups, parents view and discuss video vignettes demonstrating social learning and child development principles and how parents can use child-directed interactive play, praise, and incentive programs and nonviolent discipline techniques. An advanced version of the program incorporates video vignettes promoting parents’ personal self-control, communication skills, problem-solving skills, social support, and self-care. Webster-Stratton has also developed a child videotape modeling program and teacher training curriculum, which have been shown to enhance outcome effects of the original Incredible Years parent training program (Webster-Stratton & Hammond, 1997; Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2003). Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) was specifically designed to target the parent and child dyad, with the therapist serving as a coach to improve the parent and child’s interaction patterns in vivo (Brinkmeyer & Eyberg, 2003). Operant-conditioning parenting techniques similar to those described above are taught using this coaching method, including a specific system for implementing time-out after a child disobeys a command. PCIT is used most often with families of preschool-age children (i.e., between the ages of 3 and 6). Significant improvements in children’s behavior, parenting stress, and parents’ perceptions of control have been found in families receiving PCIT relative to families in a waitlist control group. Moreover, these gains are maintained following treatment completion and generalize to children’s classroom behavior. Early Risers is a multicomponent, competency-enhancement program that targets elementary school children (ages 6 to 10) who are at high risk for early development of conduct problems, including substance use (i.e., who display early aggressive, disruptive, or nonconformist behaviors) (August, Hektner, Egan, Realmuto, & Bloomquist, 2002). Intervention components include parent education and skills training, parent–school consultation, child social skills training and strategic peer involvement, and reading and math instruction and educational enrichment activities. The Fast Track Program is a comprehensive, long-lasting, multicomponent intervention which starts with children as they enter elementary

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school (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1999, 2002, 2004b). Fast Track has components for working with children in social skills groups, in peer-pairing activities, and tutoring. It also has components for working with parents in parent groups and in home visits. The program for children targeted at high risk for later negative outcomes is augmented by a universal prevention program delivered by teachers.

Preadolescence and Early Adolescence Problem-solving skills training (PSST) is a program targeted for school-age antisocial children between 7 and 13 years old. Children attend 25 weekly sessions lasting approximately 50 minutes each (Kazdin, Siegel, & Bass, 1992). In PSST the daily interpersonal situations that children face are emphasized, with specific focus on individual interpersonal deficits. Leaders teach problem-solving skills such as generating multiple solutions to a problem and thinking about the consequences. In addition, problemsolving skills are applied to interpersonal situations with teachers, peers, siblings, and parents. Techniques such as role-play, reinforcement, modeling, and feedback are all used to teach and reward effective problem-solving skills. Children are also given tasks called “super-solvers” which allow them to practice techniques from the sessions outside of the group with other people. Parent participation is also an important component of the training. Parents watch the sessions and serve as a co-leader in addition to supervising the use of the new skills at home (Kazdin et al., 1992). Parents also learn parent behavioral management skills.

Middle to Late Adolescence Multisystemic therapy (MST) is an individualized intervention that focuses on the interaction between adolescents and the multiple environmental systems that influence their antisocial behavior, including their peers, family, school, and community (Henggler, Melton, & Smith, 1992). Strategies for changing the adolescent’s behavior are developed in close collaboration with family members by identifying the major environmental drivers that help maintain the adolescent’s deviant behavior.

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Services are delivered in the family’s natural environment and can include a variety of treatment approaches including parent training, family therapy, school consultation, marital therapy, and individual therapy. Although the techniques used within these treatment strategies can vary, many of them are either behavioral or cognitive-behavioral in nature (e.g., contingency management, behavioral contracting). Clinicians are guided by a set of nine MST principles which include concepts like focusing on systems strengths, delivering developmentally appropriate treatment, and improving effective family functioning. Throughout the intervention, clinician adherence to these treatment principles is closely monitored through weekly consultation with MST experts. Functional family therapy (FFT) combines principles from both family systems theory and cognitive-behavioral approaches to intervene with antisocial adolescents and their families (Klein, Alexander, & Parsons, 1977). The clinical practice of FFT has evolved over the past 30 years, and the most recent version of FFT consists of three intervention phases: (1) engagement and motivation, (2) behavior change, and (3) generalization. During the engagement and motivation phase, the therapist addresses maladaptive beliefs within the family system in order to increase expectations for change, reduce negativity and blaming, build respect for individual differences, and develop a strong alliance between the family and the therapist. The behavior change phase is then used to implement concrete behavioral interventions designed to improve family functioning by building relational skills, enhancing positive parenting, improving conflict management skills, and reducing maladaptive interaction patterns. These behavioral interventions are individualized to fit the characteristics of each family member and the family relational system as a whole. Finally, the generalization phase of the intervention is used to improve the family’s ability to competently influence the systems in which it is embedded (e.g., school, community, juvenile justice system) to help maintain positive change. The Adolescents Transition Program (ATP) was designed as a preventative intervention for middle school youth exhibiting risk factors for the escalation of problem behavior (Dishion & Andrews, 1995). The program initially consisted of 12 weekly 90-minute parent and teen group sessions. The parent groups consisted of 8 to 16 caregivers and were designed to teach family management skills such as monitoring, positive reinforcement, limit setting, and problem solving. Skills taught within the session were 26

reinforced through the use of exercises, role-plays, and discussions about how the skills can be employed within the home. In addition to these group sessions, families received three individual consultation sessions. Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) is an alternative to traditional group care settings for antisocial youth who are removed from the care of their parents or guardians. In MTFC, antisocial youth are temporarily placed with a community-based foster family. Contingencies governing the youth’s behavior are systematically modified through consultation with a comprehensive treatment team (Fisher & Chamberlain, 2000). As the youth’s behavior improves, a gradual transition is made from the MTFC setting back to their parent or guardian’s home. Each foster family is assigned a behavioral support specialist, youth therapist, family therapist, consulting psychiatrist, parent daily report caller, and case manager or clinical team manager to assist with program implementation. Foster parents, who are informally screened for program participation, engage in a 20-hour preservice training which provides an overview of the treatment model and teaches techniques for monitoring and modifying adolescent behavior. Adolescents are able to earn privileges within the foster home by following a daily program of scheduled activities and fulfilling behavioral expectations. The youth’s biological parents or guardians assist in the treatment planning, engage in family therapy to learn effective parenting skills, and begin applying newly learned skills during short home visits. As the family’s functioning improves, the visits are extended until complete reunification occurs. Family therapists continue to follow the case for 1 to 3 months following reunification to assist in the successful resolution of problems that arise.

The Role of Medications Although we have not had any clinical trials in which we have examined the adjunctive effects of medications with children in our program, we routinely encourage parents to seek psychiatric evaluation of comorbid conditions that might require medication. Most common is ADHD, which co-occurs in many of the children with aggressive behavior, ODD, or CD with whom we intervene. Careful assessment and medical management of ADHD is expected to enhance the Coping Power intervention effects with children who have comorbid ADHD.

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Outline of This Treatment Program

Table 1.2

Topics of Child and Parent or Caregiver Group Sessions

Child Component Session

Parent or Caregiver Component

Description

Session

Description

1

Group Structure and Behavioral Goal-Setting Procedure

1

Introductions, Overview, and Academic Support

2–3

Goal Setting

2

Academic Support in the Home

4

Organizational and Study Skills

3–4

Stress Management

5–6

Awareness of Feelings and Physiological Arousal Related to Anger

5

Basic Social Learning Theory and Improving the Parent-Child Relationship

7

Anger Coping and Self-Control

6

8–10

Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping

Ignoring Minor Disruptive Behavior

7

Relaxation and Overcoming Barriers to Self-Control

Giving Effective Instructions to Children

8

Establishing Rules and Expectations

9–10

Discipline and Punishment

11

Getting Ready for Summer

Year 1

11 12–14

Perspective Taking

15

Perspective Taking and Problem Solving

16–19

Social Problem Solving

20–22

Group Creates Videotape

Year 2 23

Review From Previous Year

12

24

Organizational and Study Skills Review

Academic Support in the Home – Review Session

13

Family Cohesion Building

25

Application of Social Problem Solving to Teacher Conflict

14

Family Problem Solving

15

Family Communication

26

Application of Social Problem Solving to Making Friends and Being Friends With Others

16

Long-Term Planning, Termination

27

Application of Social Problem Solving to Group Entry and Negotiation With Peers

28

Child Component

Parent or Caregiver Component

Session

Description

28

Sibling Conflict and Problem Solving

29

Application of Social Problem Solving to Peer Pressure

30

Refusal Skills

31

Problem Solving About Neighborhood Problems, Deviant Peer Groups, and Centrality of Group Membership

32

Group Creates Peer Pressure Poster

33

Positive Quality Development and Peer Relationships

34

Review and Termination of the Coping Power Program

Session

Description

The Coping Power child component (Lochman, Lenhart & Wells, 1996) addresses the social-cognitive deficits identified in prior studies; these skills were also the focus of our previously evaluated 18-session Anger Coping Program (Larson & Lochman, 2002; Lochman, FitzGerald & Whidby, 1999). The Coping Power child component focuses on (a) establishing group rules and contingent reinforcement, (b) using selfstatements, relaxation, and distraction techniques to cope with anger arousal, (c) identifying problems and social perspective-taking with pictured and actual social problems situations, (d) generating alternative solutions and considering the consequences of alternative solutions to social problems, (e) viewing modeling videotapes of children becoming aware of physiological arousal when angry, using self-statements (“Stop! Think! What should I do?”) and using the complete set of problemsolving skills with social problems, (f ) the children planning and making their own videotape of inhibitory self-statement and social problem solving with problems of their own choice, (g) enhancing social skills, involving methods of entering new peer groups and using positive peer networks (focus on negotiations and cooperation on structured and unstructured interactions with peer), and (h) coping with peer pressure.

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The content of the Coping Power parent component is derived from social learning theory-based parent training programs developed and evaluated by prominent clinician-researchers in the field of child aggression (Forehand et al., 1979; Patterson, Reid, Jones, & Conger, 1975). Over the course of the 16 sessions, parents learn skills for (a) identifying prosocial and disruptive behavioral targets in their children using specific operational terms, (b) rewarding appropriate child behaviors, (c) giving effective instructions and establishing age-appropriate rules and expectations for their children in the home, (d) applying effective consequences to negative child behaviors, (e) managing child behavior outside the home, and (f ) establishing ongoing family communication structures in the home (such as weekly family meetings). In addition to these basic parent training skills, sessions address stress management for parents, family cohesion and problem solving, and parents are continually informed about the skills that children are addressing in their group sessions so parents can reinforce those skills when they appear. When the child and parent components of Coping Power are implemented together, certain parent skills are introduced at the same time that the respective child skills are introduced, so that parents and children can work together at home on what they are learning. For example, parents learn to set up homework support structures and to reinforce organizational skills around homework completion as children are learning organizational skills in the Coping Power child component. Likewise, parents learn the PICC model of problem solving around the same time that their child learns the model in the child component. Then parent and child are encouraged to use the PICC model together at home.

Use of the Child Workbook Because the Coping Power Program is a group intervention, workbooks have been made available for purchase in sets of eight. Each child in the group should receive a workbook and be instructed to bring it to every session. Designed specifically for children, the workbook incorporates an engaging and user-friendly design. It contains all the forms, activity sheets, and homework assignments essential to the program.

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Chapter 2

Child Group Logistics

Forming a Group Assessment for Inclusion in Group Therapy Children are identified for inclusion in this program through parent and teacher reports of their aggressive behavior. These reports can consist either of teacher nominations, teacher and parent behavioral ratings, or, in clinic settings, identification of children with ODD or CD diagnoses. Once these children are identified, parents will be expected to provide consent for their children’s involvement in the program, although the way this will be done will vary widely of course depending on whether Coping Power is part of an outreach program in the schools or a treatment program in a clinic. As noted in the introductory chapter, we recommend that the full Coping Power Program with the child and the parent components be used. In this chapter, we will describe logistics issues for the child component. Many factors are believed to contribute to the development and maintenance of aggressive behavior (Lochman, Powell, Whidby & FitzGerald, 2006). While innate characteristics and contextual factors are outside of the influence of therapeutic intervention, such programs can address social competence and social-cognitive skills. These factors are believed to mediate the negative outcomes of aggressive behavior (Lochman & Wells, 2002a). The social-cognitive model of children’s aggression suggests that aggressive children demonstrate cognitive distortions when interpreting incoming social information and evaluating social problems and have deficiencies in formulating appropriate responses to these problems

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(Lochman & Wells, 2002a). Consequently, the assessment of a child’s social-cognitive skills and functioning is central to understanding the child’s therapeutic needs and likelihood of benefiting from group intervention. The Coping Power Program for children with conduct problems is an example of a dual-component (i.e., child component and parent component) group intervention for which inclusion is assessment-based. For school-based preventive interventions, Lochman and Wells have used a multiple-gating approach to assess children’s behavior for elevated levels of aggression appropriate for inclusion in the program. First, teachers rate each of their students on severity of verbal aggression, physical aggression, and disruptiveness. The 20–30% most aggressive children are then contacted for inclusion in Gate 2 of the program screening. For Gate 2, parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Children with T scores below 55 to 60 on these measures have typically been excluded from the program (Lochman & Wells, 2004). If parent ratings are not available, teacher ratings for children’s aggression have proved to be effective screeners for later child maladjustment (Hill, Lochman, Coie, Greenberg, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2004; Lochman & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1995).

Group Size The optimal size of the Coping Power child component groups is four to six children, and two group leaders. However, groups can be effectively led by one therapist if sufficiently prepared and organized for the session. In our dissemination research, we have had therapists who have led groups with eight to twelve children. Although not recommended, certain therapists who are highly experienced in handling group process issues, are able to closely monitor children’s behavior, and are adept at providing consistent feedback and consequences to youths’ behavior can lead larger groups of this size. It is easier to work with smaller than average groups. The group content can readily be used with small groups of two or three children, as children can still participate in role-plays and other activities.

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Group Meetings and Program Duration The Coping Power child component has 34 sessions. Sessions are typically conducted on a weekly basis, although they can be used for two or three sessions per week if the program is being implemented in a residential or after-school setting where that is possible. Sessions are designed to last for 50–60 minutes, although we have used the program in school settings where only 40-minute sessions were possible, and in clinic settings where 90-minute sessions were feasible. The program is designed to be used in a closed group format, because session content builds on prior sessions. However, the program can be used in a modified closed form, where some children are added up through the halfway point of the group as long as the new children are provided individual sessions to present them with condensed content for the sessions they missed and the existing group members are able to provide review of prior sessions. Children are expected to have brief individual sessions every four to six weeks while they are in the group. The individual sessions are meant to provide opportunities to reinforce generalization of skills that are being practiced in the group, to individualize group-delivered skills to address children’s particular social problems, and to promote the development of strong positive bonds with the group leader. The latter is important in reducing the likelihood of peer deviancy training occurring in the group.

Maintenance or Follow-Up Sessions Follow-up and maintenance sessions can be provided but they are not a part of the basic intervention as reported in the efficacy and effectiveness studies of the Coping Power Program. However, a brief six-session booster program was found to maintain some of the long-term 3-year follow-up effects of the Anger Coping Program on externalizing behavior outcomes (Lochman, 1992). Because of the stability and chronicity of children’s conduct problems and the powerful risk-producing effects that may be present in their family, community, and peer environments, there is a natural tendency for intervention-produced improvements to decay for some children. Booster or follow-up sessions could potentially help to prevent some of these relapses.

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Preparing for Group Meetings Prior to the first meeting, therapists should identify the space for their child group session, and determine whether it is spacious enough for a group that will be engaging in role-plays and group activities. Therapists should also meet with children’s teachers and parents to identify relevant behavioral goals that the children can address, and should have them categorize the goals as being relatively easy, moderately hard, or very hard for the child. Teachers and parents are informed that the therapist and child will begin with goals that are relatively easy and likely to be achievable before proceeding to more difficult goals. Before each session, the therapist should assemble the materials needed for that session, and prepare for the various session activities. In the sessions on problem solving when children will create their own videotape, videotape equipment (or audiotape equipment if videotape is not available) should be prepared for use.

Group Rules Children assist in creating group rules during the first group session. The group should have between six to eight rules. Although children’s input is encouraged, rules should include prohibition against physical contact and fighting, and prohibition against interrupting others. Confidentiality should always be included as one of the group rules.

Special Issues

Building Group Cohesion It is important to convey the purpose of the group and to develop a group structure and format. Taking time up front to form a cohesive working group will help to establish a solid foundation. This will help facilitate the process of team building, which is an integral component of the child intervention. 34

In the initial session (if time permits, or no later than the second session), engage the students in a discussion pertaining to goal setting. (Given that some sessions have more content than others, there may be times when you may need to carry over content from one session to the next. It is important to limit the frequency of doing this in order to avoid getting too far behind.)

Group Needs While adherence to the objectives outlined in the curriculum is very important for treatment integrity, it is equally important to attend to the needs of the individual groups. An example may be that as group members enter the room to begin the meeting, two of the students are arguing about an incident that took place in the hall while coming from the classroom. If possible, incorporate this “real life” experience into the session planned for that day. Sometimes students will bring problems directly to the group; other times group leaders need to be actively observing the group to find valuable examples of situations that occur both inside and outside of the group sessions. Encouraging students to deal with problem situations that arise can assist them in overcoming barriers that are getting in their way and allow them the opportunity to practice problem solving within the context of the group setting. The more creative and flexible group leaders can be in the process of implementing the curriculum, the more likely students will be open and willing participants.

Weekly Goals The primary purpose of goal setting is to monitor children’s behaviors and provide daily feedback to children about their classroom behavior and to provide weekly feedback to group leaders concerning the children’s behavior. Having children identify and work on weekly goals, with the teacher monitoring progress on these goals, enhances the transfer of the treatment effects into the classroom. Goal setting and monitoring help provide the real-life experiences of focusing and dealing with problems within the classroom, with these goals generating discussions and

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role-plays during group sessions. It also involves teachers more closely with the program and provides one concrete indication of progress being made by individual group members. This objective is carried on throughout the course of the intervention. Standard weekly goal sheets are included in each child’s workbook. Children should have their teacher initial the goal sheet once each day of the week to indicate whether or not the goal was achieved. Find a time to talk with each teacher who will be monitoring goals to explain the goal setting and monitoring process, and to explain how the goal sheet is to be filled out. It would also be useful at this time to request a list of possible goals (6–8) for the child. Once the goal-setting process is in place (by the end of first or second session), and goals have been selected (in consultation with group leader and teachers), progress towards goal attainment is monitored and reviewed (at the beginning of each group session), for the duration of the program. Goals will vary depending on individual needs. The length of time a child may keep his or her goal may vary as well. Some students may need to spend several weeks or even months working on the same goal while other students will change goals more readily. Again it is based on how well the student is progressing on their personal goals. Common problems in the goal setting and monitoring process occur at the child level and at the teacher and parent levels. Children can forget to bring their workbooks with their completed goal sheets to group even though they have been completed, they may not take responsibility for getting the goals sheets signed daily, they may appear to lack motivation to work on their goals, or their sense of social anxiety or fear of failure may reduce their compliance with the task. The adult responsible for monitoring the goal completion (either the teacher or parent depending on whether the goal is school- or home-related) also can have difficulties with the task. The teacher or parent may believe that the goals are inappropriate or are too easy, they may feel that although children meet a specific behavioral goal they may be feeling they are getting reinforced for other problem behaviors they displayed that day, and they may feel that the child’s requests to have the goal form signed may be occurring at awkward times and may be disruptive to them.

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Methods for coping with these problems with goal setting include sending cards to the children reminding them about their goals during the middle of the week, setting up a “buddy system” so children can remind each other about their goals and their goal sheets during the week, setting less challenging and more realistic goals if needed, and encouraging teachers to comment on their concerns about children’s general non-goal-related behaviors on the back of the goal sheet.

Common Elements of Every Session

Review of Session Content In addition to reviewing the weekly goal sheets, it is important to spend a few minutes at the beginning of each session to review the main points from the previous session. Begin each session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group meeting, using reminders as needed. Because each session in the child component builds on the previous one, the process of review enhances the opportunity for students to retain the material being covered from one week to the next. Recapping the primary message from each group meeting is one way of meeting this objective.

Positive Feedback Toward the end of each session, group leaders will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member. Try to have the children avoid complimenting one another on their clothing or other nonbehavioral or status-oriented matters. Group leaders can model appropriate compliments or positive feedback to assist in this process. Work toward having group members provide positive feedback to peers on group-related behaviors or positive examples outside of group that they observed at school during the week. If time permits, ask each child to identify one thing that they learned during group. Praise the group for any positive achievements they may have made during the group session.

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Prize Box During group meetings, students can earn points for following group rules, participating in a positive manner, and achieving their set goals (see Chapter 3). In addition, children can earn points for homework completion (when homework is assigned). These points can either be saved or traded in for various prizes. At the end of every session, tally the points each child has earned and award prizes. Children can use their points immediately or save their points in order to “buy” specific prizes. If a child wants to purchase a big prize, he or she will have to save up points. Be sure to keep an ongoing tally of all points earned by each child in the group for the duration of the program. Prior to the first group session, create a prize box menu that lists the various prizes available. Examples include stickers, erasers, coloring books, small toys, etc. A sample prize menu is shown in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Sample Prize Box Menu

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Item

Cost

Pencils (set of 3) Pen Eraser (2 small or 1 large) Folder Hair clip Nail polish Lip gloss Yo-yo Gloves Deck of playing cards Jewelry Nerf ball Trading cards Softball Frisbee Wallet Football/Soccer ball/Basketball CD wallet Disposable camera Clock radio

4 points 4 points 6 points 6 points 8 points 10 points 10 points 10 points 10 points 10 points 15 points 15 points 18 points 20 points 20 points 25 points 35 points 40 points 50 points 75 points

Free Time This is an optional (time-permitting) free play period (5–10 minutes). Each student who has earned at least one point during group is eligible for free time. Group leaders should be aware of any potential problems that arise between group members during this free play time and use it as an opportunity to practice “problem solving in action.” Attempt to have each person involved in the situation discuss the problem and try to come to a resolution. Try to develop a plan to prevent this type of problem from occurring again. It is helpful to follow up with these issues individually and/or at the beginning of the next group session. The leaders should view this problem-solving opportunity as a process to be worked on over the course of the entire group. When possible, the first step would be to have each child discuss the problem individually with the group leader and then to work toward having the children discuss the problem situation with each other. During the discussion, leaders should have children accurately identify the problem, talk about possible misinterpretations, generate several solutions for the problem, discuss the consequences of these solutions, and determine which solution would best achieve the goal of getting along with the peer. It is important to remember that each child may be at a different level in terms of ability to tolerate this form of problem solving. Group leaders should be sensitive to the child’s ability to process and discuss the conflict and must modulate the problem-solving process accordingly. This task will be difficult for some of the children to accomplish and may require shaping by the leaders in order to reach the goal of mediation. Taking time to process conflicts that occur during the free time period is very important and may sometimes result in running over the allotted time for the group meeting. The goal of free time is to end the meeting on a positive note. Therefore, group leaders should assess if any child is angry or upset by the situation and, if applicable, determine the level of this anger before sending the child back to class. If the child is very angry or upset, the group leaders may decide to retain the child after the group in order to talk with him or her and reduce the level of arousal before the child returns to the classroom. If a child has not earned free time, group leaders should determine how capable the child is of processing the reason for not earning free time at the end of group. Group leaders should talk with the child about the

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rules that were broken, why this happened and how the child can earn free time the following week. If the child is too angry or upset about not earning free time and cannot discuss the situation at hand, the leaders may choose to process the conflict either in an individual meeting prior to the next group or at the beginning of the next session. Free time can also be used to reinforce the children who exhibit prosocial behaviors (e.g., sharing, resolving conflict appropriately, etc.).

Homework Similar to the rationale for implementing the weekly goal sheet, homework has been shown to be an effective exercise that enhances the student’s ability to retain the information learned from one group session to the next. Giving students an opportunity to practice what they learn outside the group setting can help them gain the confidence needed to effectively use these newly learned skills in coping with difficult situations encountered during day-to-day interactions with peers. This curriculum recommends the use of “bonus points” to be given to those students who complete the assigned homework. Bonus points are given to encourage students to practice what they are learning and reward them for the effort they put forth.

Videotaping Group Meetings In addition to creating a problem-solving video (Sessions 20–22), videotaping can be used throughout the course of the curriculum, especially during role-play activities. Students generally engage readily to tasks involving work with videotaping. Sometimes students are given the opportunity to be the camera person, while others generate scripts and take on acting roles to demonstrate various skills being presented in the sessions. Once the videotaping segment has been completed, giving the students a chance to review their work offers a unique opportunity for them to discuss and explore the choices they made and resulting consequences.

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When videotape equipment is not available, there are a couple of alternative activities that may be substituted to meet this objective: (1) have the group members develop and design a problem-solving pamphlet or cartoon-book that can be copied and viewed by other students and/or parents, (2) audiotape problem-solving role-plays and play the tapes back in the group for group discussion of the problemsolving steps, and (3) have group members develop a problem-solving role-play to be performed and presented to another class or to the parents of the group members. Throughout the text of the curriculum you will find activities that are listed as “optional.” These activities have been added to provide group leaders with a range of choices to select from in meeting the various objectives in the manual. An example of this might be creating a teacher newsletter in the session on perspective taking with teachers. This optional activity involves having the group leaders compile information to create a newsletter that describes different interviews between members of the Coping Power Program and their teachers. This newsletter then can be copied and handed out to the teachers and students that participated in this activity.

Implementation Issues in the Schools With Teachers Teachers’ primary roles in the Coping Power Program are to assist with setting realistic, attainable, and observable behavioral goals for each child, to monitor their daily progress on these goals, and to provide social reinforcement to children for their initial, often fragile, efforts to implement new social-cognitive skills (Lochman & Wells, 1996). To maximize the likelihood that teachers will be actively supportive of the program and will successfully monitor students’ behavior daily, we have found it useful to include school counselors as co-leaders of the children’s groups. Teachers are less likely to perceive the intervention as being implemented by “outsiders” if a member of the school staff is actively involved in the implementation of the program. Other procedures that enhance teachers’ positive involvement are the inclusion of periodic “lab” exercises between children and their teachers on perspective taking and problem solving, and frequent informal meetings between the group co-leaders

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and the teachers about the children’s progress. We have also found it to be useful to assess for “slow responders” about halfway into the intervention period. If we perceive that some children are beginning to make efforts to acquire skills in the group but they are unable to transfer those skills to their real-world classroom settings, then we provide focused case consultation to the teachers.

Implementation Issues in the Schools With Peers The primary concern with children’s peers has to do with the tendency of some groups to be reactive in their behavior to each other, to be disruptive, and to provide deviancy training for each other. To offset these possibilities, group co-leaders start by enhancing structural control of children’s behavior in the group as detailed in the following section of this chapter. Leaders’ careful attention to seating arrangements, provision of clearly stated expectations for children’s behavior at times of transitions between activities, and use of direct eye contact and firm voice tone can be highly useful. The program has evolved over time to also include more programmatic enhancements designed to create a positive peer climate in the group. Such enhancements include the use of positive feedback time at the end of sessions, use of group-based contingencies, use of buddy systems to assist children in remembering their behavioral goals and the group rules, and use of periodic one-to-one contacts between intervention staff and children. When children do not respond to these structural and programmatic efforts, major structural changes can be made. These include removing a chronically disruptive child from the group and instead implementing the program individually with that child, or dividing the group into more manageable subgroups for at least several sessions (Lochman & Wells, 1996). When implementing group interventions with angry and aggressive youth, there is a set of potential obstacles that can interfere with the optimal functioning of the group and can detract from the effectiveness of the intervention (Lochman, Powell, Boxmeyer, Deming, & Young, 2007). Four primary issues involve children’s reactive behavior in the group, deviancy training and deviant norms, singletons, and the inclusion of highly impulsive ADHD youth. These four issues will be briefly

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described, and then relevant methods for overcoming these obstacles will be discussed (Lochman & Wells, 1996).

Reactive Behavior in Groups Children who are chosen for a CBT group because of their aggressive behavior with peers can be noncompliant and challenging with adult group leaders, and they can readily respond to perceived provocations from other children in the group with flashes of reactive, angry aggression. Reactive aggressive children have difficulty regulating their anger and arousal, causing their “hot” angry cognitions to interfere with their information processing. Children may perceive that other group members are receiving more favorable treatment from group leaders, they may feel that they are being blamed for some problem in the group, or they may feel victimized by a peer’s efforts to dominate and control others. Children’s emotional reactions to each other in these situations can be highly contagious, and can lead to bursts of aversive, conflictual interpersonal behavior between group members.

Deviancy Training and Deviant Norms Group members may reinforce each others’ antisocial behavior and antisocial attitudes and create potentially iatrogenic effects (Dishion & Andrews, 1995). The two most prominent explanations for the effect that deviant peer groups have on individuals’ behavior are the influence of social norms and the influence of deviancy training (Lavallee, Bierman, Nix, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2005; Patterson, Dishion, & Yoerger, 2000). From a social norm perspective, Wright, Giammarino, and Parad (1986) used the person-group similarity model and found that a high density of aggressive youth in a group may cause the social norms for aggression to shift to a higher level for individuals in the group, making aggressive and antisocial behavior appear to be more socially acceptable. In addition to being exposed to a number of children with high levels of aggressive behavior in a deviant peer group, the members of the

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deviant peer group may directly reinforce each other for their antisocial attitudes and behaviors. Delinquent adolescent dyads have been found to provide high rates of positive reinforcement for their partners’ deviant talk, while nondeviant dyads provide reinforcement for each others’ normative, nondeviant discussions (Patterson et al., 2000). This pattern of reinforcement of rule-breaking talk among deviant dyads directly affects these youths’ subsequent substance use and delinquency (Dishion, Eddy, Haas, Li, & Spracklen, 1997). In a key study that demonstrated how deviancy training could be a primary mechanism accounting for the negative effect of aggregating antisocial youth, Patterson and colleagues (2000) found that deviancy training in dyadic interactions partially mediated the effect of boys’ involvement with deviant peers in 4th grade and their substance use, police arrests, and number of intercourse partners in 8th grade. Dishion and Andrews (1995) found that deviancy training led young adolescents who were in a group intervention program to have higher rates of tobacco use and more delinquent behaviors at a oneyear follow-up than did control children. These iatrogenic effects remained even at later three-year follow-ups, especially for youth with more moderate levels of antisocial behavior at baseline (Poulin, Dishion, & Burraston, 2001). The results for social norm explanations for deviant group effects are less clear than deviancy training effects (Lavallee et al., 2005). These deviant group effects can also be apparent in children’s power struggles with group leaders. If a group member is often involved in challenging group leaders, and if that child is relatively well accepted by his or her peers in the group, this can stimulate broad oppositional power struggles between the group and the leaders, and can reduce children’s group involvement and motivation for change.

Singletons The presence of a child who is clearly different from his or her peers in the group on important dimensions may contribute to that individual being ostracized from the group and victimized by peers. Examples of such “singletons” are having one girl in a group of preadolescent boys,

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having one minority race child in a group, and having a child with low cognitive functioning in a group of children with average intellectual functioning. The singleton child can thus be socially rejected by peers in the group, and can feel distressed and socially incompetent.

Impulsive ADHD Children Some children can create serious disruptions in group functioning because of their ADHD characteristics, which lead them to impulsively interrupt others and to be in constant physical contact with others because of their uncontrolled hyperactive behaviors. These disruptions can be distinguished from the reactive aggressive behaviors and the deviant group effects described above because they are not intentional disruptions or emotionally charged responses to perceived threats. However, the disruptions caused by ADHD children can seriously disturb the group’s ability to work on focused tasks. In addition, an uncontrolled ADHD child can be relatively unable to attend to information presented in the group, and thus will be less likely to remember and incorporate new social cognitive skills.

Ways to Overcome Obstacles With Intervention Groups for Children

Intervention Structure The two primary ways to address problems with children’s reactive aggressive behavior and with deviancy training effects are to closely address certain structural issues in the intervention and to provide enhanced behavioral management strategies, as needed. An initial planning issue has to do with the age of the youth in the group. Iatrogenic deviancy training effects seem to be more evident in adolescent-age groups than in preadolescent groups. In addition, the inclusion of two group leaders can increase leaders’ ability to scan children’s behavior continually, and detect subtle signs of peers’ reinforcement of deviant behaviors.

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Once the group is formed, it is useful to carefully follow aspects of the intervention that involve monitoring and providing consequences for children’s behavior. Thus, in our Coping Power groups we place emphasis on having clear group rules, starting in the first session, and on providing points for children’s adherence to these rules and for their positive participation in group sessions. Other program elements that alert children to how their behavior can lead to consistent consequences include the use of weekly goal setting procedures for each group member, having group-contingent rewards for the entire group successfully attaining a certain number of points over several months, and working with the parents in the parent group sessions on their ability to provide clearer instructions to the children and to provide consistent consequences for children’s positive and negative behaviors. Ongoing contact by the group leaders with the teachers can be critically important in facilitating teachers’ abilities to monitor children’s social behavior and to provide logical consequences within the school setting.

Group Behavioral Management Strategies Minor structural changes in the group can be helpful in providing stimulus control to prevent behavioral escalation in the group. Such minor structural changes include changing seating arrangements so that a group leader is between two particularly reactive children. Group leaders’ use of nonverbal cues (e.g., eye contact; physical proximity; animated voice tone) can also be an important means for gaining children’s optimal attention. Effective group leaders also are able to assist children with making smooth transitions from one group activity to another or from the group back to the class or the waiting room by verbally preparing them several minutes prior to the change of activity, and guiding them through the transition. If some group members are demonstrating high levels of positive involvement in the group, they can also be used to serve as a “buddy” for reactive peers, reminding the peer of group rules.

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Major structural changes can also be implemented in the relatively rare occasions when these minor structural changes and usual program structural elements are insufficient to reduce individual children’s serious problem behaviors in the group. When a central concern is intense rivalry between two children, leading them to frequently initiate conflict with each other, or when two children are actively involved in deviancy training with each other, the group can be temporarily split into two subgroups. If there were two group leaders, each leader can then work with a subgroup in a more contained way until group members’ functioning improves and the subgroups can be reintegrated. In cases with a severely and chronically disruptive individual in the group, the individual can be seen individually rather than in the group for a period of time. If this latter child begins to demonstrate a stronger therapeutic alliance after several individual sessions, then he or she may be carefully reintegrated into the group.

Adjusting the Concreteness of Group Material In response to having a “singleton” child with lower cognitive functioning in the group, group leaders can adapt intervention content to make it more concrete and less abstractly meta-cognitive. The group leaders can spend more time in role-playing and hands-on activities rather than in group discussion. In general, it is easier to make the problem-solving training more concrete than the attribution-retraining and perspective-taking sessions in our groups.

Adjustments for ADHD Children When a highly unregulated hyperactive child is in the group, it is useful to consult with the parents and to encourage an evaluation for ADHD and for potential medication management. In group sessions, leaders typically have to provide more frequent and more individually tailored monitoring and feedback for the child’s behavior. For example, a group

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leader can sit next to an ADHD child and use a simple time-sampling chart to indicate when the child has had good on-task behavior in fiveminute blocks during the session.

Role of Group Leaders Group leaders serve as coach in a collaborative way with children, but also must firmly set expectations, monitor children’s behavior in the group, and provide consequences. Therapists should actively and frequently socially reinforce positive participation and cooperative behavior in the group. It is imperative that therapists should prepare clear transitions between activities and inform children about the agenda for the day. When it is possible to have two therapists, they should prepare together prior to each session for how they will divide up leadership for session activities, and for anticipated problems they might have with particular children in the group. After the session, it is important for the two therapists to have a debriefing period to identify group process problems that will need to be addressed in the next session.

Training Group Leaders With regard to therapist skills and attributes (Lochman, Powell, Jackson, & Czopp, 2006), intervention staff for the Coping Power Program has consisted of clinicians at the master’s level of professional training (e.g., school counselors, master’s degree in social work) and psychologists at the early PhD level. These individuals conduct both the child component within the school or clinic settings and the parent component, generally at the child’s school, at an accessible community center, or at a clinic, during a convenient time for parents. An interest and prior experience in working with children and families within a cognitive-behavioral framework are essential for a clinician who chooses to implement this program. Adequate training and consultation are also critical for successful implementation of the Coping Power Program (Lochman, Wells, & Murray, 2007). Clinicians should begin their training by reading the two

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Facilitator Guides (child group program and parent group program), which contain session-by-session outlines for all group meeting and the process of each of the major components of the program. Attendance at a Coping Power training workshop is the second stage recommended for any clinician using this program. Information on Coping Power training and workshops can be obtained at: www.copingpower.com. During the workshop, clinicians will become familiar with the background and rationale of the Coping Power Program and will review individual sessions to discuss the relevance of the session objectives to the overall objectives of the program. Once the clinician begins implementing the program, it is essential that he or she have access to an experienced Coping Power Program interventionist, or another supervisor with cognitive-behavioral specialty training with children and parents for regular consultation throughout the process. The clinician’s ability to identify social problems or negative group process issues and treatment flexibility are essential in implementing the Coping Power Program. For example, when a child or any group member (if using a group format) begins discussing a current social problem that has recently happened, clinicians should respond by immediately shifting the agenda for the session to the presented problem, rather than rigidly sticking to the pre-planned group activities. The clinician can thus take advantage of the naturally presented opportunity to model and reinforce problem-solving skills. It is critical that clinicians are mindful of the overall objectives of the program so that their flexible responses to children’s problems and to group process issues can still have a direct impact on the targeted social-cognitive difficulties of aggressive children. Basic skills essential to all practicing clinicians should also be noted because of the impact these skills have on treatment compliance and discontinuation of treatment (i.e., by caregivers). The clinician’s ability to build therapeutic alliances with the patient, relevant school personnel, and caregivers is an important element of the Coping Power Program. Failure to build rapport with pertinent people may interfere with effectual implementation of the program. Also, a clinician’s ability to empathize with the child and the parents of the child is essential to treating children with externalizing problems.

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Strict adherence to ethics should be practiced by the clinician, which can become somewhat complicated with the different therapeutic alliances that may potentially be created, particularly if the clinician chooses to use a school-based group format for the sessions (i.e., clinician-child, clinician-teacher, clinician-caregiver). Some potential conflicts that may arise that should be considered by clinicians from an ethics standpoint are a parent having concerns of confidentiality and fears about his or her child attending a group and possibly being “labeled” at school; a parent (with a strained relationship with a teacher) sharing information in confidence that the clinician knows would be helpful for the teacher; or the child sharing information with the clinician during an individual session that the clinician feels would be useful for group discussion. Clinicians with multiple, intertwined therapeutic relationships must inform all parties of the limits of confidentiality and clinicians should not violate these rules of confidentiality set within the cliniciangroup, clinician-child, clinician-school personnel, or clinician-caregiver relationships. Also, proper documentation of group sessions, individual sessions, and other related contacts (i.e., individualized education plan [IEP] meetings) is essential and should be practiced.

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Coping Power Child Program Year 1

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Session 1: Group Structure and Behavioral Goal Setting Procedure

Chapter 3

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Three-Strike System poster

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Point System poster

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Ball for group activity

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Prize box

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Discuss group purpose and structure

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Outline group rules

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Discuss the Point System and the Three-Strike System

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Engage children in an activity to build group cohesion

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Begin discussion of behavioral goal setting

Outline

General Purpose and Structure of the Program Introduce yourself and your co-leader to group members and provide a brief overview of what the children can expect to experience over the course of the year (e.g., talk about the general purpose of the group,

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provide details about length and frequency of meetings, and the expectations that will be placed on them). For example, you may say something like the following: Group meetings will last for approximately 1 hour, and will occur once each week this year for approximately 22 weeks. You will also meet with a group in 6th grade once per week for approximately 12 weeks. We will not meet on holidays or days on which you will attend meetings, assemblies, or field trips. One of us will meet with each of you individually once a month to discuss how things are going. These individual meetings let us spend time with each of you helping you to brainstorm about ways that you can make positive changes in your life. When you are in the group, we hope that you will feel comfortable talking among yourselves and with us. During each group you will be provided the opportunity to earn points, all of which are based on your level of participation. We will talk more about this later. The following paragraph is an example of how you or your co-leader may introduce the purpose of the group: We will be working with you in this group to improve your ability to cope with strong feelings and with difficult situations (such as peer pressure, tough schoolwork, and hard-to-get-along-with teachers). One of the goals of the group is to provide you with enough information so that you are better equipped to make a smooth and successful transition to middle school next year. As part of the group you will learn new ways to handle your anger and how to solve problems that come up at school, in your neighborhood, and at home. Have any of you heard the term coping before? If the answer is yes ask, “What does coping mean to you?” Elicit or shape a response from group members for the definition of the term coping. For example, assist children in stating that coping may mean being able to manage or handle stressful situations when they arise without becoming too angry or upset. Ask children, “Why do you think this is called the Coping Power Program?” Elicit or shape a response that would indicate that they could increase or strengthen their coping skills in this group.

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Explain that over the course of the next few weeks, the group will work on helping members recognize when they are angry and develop skills to handle their angry feelings in a positive way. We are not going to teach you to stop being angry, but we will teach you new ways to respond so you can make smarter choices. Identify situations that make you (leaders) feel angry and convey the idea that feeling angry is a natural experience that everybody has. Emphasize that choosing effective responses to anger-provoking situations is what is important, not the emotion itself. Have group members discuss situations that are difficult for them or ones that trigger an angry response. Try to have each member talk about what makes them angry and how they respond. If the child has difficulty generating answers, ask them to tell you what his or her parent or teacher might suggest. Be sure to record children’s responses for use in the goal setting section of today’s session.

Group Rules Next, talk to children about the need for group rules. Ask them for their ideas of what some of the rules should be. Have one child go to the dry erase board or flipchart and ask him or her to record the rules that the group generates. If possible, select a child who does not have writing difficulties. You may choose to select a particularly quiet child or one whom you are concerned may not become involved in the group process. This may facilitate positive group interaction. Leaders can also have the group members take turns recording the rules that are generated. Try to make sure that all group members participate in generating rules. If a child offers a “strange,” unclear, or silly rule, try to reframe this into a useful rule. General rules for the group should include: ■

No physical contact

■

No name-calling

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No swearing

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Arriving on time

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■

Having a positive attitude

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Not interrupting each other

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Keeping everything private (confidential)

■

Following directions

If these general group rules have not been generated, you and your co-leader should suggest them. Define the confidentiality rule for group members as: “What we say in here, stays in here.” Let children know that this rule applies to both the group leaders and other group members. Note that the children can talk to their parents about group discussions but should not talk to other children. Refer children to the group rules page in the workbook and ask them to record the rules in the space provided so they can each have their own copy.

Point System Discuss the point system and describe the procedure for earning points. Group members can earn one point for: ■

Following rules

■

Positive participation

Group members can earn two points for: ■

Completing homework assignments

Group members can earn up to five points for: ■

Meeting their weekly goal

Create a poster outlining the point system to be displayed in a visible space at every group meeting.

Following Rules and the Three-Strike System This system should be used for dealing with problem behavior displayed during the meetings or, if appropriate, outside of the meetings

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(e.g., breaking the confidentiality rule). Members are given three chances or warnings before losing a point for not following rules. If a child breaks a rule once, that is “strike one.” If a child breaks a rule twice, that is “strike two,” and if a child breaks a rule a third time, that is “strike three.” On “strike three” the child loses a point. Explain this to the group and create a poster outlining the system to be displayed at every meeting. Group Leader Note: ■

If a child receives three strikes during one group session, he or she may need to leave group for that day if he or she is not able to regain control of his or her behavior.

Positive Participation Discuss with the children the concept of positive participation and how they can use it to earn points. Ask group members, “What do you think positive participation means?” Elicit or shape a definition that indicates that behaviors, such as responding meaningfully to questions from leaders or other children, raising important points related to the discussion, and engaging in activities, are examples of positive participation. Inform the children that you and your co-leader will let them know if they have earned the positive participation point at the end of each session.

Completing Homework As defined by the point system, children can earn 2 points for completing their homework assignments.

Completing Weekly Goals Explain to children that you will talk more specifically about points for goals later in the session.

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Rewards for Earning Points After discussing the specifics of the point system, let children know that they can use their points for certain rewards. There are two things that points can earn. First, children can trade in some of their points for items from the prize box (see Chapter 2). Explain to the group that you and your co-leader will let each member know his or her point total at the end of every session. It is important that you also keep track of each member’s total number of points throughout the duration of the program. Children can use their points immediately or save their points in order to “buy” specific prizes. If a child wants to purchase a big prize, he or she will have to save up points. As outlined in Chapter 2, prior to today’s meeting you should have created a prize box menu that lists all the various prizes children can choose from. You may wish to incorporate children’s suggestions when creating this menu. You may also wish to have the students work together to earn a pizza party or other group reward at the end of the group sessions. The reward should be based on reaching a certain percentage (e.g., 75%) of the total possible points possible for the group (calculated by summing the total possible points for each individual). This will also encourage group cohesion and cooperation.

Getting Acquainted/Achieving Group Cohesion The following activities can help the children get to know one another and build group cohesion. Pass the ball: Have group members throw a ball to each other. Ask them to identify the person (by name) to whom they threw the ball, identify one thing that is the same about the two of them, and identify one thing that is different about the two of them. Group naming task: Have group members decide on a name for their group (e.g., using a combination of their first initials to form a word). Have group members generate several alternative names and vote on the name they would like to use.

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Goal Setting Discuss with children the idea of setting goals. Ask them for their ideas about what goals are and the purpose of setting goals. Elicit a response indicating that a goal is something you work toward meeting. Explain to children that people set goals in order to improve something in themselves or so that they have a better idea about what they would like to achieve in the future. A goal provides a person with structure for the future and allows him or her to plan ahead. Inform members that each of them will be choosing weekly goals based on input obtained from their teacher, counselor, or parent. Be sure to tell them that, at times, more than one person may be working on the same goal (e.g., being quiet during class), but that meeting this goal may be easy for one person but difficult for another. Introduce the idea that the group will be using goal sheets to keep track of their success with meeting their goals. Refer children to the goal sheets in the workbook and discuss how points are earned. You can earn 1 point a day for each day that you meet your goal. If you meet your goal for the entire week you will earn 5 points.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Session 2: Goal Setting – Part I

Chapter 4

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Paper and pencils

■

Example of one potential group goal that is broken down into smaller steps

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Illustrate the difference between long and short-term goals and the importance of both types

■

Illustrate the process of personal goal setting

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Setting and Realizing Goals Engage the group members in a general discussion about goal setting. For example, ask someone to answer the question, “What is a goal?” You may review the ideas generated in the previous session. Then, initiate a more general discussion of goal setting. For example, ask: “What other kinds of goals have you set for yourself ?” Discuss setting different kinds of goals, such as finishing homework by a certain time so they can play, beating their best time in a video game, earning a patch in Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts, or achieving a certain number of baskets during a basketball game. Convey to the children that they set goals for themselves all the time, even though they may not realize it.

Long-Term Goals vs. Short-Term Goals Elicit a definition of a long-term goal as being one that sets a goal for the future or something that a person works on for an extended period of time (e.g., career goal, goal for losing weight by next year, making the basketball team next season, etc). Short-term goals can be defined in terms of discrete goals (e.g., staying quiet for 20 minutes), or as steps that need to happen in order to reach a long-term goal (e.g., passing each grade in order to get to college). List the long-term and short-term goals generated by group members on the dry erase board or flipchart.

Creating Long-Term Goals Inform group members that each of them will develop a long-term goal during today’s session. They may work on one long-term goal over the course of the year, or if they meet that goal they may develop a second. Explain the goal setting process in detail before asking the group members to complete their long-term goal sheets in the workbook. An effective way to do this is to bring an example of a long-term goal to the group. The goal should be one that requires that an individual meet many short-term goals in order to meet the long-term goal. Following is an example of a longterm goal and the associated short-term goals:

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Long-Term Goal: To get along better with the teacher and other students in the classroom. Short-Term Goals: 1.

Determine what the teacher thinks I need to do.

2.

Stay in my seat during class.

3. Do not fight with other kids in class. 4. Do not argue with other kids in class. 5.

When the teacher asks me to do something, do it without talking back.

6. Try to do extra things in the classroom to help out. 7. Do not touch other kids’ belongings. 8.

Raise my hand when I want to say something in class.

Group Activity Have the students brainstorm and identify several different long-term goals that can be achieved over the course of the group (e.g., getting along better with teachers, making and keeping some new friends, handling disagreements/conflicts with friends, improving grades). Choose one of these long-term goals and ask the students to brainstorm the steps required to meet it. Record their ideas as they are generated. Group members can now record their long-term and associated short-term goals on the long-term goal sheet in the workbook.

Developing Individual, Long-Term Goals Have each group member choose one long-term goal to work on during the group. Assist each child in identifying the short-term goals that need to be met in order to meet his or her long-term goal. Try to incorporate as many of the teacher-identified goals as possible (see Chapter 2). Ask

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each group member to choose one of the steps from their list and use it as their weekly goal. Instruct children to record this weekly goal on a new goal sheet in the workbook (see Chapter 3). Help the group members describe their goals in terms of observable behavior in order to help minimize their use of subjective statements as goals. For example, “being good in class” is very subjective. This goal can be behaviorally defined in terms of “not talking back to the teacher,” “no physical contact with other kids,” and so on. It is important to select a goal that is relevant and is not too difficult to preclude success. Based on student’s performance, it may be necessary to increase or decrease the level of difficulty of the chosen goals.

Rules for the Goal-Setting Procedure The following rules should be followed by each child: ■

Each child is responsible for his goal sheet

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Each child must keep track of his own goal sheet

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Each child is responsible for getting his goal sheet signed by the teacher

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Each child is responsible for returning the goal sheet to group each week

Remind children of the point system and the fact that points will not be earned if they do not return their completed goal sheets at the start of every group meeting. Reiterate the benefits and rewards for meeting goals (e.g., prize box, pizza party). Problem-solve with group members about how they can remember to have their goal sheet signed and to bring it back to the group the following week. Some ideas may include the following:

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■

Putting a sticker on their desk that will serve as a reminder

■

Asking each other to remind one another

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Keeping their workbooks in their backpacks at all times

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Session 3: Goal Setting – Part II

Chapter 5

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets and set goals for coming week

■

Reinforce goal setting as an ongoing process

■

Review progress in achieving goals

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Identify barriers to goals and how to overcome them

■

Introduce the “buddy system”

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets and Set Goals for Coming Week Engage the students in a discussion about goal setting. Review the goal that had been set the previous week. Ask children, “What goal did each of you set for yourself for the classroom? How did you do with meeting this goal? What made it easy/difficult to reach the goal you set for yourself? How about other goals you have set in the past?” Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal. After reviewing progress in goal setting, work with the group to set next week’s goals. If some children had difficulty in achieving their goals, their goals may be broken down into smaller, more manageable steps. If some children found their goals easy to meet, assess the need for setting more challenging goals. Share with children the idea that goal setting is a process.

Reinforce Understanding of the Process of Goal Setting Ask group members how they know if they have met a goal they set for themselves. You may use the following questions. ■

How do you feel if you met your goal?

■

How do you feel if you did not meet your goal?

■

What do you do if you have met your goal?

Elicit the types of rewards or reinforcements that each student uses and determine whether they make attempts to change or increase the goals they have set by asking, “What do you do if you do not meet your goal?” Elicit a response that indicates goal setting is a process that involves evaluating goals that have been set for oneself, rewarding the self if goal was met, reevaluating the goals that have not been met, determining ways to meet the goal the next time you try, and potentially decreasing the criteria for meeting the goal or breaking the goal down into smaller, more achievable steps. You may wish to further illustrate the process of goal setting by describing to the group how you worked your way to your current profession.

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Talk to the children about the steps you took (e.g., graduated high school, went to college, chose a major, etc.) to achieve your goal. Explain that setting long-term goals gives people direction and focus.

Identify Barriers to Goals and How to Achieve Them Ask children to talk about the sorts of things that make it difficult for them to meet the goals they set for themselves. Talk to children about the barriers you may have faced when trying to reach your professional goal and how you overcame them. Ask group members to brainstorm as many different barriers to goals as they can and list these on the dry erase board or flipchart. Some possible ideas include forgetting what you were working on, wanting to do something else instead, peer pressure, short-term pleasure, etc. Ask children, “How can you overcome each of the identified barriers? What can you do to prevent these things from being barriers?” Have group members generate several ways to overcome each of the identified barriers. Ask group members for their ideas about what types of reminders they can use to help them stay focused on their goals. Record responses on the dry erase board or flipchart.

The Buddy System Introduce the concept of a “buddy system” and how having a buddy can help group members achieve their goals. Buddies can remind each other of the goals they are working on and can help each other cope with any barriers that may arise. Have group members pair up so each student has a buddy. Role-play a situation in which one of the students faces a barrier and the buddy helps him determine what to do. Ask group members, “What are the ways you can remind your buddy of the goal he or she set?” Try to elicit examples such as touching base each morning, asking how your buddy is doing or what his or her goal is during recess, developing signals for each other to remind the buddy about working on his or her goal, etc. Encourage group members to help remind their buddy during the week

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of the goal they are working on in group and to help them overcome any potential barriers.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Session 4: Organizational and Study Skills

Chapter 6

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Stopwatch

■

Sets of words on different colors of paper

■

Index cards listing positive and negative study skills

■

Book bags (students bring their own to group)

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Improve academic organization skills

■

Review study skills for school and homework skills at home

■

Set new weekly goals

■

Assign homework

Outline

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember, goals will vary depending on individual needs. The length of time a child may keep his or her goal may vary as well. Some students may need to spend several weeks or even months working on the same goal while other students will change goals more readily. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Strategies for Achieving School Success Introduce the topic for today by discussing the transition to a new grade and the concomitant increase in homework and study demands that teachers may make on students. You may use the following sample dialogue. Since this is the beginning of the school year, we wanted to spend some time talking about the need to set goals for ourselves this year. As you are entering this new grade, you may have noticed that teachers are asking you to do more work or asking you to assume more responsibility in terms of completing assignments or homework on your own. This means that you may need to develop new skills in order to meet these new demands. One of the goals we would like for all of you to set is to do as well as you can in school this year. What do you think is the most important skill for doing well in school? Shape/elicit a response that indicates the importance of organizational skills. Also point out at this stage that sometimes problems with teachers

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arise when students do not always complete their homework, or do not keep up with the assignments they are asked to do. Inform group members that they may have better relationships with their teachers if they start off by completing all work. Also talk with group members about the idea that sometimes kids feel frustrated with their schoolwork, which makes them feel more irritable at school and then more likely to feel angry with others or get into fights at school. Indicate that taking greater responsibility in terms of completing assignments and doing schoolwork can decrease frustration and therefore help kids to feel less angry in general at school.

Book Bag Organization Activity Students should have arranged to have their book bags brought to today’s session. Inform members that you are going to have a contest to see who can organize their book bag the best. You may use the following sample dialogue: Kids who organize their book bags will know where all of their folders and books are, and they can easily find their assignment books and sheets. You know that we asked you to bring your book bags to group today. The first thing we want to do is to see who can find their assignment sheet (or math/English notebook, pencil, ruler, etc.—the particular item to have members look for can vary, just make sure that all the students will have one of what you ask them to find) the fastest. We will time you to see how quickly you are able to find this item. Ready? Go! Following this exercise, announce how long it took for the quickest person to find the item and then say: “We want to play a game with your bags and see who can organize their book bag the best. We will ask each of you to tell us how you organized your bag, starting with the person who finished first.” Use the stopwatch to time the children as they organize their book bags. Ask the winner to explain how he organized his bag. Let the children know that there are probably several “best” ways to organize their book bags, and each child needs to pick the way that works best for him. Give the students awards or stickers for

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improved book bags. Once all the students have organized their bags, ask them to once again find their assignment sheet (or whatever item you asked them to look for earlier). Use the stopwatch once more to time the students. Announce how long it took for the first person to find the particular item. Now that their book bags are organized, the children should find that locating the item takes less time than it did earlier. Next, ask the children whether they believe it is important to do homework and if so, why? You can tie this discussion into goal setting and long-term goals. Focus on the idea that it is more likely that children will keep their bags organized and will do their homework if they believe it is important.

Book Bag Check Activity If not all the students have brought their book bags, you can ask one child who does have a bag to go through it and tell the other group members how the bag is organized. Make the point that there are many different ways to organize book bags, but the idea is to have some organization so that children can find the materials they need. After this discussion, engage students in the next activity.

Organizational Skills Activity After engaging students in one of the previous book bag activities, have them play a group game designed to help them learn more effective organizational skills. In order to facilitate this activity, you will need a set of papers for each child to organize in some manner. Each piece of paper can contain one of the following words (or any other combination of words): cat

car

apple

bike pear soccer

football

dog

elephant boat

plane

orange

baseball

lemon

basketball

bear

These words should be presented on different colors of paper, with each word within a certain category being on a different color of paper.

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Provide each child with a set of these words (make sure to scramble the words up so they are not in order) and offer the following instructions: We are giving each of you some words listed on these papers. What we want you to do is to take a few minutes and put these pieces of paper into some kind of order. Allow the children to organize the papers in any way they want (they can sort them by color of paper, alphabetical order of words, by category, etc.). After all children have organized their papers, let them know that you are going to ask each of them to find a particular word and that you will time them to see how long it takes. Have each group member try to find one of the words from the list and use the stopwatch to time them. After all the students have had an opportunity to find a word, determine who was the quickest and ask the child to talk about how he organized the papers so that he was able to find the word so quickly. Ask all group members to talk about how they organized the words and whether their strategy was useful or not when they went to find the word during the game.

Review Study Skills for Home and School Explain to the group that part of doing well in school is learning how to study and how to be organized so that schoolwork is easier. There are some things that kids can do at school that will help them to do better in their classes, while there are different things that kids can do at home to do better on their homework. Prior to the group session you should have created a set of index cards listing positive and negative study skills. Each index card should list either a positive (e.g., study in a quiet place, take notes in class, double check your answers, ask questions in class, focus while reading, etc.) or negative (e.g., do homework in the living room while watching TV, answer the phone while you’re studying, do your homework in a rush in the morning before school, etc.) study habit or skill. Provide the group with the stack of cards and ask them to decide whether each idea would be useful for studying or not, and have them

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sort the ideas into two piles. Ask them to suggest any additional skills that have not been provided. Next, go through the useful skill pile and ask group members to decide why/how each skill or habit would help them learn more effectively.

Optional Role-Play An optional exercise you can conduct is a leader-modeled role-play. In this exercise, either you or your co-leader portrays a teacher assigning homework. The “teacher” should say, “Class, next month you need to turn in a report on the reading from this book.” Then, ask group members what the assignment is, and whether the “teacher” provided enough information for the students to know exactly what the assignment was or if the students in the class need more information. Once members have identified that there are some additional pieces of information to attain (i.e., how long should the report be, what day of the month is it due, how much reading is required, is the report based on the whole book or just a couple chapters, etc.), ask children how they would go about gathering this information. The group can then role-play this situation once more with the leader playing the role of the teacher repeating the same instruction while group members ask for the additional information.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Ask the children to review the Study Skills at School handout in the workbook.

✎ Have each student complete and return the Homework Contract in the workbook (signed by both the student and parent) to the next group session. Remind group members that they can earn extra points for returning their homework. The homework handout can be reviewed with children in an individual session so that each child has an individualized plan for themselves in terms of homework achievement.

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Session 5: Awareness of Feelings and Physiological Arousal Related to Anger – Part I

Chapter 7

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Cartoon faces, feelings poster, or photos from a magazine depicting different emotional states

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session and homework

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Identify the behavioral, cognitive, and physiological components of various emotional states

■

Identify situational triggers for various emotional states

■

Recognize that expression of feelings may be difficult

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Also check that children signed, and had their parents sign, the Homework Contract in the workbook. Remember to award points for doing homework.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that the children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Identification of Different Feeling States You have the option of using either the cartoon faces from the workbook, or pictures of real faces from magazines to explain the concept of feeling states. You may also wish to create a feelings poster to display during today’s session by gluing the magazine pictures to a large piece of poster board. Ask children how they can tell when they or someone else is happy or sad or nervous or scared or angry. The goal of this exercise is for group members to learn to identify different physiological and physical cues of emotion (including facial expression, body posture, tone of voice, and internal body cues) and to understand that experiencing any feeling is acceptable. Emphasize that it is the behaviors that are associated with some emotions that need to be changed. Refer children to the cartoon faces in their workbooks (or direct their attention to the feelings poster or magazine photos) and ask them to discuss and identify the various feelings depicted. Ask each child to identify how they are feeling at this time. Remember to convey the attitude that all feelings are acceptable but that some behaviors are not. Group Leader Tip: ■

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Periodically during this session, you and your co-leader can refer to the cartoon faces (or feelings poster or magazine photos) and identify how you are feeling at that point, using different feelings to model identification of various feeling states (i.e., frustration, hopeful, satisfied) and then ask each child to identify how they are feeling at

that point. Convey to children that our feelings change periodically and it may be useful to monitor our feelings at different times and to become more aware of what we are feeling. Next, conduct an exercise in which group members identify what feeling is being expressed nonverbally by others in the group. This will allow children to integrate the different cues of affect states noted earlier. There are several exercise options. For each, have the child act out the feeling nonverbally, while the other group members try to decide the feeling being portrayed. Ask other members, “What cues did you use?” Options for selecting feelings to portray include: ■

Option 1 : Have group members identify various feeling states, write these down on pieces of paper, and place them in a hat or box for selection.

■

Option 2 : Place the magazine pictures depicting different faces and feelings in a hat or box for selection.

■

Option 3 : Use different pictures of feeling states or a different set of feeling cards and have children choose one to enact.

■

Option 4 : Use a “feeling-cube,” which depicts different feeling states. Have each child roll the cube and enact the feeling that comes up on the cube.

Identification of Emotional Triggers Further the discussion of feeling states by discussing “triggers” that lead to different emotions. Ask the group to tell you some things that make them happy. Allow one or more children to respond. Ask the group to tell you some things that make them scared. Again, allow one or more children to respond. Explain that the things that happen that lead to a person feeling an emotion are called triggers. Ask the children if they have ever heard of the term. Explain that a trigger is something that happens to us or around us that sets off an emotion inside of us. Do NOT use a gun analogy or anything else related to violence when explaining this term.

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Next, discuss how we realize that we are experiencing an emotion. Write the following on the dry erase board or flipchart: EMOTION ⫽ HAPPY “What people can see”

“What you feel inside your body”

“The thoughts inside your head”

Ask group members to provide you with examples of each category for “emotion ⫽ happy.” Repeat the process for “emotion ⫽ scared.” Write the examples on the dry erase board or flipchart. The next section focuses solely on anger; erase or remove the information related to happy and scared before moving on. Direct children’s attention to the “What people can see” column on the flipchart and ask them to list behaviors people show when they are angry. Obvious behaviors include shouting, jumping up and down, and hitting. Less obvious behaviors include talking calmly about the problem, becoming silent, and withdrawing from others. Inform the group that many of these behaviors can lead to problems in relationships because they do not help deal with the problem at hand. The only response mentioned in the aforementioned list that is positive (i.e., solution-focused) is “talking calmly about the problem” (although other effective responses can be discussed as they come up). The remaining behaviors on the list are not generally effective ways of handling anger. After this discussion, ask each child to talk about the behavior that they are most likely to show when they are angry: “What behaviors do each of you show when you are angry?” Move to the column titled, “What you feel inside your body” and ask children to name one thing they each feel inside their body when they are angry. Try to elicit at least one response from each group member, and more if possible. Examples of internal experiences include but are not limited to tightened muscles, faster heart rate, harder breathing, feeling hot, and feeling sick to the stomach. You can then discuss how to use a physiological cue as a signal for impending anger, and how to use this signal as a way to help them control their response. Then, move to the “The thoughts inside your head” column and ask children to list some of the thoughts they have when they are feeling angry. Try to elicit at least one response from each group member and

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more if possible. Examples of thoughts include but are not limited to, “I just want to punch that guy,” “I’ll get you back for that,” “Just wait. . . . just wait. . . . You’ll see who is tougher now,” or “I’m just not going to do anything that you say. See how you like that.” You can then discuss how to use automatic thoughts as a signal for anger, and how to use this signal as a way to help children control their responses.

Discuss Difficulty Expressing Feelings and Normalize Feelings Review with children the cues that can be used to decide how they or other people are feeling. Discuss the idea that some feelings may be difficult to express and that you cannot always tell what other people are feeling because they may be concealing their true emotions. Open the discussion with one of the following statements/questions and allow the meeting to naturally progress, taking initiative as needed: ■

Can you always tell what someone is feeling by how they look or what they do?

■

Are you always able to express your feelings?

■

Are there some feelings that are easier for you to express than others?

■

Sometimes you cannot tell how someone else is feeling or how you are feeling.

If you wish, you may direct children to the Feelings Bottle worksheet in their workbooks and ask them each to list the various feelings they experience in the spaces provided. Then ask each member to circle the feelings that are easy for him or her to express, and to put a square around the feelings that are harder to express. Ask group members to identify the situations that cause them to feel certain emotions (angry, sad, happy, nervous, excited, afraid, etc.). Convey the idea that everyone experiences all feelings at different times and it is acceptable to feel all the different feelings. Restate that all feelings are acceptable, but some behaviors are not. Use the situations identified by the group, or other relevant situations (e.g., you are about to ride a roller coaster, your mother becomes sick, your

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goldfish dies, you have a big test and you want to do well on it, etc.) to conduct role-plays with the group. Have children role-play brief depictions of the different situations as leading to various feelings and have them identify how they would be feeling if they were really experiencing that situation. Be sure to normalize the experience of different emotions.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Session 6: Awareness of Feelings and Physiological Arousal Related to Anger – Part II

Chapter 8

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Thermometer model

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Identify various cues of anger

■

Identify different levels of anger

■

Identify triggers for different levels of anger and ways to cope

■

Set new weekly goals

■

Assign homework

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Identify Physiological Cues of Anger/Other Feelings Using the feelings poster (or the cartoon faces in the workbook) from the previous week, begin today’s meeting by asking children to identify one situation that occurred in the past week which resulted in them feeling sad, afraid, or angry. We wanted to have each of you share a situation from the past week that made you feel sad, afraid, or angry. What was something that happened to each of you to cause you to experience one of these feelings? Reinforce the idea that it is acceptable to feel all different feelings including anger, but it is what we do when angry that can be problematic. Ask the group: “Do you think anger goes away if you ignore it?” Review with the group the physiological cues of anger. Act like you are angry (e.g., stamp your feet, grimace, ball your hands into fists, etc.) and describe what you are feeling inside. Ask children to identify your physiological reactions. Explain that people have different bodily reactions when they experience strong feelings, particularly anger. “How does your body feel when you become angry? What is the first thing you notice in your body when you are becoming angry?” Explain to the group that these physical cues are signals that they are becoming angry and may need to stop and think how to handle the situation.

Identify Various Levels of Anger Facilitate a discussion of various levels of emotions. First, discuss the feeling of being happy. Refer children to the list of happy words in the

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workbook. The list includes the following words that depict varying levels of happiness: Joyful

Cheerful

Ecstatic

Exhilarated

Delighted

Thrilled

Glad

Jolly

Excited

Pleased

Gleeful

Overjoyed

Next, direct children to the list of sad words in the workbook. The list includes the following words that depict varying levels of sadness: Disappointed

Depressed

Sorrowful

Unhappy

Hopeless

Joyless

Crushed

Down

Blue

Defeated

Distraught

Lastly, present children with a list of angry words (also available in the workbook). This list includes the following words that depict varying levels of anger: Outraged

Enraged

Bothered

Annoyed

Fuming

Flustered

Upset

Furious

Irritated

Mad

Frustrated

Next, facilitate a discussion of the physiological reactions at different levels of being angry. Present children with a picture of a thermometer or create one using a large piece of poster board and have them follow along using the picture of a thermometer in their workbooks. “Is everybody familiar with how a thermometer works?” Be sure to explain the concept or have a child describe how a thermometer works when measuring temperature. Once the concept is clear, ask the group if someone would be willing to explain how this concept can be applied to the measurement of anger. Ask children where they may place some of the various words describing anger on the Anger Emotion Thermometer in the workbook.

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Review all signals of anger: behavioral, emotional, physical, cognitive; you can have children identify each of the signals at the various levels/degrees of anger discussed earlier. Also review salient triggers for anger. Ask children, “What do others do that makes you angry?” You and your co-leader can point out commonalities in triggers. Ask the group, “What do you do that makes other people angry?” Make sure group members recognize the reciprocity in relationships. Use the thermometer and ask group members to identify the triggers for each degree/level of anger.

Coping With Anger Next, introduce the idea of coping with anger and have group members discuss ways to cope at each level of anger. Use the following questions to guide the discussion: ■

What do you do to cope with anger when you are a little bit angry?

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What coping strategies do you use when you are very angry?

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How do the ways you cope differ depending on how angry you are?

■

Is it easier to cope with anger when you are just a little bit angry or very angry? Why?

The group will talk more specifically about coping strategies of anger at next week’s session.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

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Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Ask children to record their daily anger feelings for one week using the Anger Thermometer Record Form #1 in the workbook. Instruct children to check off each type of anger they experience each day and to identify the general trigger for this feeling. It is helpful to have a list of possible triggers available for children to refer to. This list should include being teased/scolded by peers, not being able to do what one wants, being reprimanded by the teacher, being reprimanded by a parent, and not doing well in school, among others.

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Session 7: Anger Coping and Self-Control

Chapter 9

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Deck of playing cards

■

Dominoes

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session and homework

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Review different methods of coping with anger

■

Practice using anger coping/self-control

■

Set new weekly goals

■

Assign homework

Outline

Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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You will review their Anger Thermometer Record Forms during the review of ways to cope with anger.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Review Concepts of Anger Coping or Self-Control Introduce the idea of coping with anger and have group members discuss ways to cope at each level of anger. Remind children, “Over the last two weeks, we have talked about experiencing different levels of emotions. Sometimes we feel very, very angry (high on the emotion thermometer) and sometimes we feel just a little bit angry (low on the emotion thermometer). Does everyone remember this from last week?” Allow time for discussion before reviewing the thermometer homework assignment from the previous session. Remember to award two points to children who completed the homework.

Ways of Coping With Anger Next, the group will talk about different ways to cope with anger. You may say something like the following to facilitate discussion: Today, we are going to talk about how we handle emotions and, in particular, how we handle the feeling of anger. I want each of you to tell the group what you do to cope with anger when you are a little bit angry. Ask each group member to volunteer a coping strategy. Then ask each group member, “What do each of you do when you are very angry?” Allow time for discussion, including the way that the methods are similar or different. Possible strategies include but are not limited to the following:

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■

Walking away from a provocative peer

■

Reminding oneself that it is not worth getting in trouble

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Trying to compromise with a parent

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Ignoring something that makes you angry

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Telling an adult that somebody or something is bothering you

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Talking to the person who is making you feel angry

It is important to convey to the group that our ability to cope with emotions is different depending on the intensity of the emotion. Have the group members identify various ways to express different feelings. For example, expression of feelings can occur via writing, creating art, talking to the person with whom you are angry, talking to another person, playing sports or engaging in physical activity, and listening to music, among others.

Practice Using Anger Coping or Self-Control This portion of today’s session introduces the idea of coping with feelings of anger that are triggered by teasing. Many children indicate that teasing is one of the more difficult situations with which to cope, and it is believed that teaching children effective strategies for coping with teasing will allow them to develop better control of their reactions to this common event. The series of activities that are carried out over the next four sessions are believed to be effective because they provide gradual exposure to teasing, which can arouse emotion in the children participating. Using self-control or anger coping in this more naturalistic situation then increases the likelihood that the skill being taught will generalize to the classroom or other outside situations. However, be sensitive to the needs of your children and intervene to assist them as needed.

Self-Control Memory Game Use the deck of cards to play a game in which children practice using some of the coping strategies just discussed. You may introduce the game as follows: We are going to play a memory game during which you have to practice self-control. I will show one person 10 cards, and this person will try to remember as many numbers on the cards as they can, while the

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rest of the group members say things to distract him or her (such as making teasing comments toward the person engaged in the task). There are a couple of important rules for this game: (1) You cannot curse; (2) You cannot make racial comments; and (3) You cannot touch the person who is practicing self-control. The person who is practicing self-control should try as hard as he or she can to focus on the cards and to not pay attention to the teasing by others. We are going to keep track of your scores to see who remembers the most. Pick 10 different number cards and arrange a fan so that all card numbers are visible. Choose one group member at a time to play this game and expose the 10 cards to the group member for 10 seconds. This group member will have to utilize self-control while the other group members make teasing remarks (you and your co-leader should not be involved in the teasing). The group member trying to remember the numbers may talk aloud. After 10 seconds have elapsed, give the child memorizing the numbers a piece of paper and a pen to write down as many numbers as he or she can remember (suits are not important). Repeat this procedure for each group member and keep track of the results to tell the group members at the end. After the game is over, discuss it with the group using the following sample questions: ■

Was it hard to concentrate on the numbers?

■

How did you keep your attention focused?

■

How did you maintain your self-control?

■

Did you start to feel angry?

■

Did that hurt your concentration?

■

Did the winner become angry?

The point to convey is that all the group members were probably able to utilize self-control by ignoring the others and their teasing remarks and concentrating on the cards. Ask children, “What can you do if you are in the classroom and someone starts teasing you or acting up?” The answer is that the

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children should call on the skills that they utilized during this game and use them in real life. Those children who had difficulty blocking out their peers will need to be encouraged to work on the skill of ignoring.

Self-Control Dominoes Game Play a second self-control game using dominoes. Indicate that the same rules apply to this game. Introduce the game as follows: We are going to play a different self-control game. This time, you each have to build a tower of dominoes. We will give you 30 seconds to build your tower as high as possible, using one hand, while the other group members are teasing you. Remember to focus on the dominoes and ignore what the other children are saying. Have each member take a turn at building the tower. Keep track of the results to tell the group members at the end. Discuss this activity in a similar manner as was done for the memory card game. Emphasize group members’ ability to ignore peer teasing and how this skill can be practiced in the classroom.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Ask children to continue recording their daily anger feelings using the Anger Thermometer Record Form #2 in the workbook. This version of the form provides a space for children to record the way in which they coped with their anger. Instruct children to fill out this section and bring the completed form to next week’s session.

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Chapter 10 Session 8: Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping – Part I

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Puppets – enough so that each child and group leader can have one of their own

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session and homework

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Reinforce concept of self-instruction

■

Use puppets to practice self-instruction and distraction as coping skills

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Also check that children completed their Anger Thermometer Record Forms. Children who returned homework should receive two points for completing the assignment. If the children indicated that they were able to cope with their anger, ask what strategies they used to make this happen. Ask group members to identify the thoughts that they experienced with each level of anger. ■

What did you say to yourself when you were feeling angry or irritated?

■

Did these thoughts make you feel angrier than you did before?

■

Did these thoughts help you to calm down?

■

Did these thoughts help you to solve the problem?

Have group members identify self-statements that would be effective at each level of anger. Write these coping self-statements next to the appropriate degree/level on the thermometer. Convey the idea that it is easier to use coping statements and to think about better ways to cope with the situation at the lower levels of anger than at higher levels.

Introduce Self-Talk or Self-Statements Present children with examples of different types of self-statements people may use when they are angry. For example, act like you are angry at someone else and say, “This guy is a jerk and always out to get me!” “I can’t believe he did that. I hate him!” Ask children, “Do you say these kinds of things to yourself when you are angry? Do these selfstatements help you control your anger and solve the problem?” Then, role-play using coping self-statements by saying, “I am not sure why he did that. I don’t care what he thinks. I can keep my cool.” Ask group members whether they think coping statements like these can help control anger or solve problems. Discuss incidents during the past week when group members became angry at school. As children talk about their incidents, ask follow-up questions such as, “What did you say to yourself? Did these thoughts help you cope with your anger? What things could you have said that

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would have made you less angry?” If possible, you may wish to audiotape or videotape each group member saying several coping self-statements in response to an anger-provoking situation (to provide them with additional practice using anger-reducing self-statements or to convey to parents one of the ideas being presented to their child during the parent group). You can use situations that involve a failed attempt at group entry or peer teasing, having the children verbalize the self-statements they would use in this situation to avoid becoming angry.

Practice Using Self-Statements Remind children of the self-control games they played last week (memory card game and dominoes). During the last meeting we played two games that involved each of you practicing using coping statements. The goal was for each of you to focus your attention on the task (either memorizing the numbers on a series of 10 cards or building a tower of dominoes with one hand). The winners were the person who remembered the most cards or built the highest tower. We agreed that _____ and _____ (name(s) of the children who won the two games) won because they were really good at blocking out the things that people were saying and were able to focus on something else—the cards or the dominoes. This is what we want all of you to be able to do when people are teasing you or making you angry. Wait for responses from the group and respond accordingly. Then, let children know that today the group will play another self-control game. This time the children will use puppets.

Self-Control Puppet Game Hand out puppets to the children in the group. Make sure each child gets one and that there is one left for either you or your co-leader to use. You will use your puppet to interact with the children’s puppets. Explain to

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the group that their puppets should tease your puppet by saying mean or hurtful things. Make sure that each child takes a turn and that all puppets do not “talk” at once (i.e., one puppet says something, then another, then another; keep going until it seems appropriate to stop). Remind children that the same rules for last week’s games apply today. There is no cursing or making racial comments. Also, children are not allowed to touch other group members or their puppets, and they should direct their comments at your puppet, not at you. During this exercise, model self-talk and other coping skills that will enhance anger coping, such as: ■

I can tell I am getting mad and I want to be careful not to get too angry and lose my temper.

■

I think I will ask them to stop and see if that works.

■

They are just trying to make me mad so that I will say something back and get into trouble.

■

It is not worth getting mad about—they do not know what they are talking about anyway.

■

I like my _____ (hair, clothes, shoes), so why should I get mad if they are saying something about it?

Attempt to use techniques that would be applicable for different degrees of anger. Make your statements out loud but make sure the group members understand that self-talk occurs inside your head. In a real life situation you would not be mumbling coping statements under your breath or saying them out loud. After modeling self-talk, let children know that they are going to use the puppets to practice using coping statements themselves. Introduce the activity as follows: Now, we are going to have each of you practice using coping statements. We want each of you to use your puppet to make coping statements when reacting to teasing from other puppets—this means that we want to hear you say the coping statements out loud. We know that in real life you would say them to yourself inside your head but, for today, we want to hear you say them out loud.

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Allow 20–30 seconds per child for the teasing of their puppet by other group members’ puppets. Allow ample space between group members to discourage physical provocation. You and your co-leader should not engage in the teasing exercise but should focus on maintaining order and assisting the group members in coping effectively. After each turn, ask one or more of the following questions: ■

What was the puppet thinking or saying to himself?

■

What level of anger did the puppet experience during the teasing?

■

What skills did the puppet use to maintain control over his anger?

■

Did the puppet use different coping statements for different levels of anger?

■

What other feelings did the puppet experience?

Be sure to provide positive feedback to children regarding their use of coping skills and reinforce the use of distraction techniques (e.g., focusing their attention on an object in the room or thinking about a fun game that they could play later that day). You may also use the feelings poster from Session 5 and/or the thermometer model from Session 6 to monitor feeling states.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 11 Session 9: Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping – Part II

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Continue self-instruction and distraction training

■

Encourage generalization of this skill to the classroom

■

Set new weekly goals

■

Assign homework

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Continue Practice of Coping Self-Statements Review the self-control game with puppets from the previous group session. Refer children to the list of coping statements in the workbook and then introduce today’s self-control game. Today we are going to play the self-control game, but this time, we are going to let each of you receive the teasing and practice using selfcontrol. The person being teased will stand in the middle of the group. To help each of you be prepared with coping statements, let’s take a few minutes to review the coping statements in your workbooks. During this review time, I want you to choose three that you will use for this exercise. We hope that you will use more of them in the future, but for today you should practice using at least three. It is useful to arrange the chairs in a circle, having the child being teased stand in the middle of the circle and the children doing the teasing stand outside the circle of chairs. Before beginning the exercise, instruct the child about to be teased to tell the group which coping self-statements he or she is going to use. Make sure each child in the group takes a turn receiving the teasing comments. If a child is having difficulty with this task, you can have that child tell the other group members which comments are permissible (provide the other children with a script). You may also have other group members take turns delivering the teasing, rather than having all the children teasing at one time. A third possibility would be to have one of the group leaders stand in the middle with the child being teased to verbalize coping self-statements as a modeling and supportive technique for the child. Once the exercise has been completed, ask each child the following:

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■

How did you feel?

■

What were you thinking or saying to yourself ?

■

Were you able to use the coping self-statements?

■

How did this help you with self-control?

■

Did you use other distraction techniques?

Review with the group how this exercise can help them with real teasing in the classroom. Ask children, “What can you do if someone teases you in the classroom? What kinds of coping self-statements will help you feel less angry?”

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group

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members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Ask children to continue recording their daily anger feelings using the Anger Thermometer Record Form #3 in the workbook. This version of the form provides a space for children to record the coping statements they used to deal with their anger.

✎ Encourage children to use coping statements over the course of each

day and to look to the list in the workbook to find statements that are useful for them. A long-term goal is to have these statements memorized; in the short term, children may choose to tape a small piece of paper with one or more of the statements to their desks.

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Chapter 12 Session 10: Using Self-Statements for Anger Coping – Part III

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Video recorder (optional)

■

Videotape from previous session depicting self-control exercise (if one was made)

■

Videotape player and television for viewing previous session’s video (optional)

■

Large drawing of a thermometer that can be placed on the floor and used to indicate low, medium, and high in relation to feelings of anger

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session and homework

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Review self-instruction

■

Strengthen memory for coping statements

■

Practice self-control

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

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Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week. You will review their completed Anger Thermometer Record Forms during the review of self-instruction and coping statements.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Review Self-Instruction and Real Life Application of Coping Statements Review the concept of self-talk and the activities that were used to convey this concept (e.g., card memory game, dominoes, and puppet teasing). Ask questions such as: ■

Do you remember what those games involved?

■

What were some of the things that people said to themselves to keep from being angry when they were teased?

■

Are there any other things you can say to yourself that would help you to stay calm and to stay in control of your behavior (e.g., not fight) when angry?

Review children’s completed Anger Thermometer Record Forms from last week and their use of coping self-statements. Use positive reinforcement strategies to encourage the children to continue practicing their coping statements outside of group. To encourage a more in-depth understanding of why it is important to use coping statements, ask questions such as: ■

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What did you say to yourself when you first started to notice you were getting angry?

■

Did these thoughts help you cope with your anger? How?

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Did you say anything to yourself that made you become angrier?

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What could you have said to yourself that would have made you less angry?

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Why do you think it is important to be aware of the things we tell ourselves in problem situations?

Remember to award two points to children who completed the homework. Provide positive reinforcement to those group members who completed the assignment. If possible, you may wish to audiotape or videotape each group member saying several coping self-statements in response to an angerprovoking situation. This provides additional practice using angerreducing self-statements and can be used in parent groups to convey to parents one of the ideas being presented to their children. The tape can be presented at the parent meeting only if all group members consent to the viewing.

Coping Statements Memory Test The purpose of this portion of the session is to try to strengthen the children’s memory regarding coping statements. The list of coping statements reviewed last week gave them many examples but it is unlikely that group members will work on memorizing them without being reminded. You may use the following sample dialogue: As we were talking about earlier, one way to keep calm is to tell yourself statements that will help you feel less angry. We would like to write down all of the coping statements that you can think of. You can use any of the statements that are written on the list in your workbooks that we reviewed last week, but you cannot look at that sheet now. You can also write down your own coping statements that were not on the sheet. We just want to see how many different coping statements you can think of.

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If the group has trouble recalling coping statements, provide them with an example from the following list: ■

“Just don’t sweat it”

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“It is not worth getting in trouble”

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“They don’t know what they are saying/talking about”

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“I am not going to let it beat me”

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“Other people like me”

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“I know I am okay”

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“Slow down”

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“Don’t be a fool, stay cool”

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“I am above this”

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“I am not going to let them control me/get me/win”

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“I am not going to give them that power”

Instruct the children to use the Coping Statements Memory Test worksheet in the workbook to record their statements. Allow between 3 and 5 minutes to complete the exercise and then review as a group. Have each group member select two favorite coping statements and place a star beside them on his or her paper. You and your co-leader should write these statements down on a piece of paper. It is important for school personnel working with the child to have a copy of these statements for future reference, and it is important that group leaders refer to these when problems arise.

Optional Videotape Viewing If a videotape of a teasing exercise from a previous session is available, say, We would like to look back at a videotape from an earlier session when you were doing the self-control game. After we look at the tape, I will ask you to tell us some of the things the different people said to themselves when being teased. (Play tape) What were some of the things people said

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to themselves when being teased? What things that people said do you think you could say to yourself that would keep you from becoming more angry? Are there any other things that you could say to yourself that would help you to stay calm and stay out of a fight when you are angry?

Practicing Self-Control When introducing the next self-control teasing exercise, remind the children that they can use any of the coping statements generated on their Coping Statements Memory Test worksheet. Place a large drawing of a thermometer on the floor (or simply identify the low, middle, and high areas using paper or another form of marker) and ask each group member to stand on the “thermometer” during a self-control exercise. They are to move up and down the thermometer with increasing and decreasing levels of anger. Have the group stand in a circle around the person who is being exposed to the teasing or in front of the “thermometer” during the teasing exercise. If the group member who is practicing selfcontrol is unable to use coping statements and engages in dialogue with other group members, ask that she turn away from the group in order to help her focus on using coping statements. In addition, you can make the rule that the person practicing self-control cannot speak to other group members and must always begin their statements with the word, “I” (not “you”). It may benefit the group if one or more of the leaders engaged in the exercise first so that the children feel more comfortable with the task. You may use the following sample dialogue to introduce the exercise: The next thing we are going to do is have each of you practice using Coping Statements while being teased by your fellow group members. The same rules as before apply: you cannot curse, you cannot make racial comments, and you cannot touch other group members. During this exercise, the person being teased should say things to herself that will keep her from becoming angry. You can use any of the ideas we just thought of and wrote down or you can use whatever coping statement works for you. While people are teasing, we want the person to be walking up and down the thermometer as a way to indicate how angry she feels inside. As the teasing begins to bother

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you, we would expect that you would be higher up on the thermometer. As you say coping statements, we are hoping that you will feel less angry and will move back down the thermometer. Does everybody understand what we are going to do? We are going to do this exercise two times with every person in the group. The first time you receive teasing, we are going to ask that you say your coping statements out loud so that everyone can hear you. During the second time, we want you to say the coping statements to yourself (in your head) rather than saying them out loud. This is how we usually use coping statements. After the second time, we will ask you to tell us which coping statements you used.

Optional Self-Control Exercise This optional exercise is designed to extend the concept of self-talk for use in different kinds of situations or with different feeling states. You may introduce it as follows: We have talked in here about the things you can say to yourself when you are feeling angry to help you stay calm and to be able to think about different ways to handle these angry feelings. As you remembered, at the beginning of the group meetings, we talked about many different kinds of feelings. Who can remember some of the other feelings we identified? We wanted to talk some about the things you can say to yourself when you are feeling different emotions rather than just anger. ■

What are some situations where you might feel afraid/worried?

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What is something you could say to yourself when you are feeling afraid that would help you to stay calm and decide how to handle the situation?

Elicit different ideas for self-statements that would be useful in fearproducing situations. ■

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What does it mean to feel disappointed?

■

What is something you can say to yourself when you are feeling disappointed that would help you to cope with the situation that makes you feel this way?

Elicit different ideas for self-statements that would be useful in disappointing situations. ■

What kinds of things make you feel sad?

■

What are some things you could say to yourself that would help you to cope with these situations?

Elicit different ideas for self-statements that would be useful in sad situations. You can have group members generate different situations that elicit these various feelings and have them role-play these situations using the coping self-statements.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 13 Session 11: Relaxation and Overcoming Barriers to Self-Control

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Deep breathing script

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Teach self-control through deep breathing

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Identify and overcome barriers to the use of self-control

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Self-Control Through Deep Breathing Remind group members of the exercise they did last week during which they used coping statements to make them feel less angry when being teased (shown by moving along a big thermometer). Introduce the idea that it can sometimes be difficult to use this type of self-control in real-life situations and that today you will introduce the group to breathing exercises that will increase their ability to use self-control. Use the following script to engage the children in a deep/diaphragmatic breathing exercise.

Deep Breathing Script Get into a comfortable position. Put one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. Inhale slowly and watch which hand moves. Shallow breaths move the hand on the chest; deep breaths move the hand on the stomach. Now, slowly inhale through your nose. As you inhale, count slowly to three and feel your stomach expand with your hand. Hold the breath for one second and then slowly exhale while also counting to three. When you inhale, think of the word “inhale.” When you exhale, think of the word “relax.” Inhale 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . Hold 1 . . . Relax 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . Continue deep breathing for several minutes, becoming more relaxed with every exhale. After practicing the breathing exercises, ask group members to review some other strategies they can use to calm themselves down when they are feeling angry. Explain to children that everyone becomes angry or frustrated at times, and it is important for people to be able to calm down after becoming angry and before they do something out of anger. When a person slows down his or her anger reaction, they are able to make better choices for how to cope with the situation. Remind children that deep breathing is one way to calm down and ask them for any

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other strategies they can think of. “What are some other ways that people can calm down when they have become angry?” You and your co-leader may supplement this exercise with other similar breathing or relaxation exercises that you are familiar with and are appropriate for this age group. A sample relaxation script and discussion questions are provided for children in the workbook.

Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Use of Self-Control Engage children in a discussion about obstacles to the effective use of selftalk. Reiterate the idea that it is sometimes difficult to use self-control in real life situations. Specifically, when people are really angry, it may be difficult to stop quickly enough to use the self-talk or any other selfcontrol technique. Discuss ways to make self-talk more likely to work. Ask children, “What are some of the things that get in the way of using coping statements during times of anger or stress? Why do you think it is easier to use these coping statements in group than when you are outside in the real world?” Write down each of the obstacles/barriers that children raise and ask questions like: ■

How do you think you could overcome this barrier?

■

What do you think you could do that would help you to cope with this problem?

Role-play difficult situations for children and include obstacles introduced in the preceding discussion in the role-play. Have children roleplay their solution for overcoming that barrier. Introduce the idea that sometimes, even if we walk away from or avoid a conflict with another person, we still feel angry or aroused inside. Ask the following questions: ■

Have you ever walked away from a fight?

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Have you ever been able to ignore people who were bothering you?

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How do you feel after you have walked away from a fight?

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What feeling do you have after avoiding a conflict?

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It is very likely that all group members have experienced having to walk away from conflict. If they do not volunteer any examples, use examples from your own experiences with conflict situations and your feelings after having walked away. Normalize the feeling of anger but focus on the positive aspects associated with dealing effectively with conflict. Also, introduce the idea of engaging in positive activities in order to feel more positively about the self. You may ask children: ■

What are some things you can do if you are still feeling angry/upset/sad in order to feel better again?

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What are some of the things you do to calm down?

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What are some ways you can stop feeling mad?

Refer children to the workbook page entitled, What Can I Do to Calm Myself Down. On this page are examples of some self-soothing activities or arousal-reduction techniques including the strategies listed here. There are four blank lines included on the page. Ask each child to write down activities that they can think of to help themselves to calm down. Then, review with the group. Possible activities include: ■

Playing sports

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Talking to a friend

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Drawing

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Listening to music

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Going for a walk or exercising

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Playing a game (e.g., Nintendo, Playstation, etc.)

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Playing with a pet

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the Goal Sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed Goal Sheets to next week’s session.

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Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 14 Session 12: Perspective Taking – Part I

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Optical illusion to illustrate concept of perspective

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Pictures depicting children in conflictive situations for use during the stimulus activity

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Audiotape recorder (optional)

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Establish the concept of perspective taking

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Identify different perspectives of a social situation

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Conduct brief introduction to “blind spots”

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Set new weekly goals

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Assign homework

Outline

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Establish the Concept of Perspective Taking The main purpose of this session is to help group members understand that situations can be seen from different points of view. You may want to say the following to explain this concept: Different people can see the same thing or the same problem/situation very differently. Although viewpoints may differ, there is some validity to all points of view and all points of view have some capacity of being justified. An additional goal is to help group members understand that these perceptions influence our thoughts and feelings, which in turn have an impact on our behavior. Given that people’s perceptions may differ in a situation, the thoughts and feelings that each person has in a situation may also differ.

Optical Illusion Activity This activity reinforces the concept that people can see the same thing differently. Have each group member look at the optical illusion sheet in the workbook and write down on a piece of paper what they see without looking at what other people have written down. A copy of the optical illusion is also provided here (see Figure 14.1). Once all group members

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have written down their response, ask each person to state what they perceived the illustration to be. You and your co-leader may want to participate in this exercise as well. Emphasize that everyone looked at the same picture, but that different people saw different things. This exercise can be repeated with other visual illusion pictures if desired.

Figure 14.1 Optical Illusion

Stimulus Card Activity This is a continuation and elaboration of the concept of perspective taking. The purpose of this exercise is to: ■

Teach children that our thoughts about another person’s intentions and motives influence how we think, feel, and react to one another.

■

Show more fully how difficult it is to know other people’s motives and intentions.

For this portion of the session you will need a picture (from a book, magazine, cartoon strip, etc.) that depicts an ambiguous conflictive situation involving a number of characters. For example, the picture can show a group of children involved in a conflict, or a child having difficulty joining a new activity with peers, or a conflict between a child and a teacher or between a child and a parent, etc. Use the picture to perform a brief role-play by having each group member portray a person in the picture. You or your co-leader will assume the role of roving reporter for fake news channel WTVD. Instruct children to portray the situation from the picture. The “roving reporter” should stop the role-play just prior to the resolution of the problem and tell members to “freeze” in their spots. Then, go around to each group member individually and tape record (optional) their responses to the Roving Reporter Questions listed on page 124. These questions are also included in the children’s workbook.

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What was the problem?

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When did you first see a problem?

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Who had the problem?

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What were you thinking to yourself as the problem happened?

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How did you feel?

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What are you going to do next?

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What can you do or say to solve the problem?

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What do you think the outcome will be?

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How do you think other people saw the problem?

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What would other people say the problem is?

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Why do you think the person did what he did?

Once all the children have been interviewed, have them return to their seats to listen to each other’s responses (if taped) and to have a brief discussion. You may ask the following questions to facilitate the discussion. ■

Did people see the things differently?

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Did they have different thoughts?

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What caused those differences?

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Did their thoughts and feelings affect what they were going to do next?

Introduction to “Blind Spots” Conduct a brief introduction to how people’s feelings may interfere with being able to read the intentions of others accurately. You may use the following sample dialogue: Negative outcomes of previous interactions with others can generate bad feelings. These bad feelings can then influence how you see other people and what intentions you ascribe to them. These feelings

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can cause us to ignore some cues that these people give to us or cause us to ignore important information. Being frustrated with teachers or others can lead you to perceive only those behaviors that will make you more upset, and to miss behaviors that would lead you to feel more positively about that person. We call this process developing “blind spots.” Blind spots happen when we let feelings from past situations influence how we see people in current situations. This can happen with friends, family members, and teachers. Over the next couple of weeks we will be spending more time exploring this issue more fully. Before you close the session with the usual activities, let the children know that next week’s homework assignment will be to interview one of their teachers. Children should take the week to think about which teacher they’d like to interview and what questions they would like to ask.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Ask students to begin thinking about a teacher they want to interview and any questions they would like to ask him.

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Chapter 15 Session 13: Perspective Taking – Part II

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Pictures depicting children in conflictive situations (see Session 12)

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Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Identify different perspectives of a situation

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Apply perspective taking to a social situation

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Set new weekly goals

■

Assign homework

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

The homework assignment for this week is to contact a teacher to schedule an interview. Make sure that the teachers are aware of the assignment and are willing to participate.

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Continuation of Perspective Taking Exercises Perception exercises are designed to expand the concept of perspective taking. We want to assist children in recognizing that the information we have represents only our view of the world and that sometimes we make inaccurate judgments about a problem or situation because our view is limited. The exercises illustrate and reinforce group members’ understanding that some conflicts are based on differences in perceptions (i.e., what someone thought they saw). Resolving conflicts can be difficult at times because not all people see a problem in the same way, or different people focus on a different part of the problem. Choose one of the following three perception exercises.

Exercise # 1 – What Could It Be? In this exercise, you will hand out to each child a piece of paper describing a particular part of an elephant. However, do not let the children know that the parts belong to an elephant. Ask each child to think about the description she has received (each child should get a different description) and what it could possibly refer to. The goal of the exercise is for all the children to put their descriptions together to figure out that the object being described is an elephant.

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Introduce the activity as follows: We are going to give each of you a piece of paper that gives you a description of part of an object. When you receive your description of the object, try to think of all the different kinds of objects this could be. We will then ask all of you to try to figure out together what the object is based on all the different parts of the object that you have. Distribute the following descriptions to the children (one description per child). ■

You feel a thin, flat object that moves slowly back and forth.

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You feel a rough-textured, thick object kind of like a tree trunk, with wrinkles in it.

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You feel a long, hollow object with wrinkles on it and a hole in the end of it.

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You feel a very large, rounded object.

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You feel a smooth, long, pointed object that feels almost like a smooth stone.

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You feel a thin, rope-like object with strands on the end.

OR ■

What you feel is like a fan.

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What you feel is like a tree.

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What you feel is like a rope.

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What you feel is like a spear.

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What you feel is like a high wall.

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What you feel is like a snake.

Once each child has his or her description, instruct the group to try to figure out what the larger object is. Have each child describe his or her part and work together with the other students to put all the pieces together to figure out that what is being described is an elephant. An alternative approach to this exercise is to tell the group that you will be reading them descriptions of different parts of the same object, and you

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want them to draw the different parts and try to figure out what the whole object is; this can be accomplished by having each child draw each descriptive piece on separate pieces of paper, or to use the dry erase board or flipchart and have each child draw one of the component parts. After each child has drawn her object, or after the group has completed the drawing, ask them to discuss the different possible options for what the object is and to come to a consensus about what the object is.

Exercise # 2 – Wise Man and the _____ Read the following story to the group. DO NOT read the title out loud because it reveals the answer. Have group members try to guess what the object is.

Wise Man and the Elephant

Conflict is as old as time itself. People have always tried to make sense of the world and understand each other. At times, this is difficult because not all people see a problem in the same way. As you listen to this old Indian tale, see if you can discover the cause of the wise men’s misunderstanding. Once upon a time, there were six wise men living together in a small town. The six wise men were blind. One day, an object was brought to the town. The six men wanted to see the object but how could they? “I know,” said the first man. “We will feel it!” “Good idea,” said the others. “Then we will know what it is like.” So the six men went to see the object. The first man touched something that felt big and flat and moved from side to side. He said, “It is like a fan.” The second man was feeling a different part of the object and exclaimed, “No, it feels like a tree trunk!” The third man shouted out, “You are both wrong, it feels like a thin rope that tapers at the end!” Just at that moment the fourth man pricked his finger on a sharp part of the object and yelled, “It is not like a rope, a fan, or a tree—it is like a sharp spear. I just pricked my finger on it!” At this moment the fifth man called out, “No, no, this is like a high wall. Strong and sturdy.” The sixth man did not

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agree with any of the others. He stated that the object reminded him of a snake; it was long and cylindrical and moved around in many directions. The six wise men argued and argued and could not come to an agreement as to what they were touching. Can you help them to discover what it was that they were touching? (Answer: Elephant) Ask the group what was the problem that led to the wise men being unable to “see” the object (each took only their own perspective and therefore were limited in their view). Be sure to stress the importance of listening to other people’s perspectives—without listening to others, it is hard to have a complete understanding of what we are looking at. Also, tie in the notion that sometimes we can get into trouble because we fight for what we think is right (e.g., we think that somebody purposely knocked our books over, but it was really an accident).

Exercise # 3 – What’s in the Bag? Another exercise that conveys a similar idea is to utilize a stuffed animal as a stimulus. Place the stuffed animal into a bag and have each child take a turn feeling the stuffed animal and making a guess as to what it is. After each child has had an opportunity to feel the animal, ask the group to come to a consensus about what the object is. You can introduce this exercise by first reading the wise man and elephant story and then engaging in this task. Process the exercise with the group by asking the following questions. ■

Why was/wasn’t it hard to come up with a group answer?

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How were you able to come up with your answer about what the object was?

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Could you have figured it out without the other members’ ideas?

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Was the solution based only on the information that you were provided?

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Did you try to take in information from other group members before suggesting an idea about what the object was?

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Why Did This Happen? Exercise The purpose of the following exercise is to illustrate that, in order to avoid making false assumptions about the reason for another person’s behavior, we have to delay responding until we can ask ourselves or the other person, “Why did this happen?” If you wish, you may use one of the stimulus pictures from Session 12 to discuss perspective taking. Pick a picture that has a problem that can be interpreted in different ways and show it to the group. Ask group members to talk about what is happening in the picture and the reasons why these things are happening. Have the students generate various intentions or motivations for one of the characters in the situation (e.g., “What are the reasons she might have done that?”). Write down all the intentions that were generated on the dry erase board or flipchart. In order to facilitate understanding of the relationship between motivations and consequences, ask group members to generate what they think the parental response would be for each of the motivations they came up with. Record the response next to the identified intention/motivation. As group members are discussing their responses, either you or your co-leader can write down the motives presented by the group members on individual slips of paper for use during the next exercise.

Motive in a Hat Exercise Place all slips of paper with motives written on them in a hat (or other container) and have each group member choose one of the slips (if you are running out of time, it would be fine for only one or two group members to conduct the role-play). These motives will be their role-play exercises. For example, the situation can be, “Tom stomps into the house and slams the door. Why did Tom slam the door?”

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1.

It was an accident.

2.

Tom slammed the door to annoy his mother.

3.

Tom was sick and needed to go to the bathroom.

Following the role-played situation, ask group members to guess what intention the person was trying to portray. (Generally, group members cannot guess the correct intention, thus group leaders can emphasize how difficult it is to know why someone did something even if they know possible reasons). Encourage group members to remind themselves how difficult it is to determine why people do the things they do and that there may be more than one reason why people do the things they do (i.e., conflicting goals or motivations).

Intentions Have a brief discussion about the four main groupings of intentions. Now that children understand that different people do things for different reasons, work with them to label the various types of intentions or reasons that people behave the way they do. See if group members can identify the following intentions: (1) It was an accident, (2) I was trying to be helpful, (3) I was purposefully trying to be mean or to make someone mad, and (4) I am not sure. If they are unable to do so, go over each of them with the group.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Remind students to select a teacher to interview and ask them to complete the Scheduling a Teacher Interview form in their workbooks before next session. Children should schedule their interviews for some time after next week’s meeting.

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Chapter 16 Session 14: Perspective Taking – Part III

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Pictures depicting children in conflictive situations (see Session 12)

■

Prize box

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Review previous session and homework

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Reinforce “Accidental” and “Unclear/Don’t Know” attributions of ambiguous social problems

■

Develop perspective-taking questions for teacher interview

■

Set new weekly goals

■

Assign homework

Outline

Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Children who scheduled a teacher interview (and returned their form to the group session) should receive two points for completing the assignment. The teacher interview will be discussed further at the end of the session.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Interpersonal Problem Discussion In today’s session, you will solicit real-life situations from group members in order to illustrate the difficulty in being able to identify the intentions or motives of other people. An additional goal of the session is to demonstrate how our thoughts about another person’s motivations and intentions will affect how we think, feel, and react to others during interactions. You and your co-leader can begin this discussion by describing a situation from your own lives (with peers, siblings, coworkers, parents) when you misjudged another person’s intentions. Try to label or categorize the assumed intention into one of the following categories: ■

Accident (Accidental: they did not mean to make me mad, it was an accident)

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Being helpful (Prosocial: they were trying to help me out)

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Being mean (Hostile: they were trying to make me angry or get me upset)

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Don’t know (Ambiguous: it is unclear why they did that, I don’t know why they did that)

Develop visual cues to represent these four categories and have these available for children to point to when identifying the intention of the other person in the interaction. Relate the cues they used when identifying the inappropriate intention, and to indicate what cues they did not notice that may have helped them to more accurately perceive the

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other person’s intention. Ask group members to relate a situation when they misjudged another person’s intention or motive. Ask them to identify the cues they used to come to the inaccurate perception, the cues that might have helped them to more accurately identify why the person did what they did, and what category the intention they ascribed to the person and what category the person’s intention actually fell into. “What did you pay attention to that made you think that’s why he did that? What could you have paid attention to that would have made you see the problem differently?” If children are having difficulty with this task, introduce an ambiguous story and ask all group members why they think the person in the story did what he or she did. You may use the following example: Say that you have gone into the lunchroom and are heading toward the table where your best friend is sitting. When you sit down at the table, he ignores you and keeps eating his sandwich. Why do you think your friend ignored you? What kinds of things made you think that? What would have caused you to see this problem differently?

Optional Exercise Ask group members to discuss problems with teachers. It may be important to remind the group about the confidentiality rule at this point. Using the dry erase board or flipchart, record any situation that depicts a child-teacher interaction when things did not turn out the way the child wanted (e.g., teacher accused a student of doing something he did not do, or a student feels that he has received a grade that is lower than deserved). Ask group members to describe what the teacher did and why he did it. Focus on labeling the teacher’s intentions according to the scheme previously described. Some examples of how children may label teacher’s intentions are: “she made a mistake (accident);” “he doesn’t like me (hostile);” “she was trying to help me get a better grade” (helpful); and “I don’t know why she did it (don’t know).” Ask group members to identify the cues that led them to believe the teacher was acting in a certain way, or how they detected the teacher’s intentions. Discuss the idea that it is often difficult to determine what a person’s motivation is. Refer students to the page in the workbook entitled, Why Did This Happen.

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Blind Spots This activity is designed to illustrate how feelings may interfere with being able to read intentions accurately, which can also interfere with being able to identify what another person’s intentions are. Explain to children that negative outcomes of previous interactions can generate bad feelings, which can then affect how they see other people and what intentions they ascribe to others. These feelings can cause people to ignore some cues that others are giving them, or to ignore important information. Being frustrated with teachers or others can lead children to perceive only those behaviors that will make them more upset, and to miss behaviors that would lead them to feel more positively about that person. This process is called developing “blind spots” and it can be further explained with the following sample dialogue: Blind spots happen when we let feelings from past situations affect how we see other people in situations that are happening now. We will ignore some information when there are blind spots. Similarly, teachers might have blind spots that affect how they see you and your behavior in the classroom. A stimulus picture from Session 12 can be used to convey this concept to the students. Cover up part of the picture on the card and ask each child to guess what is going on in the picture. Following this, uncover the whole picture and ask group members if their interpretation of the problem would have been different had they been able to see the entire picture to begin with. Emphasize that often we have to interpret other people’s actions based on partial information, which makes it more difficult to know what is going on.

Teacher Interview Explain to students that the group will begin working on a newsletter that will describe different interviews between members of the Coping Power Program and their teachers. Solicit from children questions they would like to ask their teachers. Be prepared with suggestions of your own. Some ideas include:

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1. How was school different when you were young? 2. How is school the same? 3. What did you like the most about elementary/middle school? 4. What did you like the least about elementary/middle school? 5. What really cool thing do you remember about one of your teachers in elementary/middle school? 6. Did kids sometimes misunderstand why teachers had rules? 7. What do you want to have happen when you are teaching a class? 8. When a child makes noise and interrupts a class what is your goal for the whole class, and with that student? 9. What do you really like about teaching? 10.

Do you think teachers know how much kids look up to them for the hard work they do?

Make sure the child ends the interview by asking questions 9 and 10.

Optional Role-Play If you wish, you may engage the group in a role-play exercise where either you or your co-leader plays the part of the teacher while the group asks interview questions. Use the list of questions generated by the children. Process the role-play with the group by asking one or more of the following discussion questions: ■

What do you think the teacher was trying to tell the student?

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How do you think the student reacted to what the teacher was saying?

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How do you think the student feels toward the teacher?

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Did the student have any blind spots that may have gotten in the way of understanding why the teacher has rules?

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Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Have each group member interview one of his or her teachers using the Teacher Interview form in the workbook. Interviews may be audiotaped for the purpose of playing back in group or in individual sessions. If individual meetings with teachers are not possible, an

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optional exercise would be to request one or more teachers to attend the first 15–20 minutes of the next group session. Using a group format, have each group member take turns asking the teacher(s) questions. Remind group members that they can earn two points for returning their homework.

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Chapter 17 Session 15: Perspective Taking and Problem Solving

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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List of possible problem situations and solutions

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Prize box

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Review previous session and homework

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Discuss children’s teacher interviews

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Introduce problem solving

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Introduce the PICC Model

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Teach the children how to break problems down into solvable steps using the “Pick It Apart” method

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

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Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week. You will review children’s teacher interviews separately.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Review Teacher Interviews Have each student be prepared to talk about her teacher interview with the group. If the interview is being conducted during the group session, have students take turns asking questions of the teacher(s). Record responses on the dry erase board or flipchart or tape record the interview. Ask students what they learned in the process of interviewing their teachers. Some possible discussion questions are: ■

What did you learn in the process of interviewing your teacher?

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Did you find out anything about them that you didn’t already know?

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How did you feel when you were interviewing your teacher?

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Did this activity help you better understand why there are rules to follow in class?

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Were you surprised by anything that was said during the interview?

Remember to give two points to all members who completed the assignment. For those who did not complete the assignment, use your discretion with reassigning the homework and giving points. You want to be careful to not reward group members for not completing their homework (e.g., giving the same reward to those who return it late) but you want to be fair.

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Problem Identification Introduction to Problem Solving Problem identification will be discussed as a component of the problem-solving process. Explain to children that over the next several weeks, the group will talk about problem solving and how to make good choices when they have problems with their friends or other people in their lives. Before you start, ask the group to define what a problem is. Encourage students to provide a definition but do not force the issue. If they are unable to describe it, you may use the following sample dialogue to define problems. A problem exists when there is something that gets in the way of a goal that we want to reach or something that keeps us from getting where we want to be. There are many examples of problems, some are individual problems (e.g., your bike gets a flat tire and you are miles away from home), and some are group problems (e.g., your boy scout troop is having trouble raising money for a field trip). A problem can also exist if two people want different goals and both goals cannot be met with the same solution. For example, you have homework to do but you really want to watch your favorite TV show first. Your mother wants you to get your homework done before you can watch TV. People can sometimes tell when there is a problem, because they will feel angry or sad. Can you think of any examples of problems? Wait for the students to respond. If they do not spontaneously offer examples, ask them to think of a problem that they have experienced in school during the last week. You may want to use one of these examples to demonstrate how to think through the steps of problem solving.

Introduction to PICC Model Start the discussion by asking group members what they think the first step to solving a problem is. Guide them toward creating the words associated with the PICC model. P ⫽ Problem, I ⫽ Identification, C ⫽ Choices, and C ⫽ Consequences. The “PICC” outline represents the

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main problem-solving steps schematically and will be used throughout the problem-solving sessions. Write the PICC schematic on the dry erase board or flipchart. “PICC” follows the form of: Problem Identification _________________________________ Choices

Consequences

Defining a Problem in Solvable Steps After the discussion about problem solving in general, introduce the notion of “picking it apart.” You may use the following sample dialogue: Great! You have some really good ideas about getting started with problem solving. Let’s use the PICC chart (this should have already been drawn on the dry erase board or flipchart) to “pick apart” a problem and to “pick” good choices that really work for you. Let’s look at an example of breaking down a problem into smaller parts. Choose one of the following exercises to demonstrate the process of picking apart a problem.

Exercise # 1 – My Car Is Not Working! I had my car towed into the automotive shop and all of you were mechanics who worked at the shop. One of you asked me to describe the reason that I had my car towed to the shop. I replied, “Because it won’t run.” Would my answer be helpful to you? Would it help you to figure out what is wrong? Wait for the children to respond and then continue. Refer to the PICC chart on display and write “Pick it apart ⫽ Ask questions” underneath the words “Problem Identification.” Leave enough room below to write the children’s responses. Problem Identification _______________ Pick it apart ⫽ Ask questions

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Continue by asking the group, “What kinds of things would you need to know to figure out what was wrong with the car?” As the children generate questions, try to reframe these questions into more general categories, such as: ■

How often has it happened?

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In what situations does it happen?

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What happened just before the problem occurred?

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What is not affected by the problem?

Make sure that responses included things like: ■

It will not run after leaving my parking lights on all night (a battery or electrical problem)

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I have not been to the gas station in a long time (car ran out of gas)

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There was a loud crash under the car and since then there has been a loud noise (muffler problem).

After sufficient additional information has been obtained, ask children to think about what caused the problem with your car. Instruct the group to solicit suggestions for what caused the problem and how understanding what the problem is helps us to understand the cause of the problem. Then, talk to children about your goal. There is one other thing you probably want to ask me before you start to work on my car. You will want to know what my goal is. For example, you might ask me if I want the car fixed no matter what the cost or if I am only willing to pay a certain amount of money. Instruct the group to solicit information that would help to identify your goal and then, in response to the group’s questions, you can state that you want it fixed only if the repairs cost less than $500.00, since the car is pretty old. If the repairs cost more than $500.00, your goal would be to get rid of the car and try to sell it “as-is.” Be sure to discuss how considering the goal changes how you think about the problem. Frame these under the terms Choices and Consequences (e.g., if you choose to fix only the muffler but the transmission needs to be overhauled, the consequence would be that you may not get much money when you try to sell it).

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Exercise # 2 – My Video Game Is Not Working! Let’s say that your brother wants to play a video game, but it isn’t working. He comes to you and tells you that the game does not work. Does this help you to figure out what is wrong? What kinds of things would you ask to figure out what the problem is?” Again, as children are generating questions, try to reframe these questions into more general categories such as: ■

When does the problem occur?

■

What are some of the specific difficulties encountered? Now, I want you to pretend that you are a video game repairman while I play the role of your brother. Try to get a better idea of why the game is not working by asking me some questions.

Encourage one group member to take on the role of the video game repairman. Following are some of the questions that you would like this person to ask so they get a better idea as to what is happening. ■

Is the power light on? (not plugged in, no electricity to operate the machine)

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Does the picture come on the screen but you cannot move the figures? (the joystick is not plugged in correctly)

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Is the TV screen on but the game does not show up on the screen? (cartridge is not all the way in)

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Does the TV work fine when the game is not plugged in? (the Nintendo machine is probably broken)

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Is the TV on the wrong channel? (needs to be on the right channel)

Ask the child playing the role of the repairman if now that she has more information about the problem, she also has a better idea about what might have caused the problem. Solicit suggestions for what caused the problem and how understanding what the problem is helps us to understand the cause of the problem. Then, explain that once the problem and the cause of the problem have been identified, it is time to think about what you (the brother) want. What is your goal? For example, do you

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want to have the machine fixed no matter how much it costs, or would you rather buy a new machine if the expense will be too great? Instruct the group to solicit information that would help to identify what your goal is. Note how consideration of the goal changes how you think about the problem. Once again, frame these under the terms Choices and Consequences (e.g., if you choose to get the game working no matter what the cost and the problem is that the cartridge is jammed, the consequence might be that you need to take the game to a repairman and this would cost a lot of money. An option would be to see if a new game would cost less money than getting the old one repaired).

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 18 Session 16: Social Problem Solving – Part I

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Prize box

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Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

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Complete introduction to problem solving from previous session (Session 15)

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Engage group in a problem-solving exercise

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets

Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Problem Identification Continue last week’s discussion about problem solving and the PICC Model. Last time we met we talked about the PICC Model—can anyone tell me what that refers to? (Wait for responses and prompt students as needed.) Remember how we talked about the importance of really knowing what a problem is before we try to solve it? (Wait for responses and prompt as needed.) Put the PICC Model on the dry erase board or flipchart so that all group members can see it. Problem Identification __________________ Pick it apart ⫽ Ask questions Choices

Consequences

Choose one of the following two exercises to illustrate how to “pick apart” a problem.

Exercise #1 – My Friends Won’t Let Me Play! Engage in the “pick it apart” procedure with a vague social problem. Introduce to the students the problem of a child not wanting to play with them. Using the PICC chart, try to determine more explicitly what the problem is. Here is the problem. My name is Tim and I have a friend named Bob. I see Bob walking in front of my house and I run outside to ask him if he wants to play with me. When I asked him he responded by

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saying “No” and kept on walking. Can you help me to figure out what the problem is? What questions should I ask myself? Make it appear as though you think that Bob doesn’t like you so you have decided that you are never going to ask him to play again. Obviously, this is not a good solution. Ask group members to help you come up with a different interpretation to the problem; ask them to provide you with a list of possible questions that you could ask so that you could be sure of what the problem is. For example: ■

When are the times he will not play with you (e.g., dinner time)?

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Is this all the time or only sometimes?

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What is he doing when he will not play with you?

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Are there other people around when you ask him to play?

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How do you ask him to play with you?

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Did he play with you in the past?

Offer responses to these questions and create a scenario in which the only times that Bob will not play are when he has to get home for dinner or when you ask him to play tennis, which is a game that Bob does not like. Point out that one way to solve the problem would be to ask him to do something else besides play tennis—find out what games he likes to play or approach him after dinner is over.

Exercise #2 – Parent-Child Conflict Role-play a situation that involves a parent-child conflict. Either you or your co-leader can play the part of the parent, while one of you takes on the role of the child. The basic scenario to portray is one in which the child asks the parent if he can go to the mall or stay up an hour later to watch a TV show, and the parent says, “No! I asked you to clean your room today, and your room is still a mess.” Ask group members to define the problem in the situation. If the child suggests the problem is that “Mom is not fair” or that “I never get to do what I want,” discuss how this problem definition may actually hinder problem solving,

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because there is little that the child can do to resolve the problem. Here are some suggested questions to ask the group members. ■

What is the problem according to the mom?

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What is the problem according to the child?

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When would this be a problem?

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How did this problem emerge?

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What is the child’s goal?

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What is the parent’s goal?

Problem Identification and Solution Formation Introduce the relationship between problem identification and solution generation by having the children play a game. The goal of the game is for students to come up with 10 solutions to a problem in 5 minutes. If they can come up with 10 solutions, each group member earns one extra point for the session; if they can’t, the group does not earn any extra points. You may use the following sample dialogue to introduce the game: Now we are going to have you play a game. What we want you to do is to try to think of 10 different solutions to this problem (refer children to the page in the workbook entitled, These Boys Have a Problem to Solve). This is a picture of three boys, and the middle boy is saying, “I can help them solve this problem.” We want you to think of as many solutions to this problem as you can. We want you to do this as fast as you can—the solutions can be good solutions or bad solutions, it doesn’t matter. We will write down your solutions as you come up with them. Ready? Go! Either you or your co-leader should record the solutions as they are generated and keep them in list format on the far side of the dry erase board or flipchart. You will use the rest of the board for the second part of the exercise. Possible solutions include: 1. Try to get the two boys to talk to each other. 2. Help his friend Dan by hitting Tom.

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3. Go tell a teacher that there is a fight on the playground. 4. Convince Dan that it is not worth getting in trouble and they should just leave. 5. Go get a basketball and see if they will play a game and become friends again. 6. Refer the boys to peer mediation. 7. Tell Tom he will get his brother to beat him up if he hits Dan again. 8. Say to Tom that they do not like to be hit by other kids. 9. Ask Dan if he wants to come over to his house and get away from this place. 10. Begin to talk about the fun things that they did at school that day. Following this exercise, categorize the solutions students generated into more general solution types. For example, you can use the following categories to help the children understand that there are some general ways to classify solutions: ■

Help Seeking

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Verbal Assertion

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Direct Action

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Physical Aggression

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Verbal Aggression

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Compromise or Bargaining

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Avoidance or Nonconfrontation

This type of categorization will help students to develop more complete ideas of how problems can be solved, and they will learn that there are several different types of solutions within each category. Write down the general categories on the dry erase board or flipchart.

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Set Weekly Goals

Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 19 Session 17: Social Problem Solving – Part II

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Identify and evaluate consequences for solutions

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Demonstrate the difference between automatic thinking and deliberate thinking

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Set new weekly goals

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Assign homework

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Identifying Consequences for Solutions To begin today’s session, ask the group for a definition of a consequence. So far, we have talked a lot about how we should define a problem. We have said that we need to look at problems from many different angles or viewpoints so we can get a complete understanding of what is going on. We have also talked about the importance of generating many solutions for a problem so we can evaluate the solutions and choose the best one. What we haven’t talked about is how we actually evaluate our choices. How do we know which choice is the best one? Wait for the group to respond. Praise anyone who comes up with the notion of looking at consequences or outcome. If nobody comes up with an answer, ask the group the following question: “Has anyone heard of the word consequence?” If someone has, ask that child to tell the rest of the group what the word means. If no one has heard the word before, explain to students that a consequence is what happens as a result of something you do, or it is what happens after you do something. Provide a simple example of a consequence such as, “What happens if you leave a chocolate bar in the car on a hot day?” (Answer: It melts.) “Melting is the consequence that is associated with your behavior of leaving your chocolate bar in the car on a hot day.” Present a problem to the group (you may use one of the problem situations generated in a previous group session) and brainstorm solutions (good and bad) using the PICC format: Problem Identification ________________ Pick It Apart ⫽ “Ask questions” Choices

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Consequences

Once all the solutions have been generated, ask group members to identify what the consequences are for each solution. It is also useful to ask group members to state what the goal is for each of the solutions and to encourage their recognition of the relationship between problem definition, the goal being pursued, and the solutions that are generated. Examples of questions to be asked during the discussion are: ■

What would be the consequence for this solution?

■

What would happen after this solution was used?

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What else might happen?

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What else might the other person do?

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What else might the other person feel?

Generate several consequences for each solution. The point of the preceding exercise is to introduce the idea that there are often several consequences for one solution and, if you want to make a good decision, you must think of all the possible consequences.

Evaluating Consequences Using the consequences that have been generated to the problem situation just described, ask group members, “How can you tell if a consequence is ‘good’ or ‘bad’? What makes a consequence good versus bad?” Introduce the idea that a consequence is good if it helps the person to reach an important goal. It may be useful to discuss the difference between long-term and short-term goals (e.g., fighting may help to reach the short-term goal of feeling strong/important/tough but may get in the way of reaching the long-term goal of doing well in school, having a good job, staying out of trouble). Using the PICC chart with consequences listed, ask group members to rate each of the consequences as either good or bad or okay. Then ask group members to indicate which of the possible solutions generated would be the best solution based on the consequences. This further illustrates the idea that there may be several options or choices in every situation, and there may be several consequences for each solution.

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“When making a decision, it is useful to think about all the consequences and think about what you want to have happen and make your choice based on the solution that will help you achieve that goal.” The point of this exercise is to convey to the group members that, in order to make good choices, we must evaluate the consequences of our choices. Refer children to the Problem Solving – PICC Model in the workbook and review.

Automatic Responding Versus Thinking Ahead: Part One The following exercise is designed to teach children to recognize the difference between solutions that are generated in an automatic mode of responding and those that are generated when people think before responding. It is important to convey to the students the idea that if they are able to stop and think before responding, they will often be able to think of better solutions. Engage the children in a game where they think of as many possible solutions to a problem as they can. Again, you may use a problem situation generated in a previous group session. Instruct group members to respond to you as quickly as possible, giving you every possible solution they can think of. Children should say the first thing that pops into their heads, regardless of whether the solution is “right” or “wrong” or “good” or “bad.” Either you or your co-leader should record all of the responses on the dry erase board or flipchart. Do not evaluate any of the solutions offered, but instead ask for clarification if a solution is not clearly delineated (e.g., “Why do you think that would solve the problem?” Or “How would that solve this problem?”). If a child offers a solution that is a variation of a solution previously mentioned, point out that this is a variation and then list it with the solutions generated. After generating a long list of solutions, ask group members to identify the consequences for these solutions and evaluate the consequences in terms of being good (⫹⫹), okay (⫹), or bad (⫺).

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Group Leader Note: ■

You will need a copy of the solutions and the consequence ratings so you can compare them to the new ones that will be generated in a similar exercise to be conducted next week. Be sure to write them down and have them available for next week.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the Goal Sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed Goal Sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Homework

✎ Instruct the children to complete the Problem-Solving Worksheet in the workbook and bring it to next week’s session. The target problem can be one experienced at home, in school, or in the community. The solution should be carried out and the consequences noted in the space provided. Encourage group members to think before responding and to evaluate all available options. Remind group members that they will receive two points for completing the assignment.

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Chapter 20 Session 18: Social Problem Solving – Part III

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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List of solutions generated by group during Session 17 (recorded by group leader)

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Pictures or object representations for use with boat activity (optional)

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Prize box

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Review previous session and homework

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Complete discussion of the value of thinking ahead

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Illustrate how decisions are made, based on consequences

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review children’s completed Problem-Solving Worksheets. Group members who completed their homework should receive two points. Discuss the target problems, choices, and consequences.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Automatic Responding Versus Thinking Ahead: Part Two Remind the children of last week’s discussion regarding generating solutions to problems and the game they played in which the group generated multiple solutions to a particular problem. Explain to the children that today the group is going to play a similar game, but instead of generating all the answers they can possibly think of, they are going to think about the consequences of each solution and identify only those they think will have good outcomes. Stress the importance of thinking through the consequences of the solutions before choosing one. Use the same real-life problem that was used during last week’s exercise. After solutions have been generated, ask group members to look at the two lists of solutions (one from today and one from the previous session) and decide which list has better ideas on it. Ask group members to generate the consequences for each of the solutions offered in today’s exercise and then rate the consequences as good (⫹⫹), bad (⫺), or okay (⫹). Point out that, in general, people can come up with better solutions if they stop to think about the following things: ■

What is the problem?

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What do I want to see happen?

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What are my choices for solving this problem?

This sequence usually produces better results than if the person simply responded without thinking about the choices first.

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Remind group members to use breathing techniques (see Session 11) or other methods to help them calm down before they make a decision. Inform them that right now the focus is on their ability to “stop and think,” rather than their ability to think quickly. This is because they are at the early stages of learning how to make good decisions, and because of this they need to proceed slowly. As children get better at making good decisions they will be able to do so faster and the whole process will not seem as tedious and difficult. One way to explain this to the group is to use the metaphor of learning to play a new video game. Learning how to make good decisions is like learning to play a new video game. The first few times you play a new game you need to really think about what you are doing and how to win the game. You make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes. After playing the game for a while, you can play without thinking very much, and your playing becomes much more automatic. It is the same for solving problems. First you will have to stop and really think about what options are available and what the consequences are for each solution. But after a while, your responding will become much more automatic and you will not have to think as much as you do now.

Trouble at Sea Exercise This exercise is designed to introduce and extend the concept of consequence identification and to assist students in better understanding the problem-solving process. Explain that the group as a whole will be discussing a situation and that they must come to some agreement regarding items to keep and items to discard. (An optional way to complete this activity is to give the list of items to all the students and ask them to decide which items they would keep and which items they would throw overboard.) Having pictures of the objects, or the actual objects themselves, to help demonstrate this exercise generally heightens the level of interest and participation among the group members. Explain the story as follows: You are all members of a fishing party on a boat that has run into bad weather and has some engine trouble several miles from shore.

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The captain of the boat has told you that because of the rough weather the boat needs to be lighter in order to make it through the storm and to avoid sinking. You as members of the crew need to decide which items to keep and which items to throw overboard. You need to decide as a group the order in which you throw the following items overboard.

1. Box of matches 2. Radio (ship to shore) 3. Compass 4. Navigational map 5. 10 gallons of water 6. Signal flares 7. Life rafts 8. 100 feet of rope 9. Flashlight 10. Life jackets Allow group members five minutes to discuss the problem and decide which items would be thrown overboard first. Encourage students to identify the consequences for throwing each item overboard, and to use the identified consequences in their decisions about which items to keep and which items to discard. Ask group members:

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What was the problem in this situation?

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Did different people have different ideas about which items to throw overboard?

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How did you decide which items to keep and which ones to throw overboard?

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Did thinking about the consequences help you decide which items to keep?

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 21 Session 19: Social Problem Solving – Part IV

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Prize Box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Introduce the notion of timing in relation to problem solving

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Reinforce persistence in problem solving

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

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Problem-Solving Etiquette During this portion of the session, you will introduce to the group ideas regarding when and when not to try and solve problems. Refer children to the Basics of Problem Solving handout in their workbooks and ask them the following questions: 1.

“When are good times to approach another person to discuss a problem?”

Elicit or shape responses that include the following: ■

All people involved in the conflict have time to talk about and resolve the problem

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All people are calm

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When the discussion is held in a private setting 2.

“When are bad times to try to talk to another person about a problem?”

Elicit or shape responses that include the following: ■

When you or the other person is very angry

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When the other person is busy with something or is trying to finish something

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When you are too busy to be able to focus on problem solving

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When the setting is not private and needs to be 3.

“What are some things to avoid when trying to talk to another person about the problem?”

Elicit or shape responses that include the following:

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Blaming the other person

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Guessing the other person’s intentions (if unsure of what the other person’s intention was, it is better to ask, rather than tell them what you think it was)

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Making broad generalizations (be concerned with a specific problem and be specific when talking to the other person; avoid making statements that include the words “you always”)

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Bringing up old and irrelevant issues (i.e., the past should not be brought into the current problem)

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Attacking or putting down the other person

Obstacles and Persistence to Overcoming Them Introduce the idea of obstacles and persistence in dealing with them. Recall the idea of “barriers” that was discussed in Session 3 on goal setting. Ask the group, “Who can remember what a barrier is?” Elicit/shape a response that a barrier is something that gets in the way of achieving a goal by asking the group the following: ■

Are there things that could get in the way of your meeting your goal?

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What might get in the way of this solution working?

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What are some of the things that might happen so that this solution would not work?

Elicit from group members some potential barriers to this resolution. Introduce the idea of having “back-up” or alternative solutions at hand in case the first solution doesn’t work for some reason. You may use the following example: Your goal is to improve your math grade. The first solution is to spend more time on your math homework. A potential barrier may be that although you are spending more time doing your math homework, you are still having difficulty understanding how to do it. Ask group members the following: ■

What can you do if the first solution you try doesn’t work?

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Are there any other solutions you can try?

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Why is it useful to have several possible solutions in mind when facing a problem?

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Solvers and Blockers Exercise The following exercise is designed to reinforce the idea of obstacles and involves playing a game called “Solve That Problem.” This game is conducted in a game show format. Divide the group into two teams, each with an approximately equal number of members. Toss a coin to see which team will be the Solvers and which team will be the Blockers. The basic idea of this game is that there will be one team determining solutions to a problem and deciding on the best solution, while the opposing team will try to think of “blocks” or obstacles that would cause that solution not to work and reasons why that solution might fail. The categories for this game are peer conflict and conflicts with friends. The Solvers can choose the category in which they want to solve a problem. Present them with a problem from the Solve That Problem page in the workbook and give them 2 minutes to think of several different solutions (need to come up with at least three alternatives) and to choose the solution they believe would work best. Once The Solvers have indicated their solution choice, give The Blockers 2 minutes to think about different obstacles to the proposed solution and to present the best (or most difficult to overcome) obstacle to that solution. Give The Solvers another 2 minutes to think about alternative solutions for coping with the obstacle and to decide upon the best solution, after which The Blockers have 2 minutes to think of the best (most difficult) obstacle to this proposed solution. Continue this game until either no new blocks or no new solutions can be formed by the respective teams. You and your co-leader will make all judgments about the appropriateness/relevancy of the solutions and blocks. In terms of keeping score, The Solvers will receive five points for each solution they generate and The Blockers will receive five points for each block they generate. Once no new solutions or blocks can be generated, the game is over. The team scoring the highest number of points wins the game (these points are used for the game only and are not to be used for rewards or prizes). If time permits, have the teams switch roles and play again.

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Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 22 Session 20: Group Creates Videotape – Part I

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Copy of a previous group’s problem-solving video, if available

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Videotape player/television

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Video camera equipment

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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View and discuss problem-solving video, if available

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Discuss video project with the group and begin planning and organizing

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Set new weekly goals

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Assign homework

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

The primary purpose of this session is to begin working on a videotape, which is used for the children’s behavioral rehearsal of choices. This process helps to consolidate the problem-solving model, as the children are involved in writing the script for the videotape

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and, therefore, need to generate the problem, solutions, and consequences, as well as to enact the written script. Through this process, group members should develop a better working knowledge of the social problem-solving process and become more competent at enacting the different choices. Group leaders should reinforce children’s efforts at in vivo problem solving during the videotape production (e.g., reinforce group members who are able to resolve differences of opinion about videotaping). Finally, the videotape can be shown during the parent sessions to demonstrate their knowledge of effective problem solving (with the group members’ consent).

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Present Videotape Project Inform students that over the next three sessions, the group will create a videotape showing them using the problem-solving approach to resolve a conflict. You may use the following sample dialogue: We want to spend the next three weeks making a videotape of ourselves using the PICC model that we have been talking about. What we are going to do is make an advertisement that tells people about how to problem solve using the PICC model. This will take all three sessions and we will have to work very hard to get it completed in that time. This is a very fun exercise but in order to make it work,

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we all have to work together as a team. That means we all need to contribute to creating the script and all have to behave appropriately. Introduce the concept of this videotape more fully by showing a sample video from last year’s Coping Power Program, if available. If this is the first year of the program, skip this section and move right into a discussion of how to create the first group video. After viewing the sample video, ask group members questions such as: ■

What was the problem in this videotape?

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What were the solutions that they used?

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Which was the best choice?

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Which solutions/choices used anger control?

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Can you think of any other choices/solutions that he could have used?

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What would be the consequences for those solutions?

Guide the children in a discussion of the format of the video by saying the following: Let’s think about how we are going to make our video. It is probably best if we start out by making an introduction for the audience. This will be the only part of the activity that we will write a script for, the rest we will talk about and act out as we go along. In the introduction, we should tell the audience what we are doing and why we are doing it. So, why are we making this video? Shape/elicit a response that indicates the video will depict the social problem-solving model, the steps that are used to cope with angry feelings, and the best way to use coping skills when a problem occurs. Write down the introduction that the children would like to use for the video. It is very likely that the children will need a lot of active guidance by you and your co-leader. Do not hesitate to provide options from which the children can choose or provide much of the material for the introduction. However, keep in mind that one of the goals is for the children to feel that they created the video so be sure to solicit ideas rather than dictate. You should have some idea of what the primary problems for group members might be and should suggest two or three

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of these as potential problems to be videotaped. Ask group members to provide other suggestions. Write down all possible problems that are generated and have group members select the problem they would like to use for the videotape. Avoid using problem situations that seem unsolvable or that would not be conducive to videotaping, such as intense physical confrontations or fighting. Appropriate situations for the video include those that have been associated with lower to middle ranges of anger arousal on the anger thermometer in prior group activities.

Planning for Taping Using the Camera You and your co-leader need to be sure that the lighting and the area to be used are conducive to taping. You may want to have the children act out something so you can practice. Be careful that they do not become overstimulated while doing this. Ask children to step in and out of camera range so they know where they should be when carrying out the exercise.

Assigning Roles Determine who will present the introduction that had been developed earlier (this could be a group member who cannot be videotaped for some reason and the child can simply talk, or one child who presents particularly well when speaking, or several group members can present the introduction by having each child state a portion of the introduction, etc.). Ask group members to think about the best way to present the problem situation for the videotaped version and record the ideas generated for the script. Do not write a complete script but simply jot down ideas and the actions that need to be depicted. If there is enough time, go through a trial run without videotaping. Make the necessary adjustments and then tape a trial run. Once the practice video has been completed,

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watch the tape and ask group members: “Was the problem presented in the best way? Is there anything you want to change about what people did or said? Is there a better way to present the problem?” Once the problem stem or situation has been completed, group leaders can tie the videotaping back into perspective-taking by asking group members what the problem is according to each person depicted in the problem situation. If there is time, have a group member act out an aside on the video, in which he presents verbally what the problem is from each person’s perspective. Alternatively, the group members who have acted out the problem situation can each act out an aside, in which they present the problem from their perspective.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 23 Session 21: Group Creates Videotape - Part II

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Practice video created last session

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Written materials related to videotape formation

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Videotape player/television

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Video camera equipment

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Prize box

■

Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Begin filming video—record three to four solutions to the chosen problem

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Depict the consequences associated with each solution on the tape

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Continue Videotape Production Inform group members that today’s session will be spent filming solutions to the problem they chose last week as the focus of the video. Review the practice tape filmed at last week’s session and let the children know that today the group will film the final version. First, ask the children to list different solutions for the particular problem and record responses on the dry erase board or flipchart. Provide encouragement if needed and suggest solutions involving verbal assertion, bargaining, compromise, and/or negotiation, if the group members do not generate these types of solutions on their own. Once the solutions have been identified, ask group members to decide which solutions they would like to videotape (choose three or four), and be sure to discuss the consequences associated with each of the chosen solutions. Videotape each solution (this will take the rest of this session and the next). If desired, you may show the group the taped solution after each enactment. One note of caution is that it is sometimes difficult to get back to the exact point where you ended, so the final video may appear choppy. Also, it is better to not have group members view enacted solutions in which they were acting silly; this will reinforce the silliness and will make it more difficult to complete this task. Discontinue taping if children become silly to stop reinforcement for this type of behavior.

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Following the taping/review of each solution, ask group members: ■

Was this the way we want the solution to look?

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Is there anything we should have done differently?

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Is everyone happy with this taped solution?

Re-tape solutions until the group as a whole is satisfied with the result. During the course of the videotape production, be sure to comment on and reinforce children’s attempts at problem solving. For example, group members can disagree about the wording for solutions or about which solutions are best for videotaping. When these disagreements are identified and resolved among group members, congratulate children on being able to resolve problems in an appropriate manner.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 24 Session 22: Group Creates Videotape – Part III

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Practice video created last session

■

Written materials related to videotape formation

■

Videotape player/television

■

Video camera equipment

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Complete videotape production

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Review material learned during the year

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Complete Videotape Production Review (discuss or watch) the problem-solving videotape created last week. Ask group members to recall other solutions they wanted to enact and videotape, and write these on the dry erase board or flipchart. Have members enact, record, and review the remaining solutions. Following the taping/review of each solution, ask group members: ■

Is this the way we want the solution to look?

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Is there anything we should have done differently?

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Is everyone happy with this taped solution?

Re-tape solutions until the group as a whole is satisfied with the result. Once group members are satisfied with each individual solution, watch the entire videotape. Ask group members why it was useful to develop this videotape and what they were able to learn from this process. Also, be sure to ask all members for consent to view the video during parent meetings. ALL members must agree to show the tape or it cannot be shown at all. Again, reinforce group members’ attempts at problem solving during the course of the videotape production.

Review Group Material and Prepare for Summer Review with the group material from Sessions 1–22. You may use the following sample dialogue: You all have worked very hard this year in the group meetings and we hope you have learned a lot about coping with difficult situations. The videotape we just watched is a great demonstration of your

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knowledge and coping skills. Now we would like to take an opportunity to review all of the things you have learned this year. What are some of the things that you have learned in the Coping Power group? Encourage group members to list skills they have learned during the first year of group. Write these on the dry erase board or flipchart as they are generated. Make sure that the list includes the following: ■

Setting long-term goals

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Setting short-term goals

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Organizational skills

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Study and homework skills

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Identifying feelings in self

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Identifying feelings in others

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Recognizing triggers for various feelings

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Being aware of physical changes in your body related to feelings

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Calming down through deep breathing and relaxation techniques

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Self-control and anger coping through coping statements and other techniques (e.g., doing something else)

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Taking others’ perspective and avoiding misunderstandings

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Trying to understand others’ intentions to avoid problems

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Problem solving—identifying the problem, generating choices, and selecting the choice with the best possible consequence for everyone involved (demonstrated wonderfully in the PICC videotape!)

Summarize for the group by saying: That is a lot that you have learned! Now, all you have to do is remember these coping skills and use them. These are not just for use at school, but can be used for all kinds of difficult situations, such as at home and in your neighborhood. Who agrees to work on using these coping skills over the summer break? These types of coping skills will also be useful as you start 6th grade and are faced with new types

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of social situations and different academic demands. Once 6th grade gets started, you will attend Coping Power group at your new middle school as well (for a total of 12 sessions in 6th grade). This will allow you to learn more coping skills and learn ways to apply things you already know, such as the PICC model, to new situations that arise in middle school. Encourage group members to accept the invitation to use their new coping skills throughout the summer. Answer any remaining questions about the conclusion of the 5th-grade group or about next year’s 6th-grade group.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Coping Power Child Program Year 2

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Chapter 25 Session 23: Review From Previous Year

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Three-Strike System poster (from Session 1)

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Point System poster (from Session 1)

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Materials for review game (board game spinner and review questions)

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Prize box

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Review group purpose and structure

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Review curriculum material from year one of the program

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Reinitiate goal setting procedure

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

This session is designed to take place at the beginning of the student’s second year of involvement in the Coping Power Program. In preparation for this first meeting, group leaders will need to familiarize themselves with Sessions 1–22. It would be helpful to have one or both group leaders meet with each student individually prior to the initial group meeting. This can serve both to establish a relationship with the student as well as allow time

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to begin formulating a list of potential goals that the student will work on during the remainder of the program. Given that the students have not been participating in group sessions over the summer, one of the primary purposes of this session will be to review the content and process of the previous 22 sessions. In addition, review of content from Session 1 will assist group leaders in reestablishing the group format and structure.

Review General Purpose and Structure of the Program Introduce yourself and your co-leader to group members and provide a brief overview of the program to students. Also discuss time, frequency, and number of group meetings to be held during the year. Year 2 of the Coping Power Program is comprised of 12 sessions that occur once per week, usually during the 6th grade. Review the general idea regarding the purpose of this group and ask, “Who can remember why we began meeting in this group? Why do you think this is called the Coping Power Program?” Elicit or shape a response that indicates that children can increase or strengthen their coping skills in this group. It is important to convey to the group that, “We are not trying to teach you to stop being angry, but rather to learn new ways of responding when you are angry, so that you are making smarter choices and think through problems when they do happen.” Ask the students about any problems they encountered over the summer months or since the start of school this year that led to anger or caused a problem for them. Ask them to talk about how they coped with these situations. Have them discuss times they were able to cope effectively with problem situations and times when they were unable to do so. See if any of them remembered to use the Problem-Solving (PICC) model (see Session 15) and pick apart the problem. Have group members discuss situations that continue to be difficult for them, or that continue to make them angry, and what they do when they encounter these difficult situations. Record the students’ responses on the dry erase board or flipchart so they can be used for the goal-setting section of today’s session.

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Getting Acquainted/ Achieving Group Cohesion The following activities can help the children get to know one another and build group cohesion. Alternatively, you may choose an activity described in Session 1 (e.g., Pass the Ball, group naming task). Making a Flag: Have group members construct a flag with paper, cloth, or other material. For this task, group members would first need to decide what symbol they want on their flag, and then work cooperatively to construct this symbol. Interview Task: Have group members pair up and interview each other (ask each other questions like “What is your favorite food?” “What kinds of sports do you like?” “What are your favorite activities?” etc.) for approximately 5 minutes. Then, instruct them to introduce the student they interviewed to the rest of the group.

Group Rules Remind the children of the rules from last year’s group (see Session 1). Encourage members to come up with rules for this year. They can be the same rules from the previous year or they can be different. Have students take turns writing down the rules on the dry erase board or flipchart. Have all group members generate rules. If a student offers a “strange,” unclear, or silly rule, try to reframe this into a useful rule. General rules for the group should include: ■

No physical contact

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No name-calling

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No swearing

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Arriving on time

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Having a positive attitude

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Not interrupting each other

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Keeping everything private (confidentiality)

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Following directions

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Point System Review the procedure for earning points (see Session 1). Ask the children if they remember how they can earn points in group. Have them generate responses and record them on the dry erase board or flipchart. Points can be earned for the following: ■

1 point for following the rules

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1 point for positive participation

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2 points for completing homework assignments

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1–5 points for achieving weekly goals

Remember to display the point system poster from last year in a visible space at every group meeting.

The Three-Strike System Remind students of the three-strike system where each child is given three chances or warnings before losing a point for not following rules (see Session 1). Be sure to display the three-strike system poster at every session.

Positive Participation Review with children the concept of positive participation and how they can use it to earn points. Responding meaningfully to questions from leaders or other group members, raising important points related to the discussion, and engaging in activities are examples of ways in which children can positively participate in group.

Rewards for Earning Points Remind children that, like last year, they can use their points for certain rewards. Children can still “buy” items from the prize box, but now that

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they are in middle school, prizes will cost more than they did in the previous year. Children can also combine their points to earn a pizza party or other group reward at the end of the program. The reward should be based on reaching a certain percentage (e.g., 75%) of the total possible points for the group.

Goal Setting Review the goal-setting procedure with the group (see Session 1). Ask children if they can remember the definition of a goal and the difference between long-term and short-term goals. Have students generate longterm goals for themselves, or ask them to decide on a goal that they would like to work on during the course of this school year and the types of things they might like to change in themselves through their work in this group. Have students identify the short-term behavioral goals they need to reach in order to achieve their chosen long-term goal and choose one to use as their weekly goal. Like last year, children will record their weekly goals on the goal sheets in the workbook.

Optional Review Game This optional activity is designed to help reinforce the material covered during year 1 of the program. The game provides an opportunity for group leaders to see how much information students retained from their previous experience in the program. It also provides an engaging and fun format for students to demonstrate their newly learned skills. Have available a board game spinner with numbers on it and predetermined program review questions that correspond to the numbers. Have the children take turns spinning the game piece. Whatever number the arrow lands on will determine the question the child will be asked. Award one point for every correct answer. Points can be used to purchase prizes from the prize box, or simply be calculated as game points to see who wins this particular game.

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Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 26 Session 24: Organizational and Study Skills Review

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Materials for optional organization and study skills activities (stopwatch, students’ book bags, sets of words on different colors of paper, index cards listing positive and negative study skills) (see Session 4)

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Teach children ways they can improve their academic organizational skills

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Review study skills for school and homework skills at home

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Set new weekly goals

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Assign homework

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

The primary purpose of today’s group meeting is to reintroduce and reinforce the skills covered last year in Session 4 (Organizational and Study Skills). The goal will be to convey to students some appropriate study and organizational skills that may help them achieve more in school.

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Strategies for Achieving School Success Introduce the topic for today by discussing the transition to middle school and the concomitant increase in homework and study demands that teachers may make on students. You may use the following sample dialogue: Now that you are in middle school there will be more expected from you in terms of taking responsibility for your schoolwork. There will be an increase in homework that will require you to spend more time on your studies. In addition, teachers will be expecting more from you both in class and in assuming more independence in terms of completing assignments and other schoolwork on your own. This means that you may need to develop new skills in order to meet these new demands. What do you think are the most important skills needed in order to do well in school? At this time, you may ask students if they can recall anything from the previous session on organizational and study skills. Use the information from Session 4 to facilitate discussion. Be sure to reiterate how taking greater responsibility of homework and other school assignments can decrease frustration and help students to feel less angry in general at school.

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Organizational and Study Skills Role-Play To illustrate the importance of good organizational and study skills, you may wish to conduct a role-play exercise. You or your co-leader will play the role of the parent while the other acts out the part of the child. Roleplay a scene in which a parent and child are in the den watching TV. When the show ends, the parent says, “It’s 9 p.m. and time to go to bed.” The child opens up his or her book bag, takes out several pieces of crumpled paper, and says that he or she forgot about a homework assignment that is due in the morning. The child also discovers a science project that is due later in the week that he or she hasn’t started. The parent says to the child, “What are all these loose papers in your book bag?” and “Where is your assignment book?” The child looks puzzled. Parent and child sit down together to organize materials and plan for a regular structured study schedule. Make sure to include organizational skills, study skills, and long-term assignment planning in your role-play. Generate discussion utilizing the Problem-Solving (PICC) model to illustrate the objective of the session. Have students pick apart the role-play identifying the problem, choices, and consequences.

Optional Activities Following are a number of optional activities that can also be used to illustrate the importance of organization and good study skills. Repeating one or more of the exercises from last year may be very beneficial. Choose either an organizational or study skills activity to reinforce the objective of this section (See Session 4 for full instructions on games).

Book Bag Organization As was done in Session 4, you can instruct the children to bring their book bags to today’s session and conduct a contest to see who can organize their bag the best and/or find particular items (e.g., a ruler, a pencil, etc.) the quickest. You can use a stopwatch to time the children.

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Word Organization You may use the same words for this activity as you used last year in Session 4, or you may create new ones. Provide each child with a set of words and instruct them to put the words into some sort of order. (Children can sort words alphabetically, by color of paper, by category, etc.) You can use the stopwatch to time the children and see who is able to organize the words the fastest.

Home/School Study Skills Write on the dry erase board or flipchart the following statement: “How to study so that I can do well in school.” Create two columns labeled home and school and solicit from group members skills they can use and record responses under the appropriate columns.

Study Skills Index Cards You may use the same index cards for this activity as you used last year in Session 4. Provide the group with the stack of cards, which list positive and negative study skills, and ask them to decide whether each idea would be useful or not for studying.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member. 200

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Ask the children to review the Study Skills at School handout in the workbook

✎ Have each student complete and return a new Homework Contract in the workbook (signed by both the student and parent) to the next group session. Remind group members that they can earn extra points for returning their homework.

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Chapter 27 Session 25: Application of Social Problem Solving to Teacher Conflict

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Problem-Solving Worksheet

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Prize box

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Review previous session and homework

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Enhance perspective-taking ability

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Discuss teacher’s perspective

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Practice problem solving with teacher conflicts

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Check that children signed, and had their parents sign, the Homework Contract in the workbook.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Understanding the Teacher’s Perspective Remind group members of the interviews they did with their teachers, and let them know that you and your co-leader have compiled the top 10 answers to the question, “What do you (teachers) expect from students in the classroom?” These answers will be used to engage the children in a game. Divide the group in half and ask each group to come up with the top 10 responses they think teachers gave to the question. Write the responses generated by the group on the dry erase board or flipchart. After they have provided their answers, discuss with the students why teachers may have selected these specific responses and how these items may impact a teacher in the classroom. Discuss the importance of understanding the needs and desires of others (teachers), in order to develop and improve relationships. (If you want, you can conduct this exercise in a “Family Feud” game show format and have the answers already prepared on slips of cardboard. When a student lists one of the top 10 answers, you turn over that slip and display the answer.) The following top 10 answers are actual results from surveys we conducted with schoolteachers. The top 10 answers in our survey were: 1. To be involved working and learning something. 2. To be happy or excited about learning something. 3. To participate.

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4. To be prepared and ready to work. 5. To be respectful. 6. To work to their best ability. 7. To follow the rules. 8. To be creative/have fun. 9. To pay attention and understand the material. 10. To seek out answers to questions they have. If audiotapes are available from the teacher interviews conducted earlier, you can replay portions of these interviews for the students to hear.

Use Problem-Solving (PICC) Model to Discuss Teacher Issues Problem Identification Have group members brainstorm about differences of opinion that have occurred or could occur between a teacher and a student, as well as possible differences in the perspectives of teachers and students. Try to focus this discussion on the teacher’s expectations for students in the classroom. You may use the following sample dialogue: What do teachers expect students to do in the classroom? If they expect you to do your work independently, how can you ask teachers for help when you need it? What do teachers expect from students in terms of homework? You may think that homework is boring or takes away from your free time, but your teachers probably think that homework is a great way to help you retain what you have learned in class. Refer children to the Problem-Solving Worksheet in their workbooks. Ask each child to write down a problem that they have with a teacher and use the worksheet to help generate solutions to that problem. Make sure that the form is filled out completely. You can go over this as a group activity, or have each student complete the form independently and review each one and assist as needed.

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Consequence Evaluation Have group members rate each consequence in terms of whether it is a good (⫹⫹), okay (⫹), or bad (⫺) consequence. Record the rating next to each consequence.

Develop a Plan Have group members decide what the best solution would be and then discuss possible obstacles for that solution. Repeat until you have discussed three or more possible solutions and their associated obstacles.

Role-Play Have group members role-play the problem situation and several alternatives. Ask each of them to choose a solution that has been rated ⫹⫹ or ⫹ and ask them to enact the solution with another group member acting as the teacher in the role-play.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 28 Session 26: Application of Social Problem Solving to Both Making Friends and Being Friends With Others

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Audiotape recorder

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Illustrate effective versus ineffective methods for joining in others’ activities

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Have children practice joining a group and/or making new friends

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Reinforce the positive qualities in the self that are important for joining activities and being a friend

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Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Joining in Activities and Making New Friends The purpose of this discussion is to introduce the importance of communication when joining a new activity, and when beginning to make friends with people that you do not know very well. For groups that are socially skilled, start the discussion by saying: We know that you are really good at making friends, and we want to see the best ways you know for how to make friends. For groups that are not as socially skilled, you may want to start by stating: It can be easy or hard to make new friends, and we wanted to spend the first part of our group today thinking about the best ways to make friends. What are all the ways that you can think for making new friends, or joining in with a group of kids who are already doing something together? Suggest to group members that, as they grow older, there will be times when they will make life changes (e.g., transition to middle school), and they will meet many new people and will want to develop new friendships. Ask group members to try to think of all possible choices or ways to make friends. Be sure to include the following ideas:

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■

Take a positive approach (e.g., smile, say “hi,” compliment others)

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Find things that you share in common

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Try not to be nervous

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Make eye contact

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Be kind

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Be considerate of others and their feelings

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Listen to others

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Show an interest in other people and their families

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Suggest doing an activity that could be done together

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Focus on positive qualities in people

The general idea is to convey ways or skills to make friends, in general. Once this list of positive or effective ways of making friends has been generated, ask members to name the opposite ways of trying to make friends for each method listed (e.g., not really listening to the other person, trying too hard, not making eye contact, being too friendly or too hostile).

Role-Play Have each group member role-play making friends. Children can use any one of the strategies identified or one of their own. Use modeling or feedback about the child’s portrayal of the different choices/strategies, as needed.

Positive Qualities of Self and Others The first component of learning how to develop friendships with others is to be able to recognize positive qualities in oneself that others would value in a friend. Engage the children in an exercise designed to assist them in recognizing their positive qualities that others would value. Use the following instructions: Now that we know the general things to do to make friends, we want you to think about things in yourself that others would like in a friend. What do you look for in a friend? What qualities are important for friends? For this activity you should have available pieces of paper that list the different characteristics that are important for friends to have. Display each trait or characteristic as children identify them. Important characteristics to include are: ■

Trustworthiness

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Honesty

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■

Respectful

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Thoughtful

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Good listener

These more general categories can be defined in behavioral terms for the children as well: ■

Sharing with others

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Keeping secrets

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Not talking bad behind a person’s back

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Becoming involved in things another person likes to do

If the children have difficulty generating these kinds of characteristics on their own, feel free to display the words and ask children to identify the behavioral characteristics of these general categories. Refer children to the page in the workbook entitled Making Friends Is Easier if . . .

Wanted: A Good Friend This next activity involves having each child identify the positive qualities in themselves that make them a good friend to others. Ask the students to take a few minutes and create an advertisement to sell themselves as friends. Instruct them to mention all the reasons they would make good friends, including any of the qualities previously discussed. Encourage children to also talk about the things they like to do, the activities they enjoy (e.g., sports, clubs), their favorite singers or music groups, their favorite foods, and anything else that describes them. Refer children to the sample friend advertisement in the workbook for ideas. Children will use the blank form in the workbook to create their ads. For groups where writing skills are an issue, you can use a tape recorder for this exercise, but written format would provide the children with a permanent copy of their work. Make sure to reinforce children for reporting positive activities they like and positive qualities about themselves. These are important aspects of children’s identity development that

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should be revisited in one-to-one sessions (see Chapter 2). Ask group members to share their advertisements with the group. Following this exercise, it may be beneficial to discuss with group members the idea that, even if you try all these strategies or use all the skills that were identified, it is still possible that someone will not want to be your friend. Introduce the idea that using these skills maximizes the possibility that one will make friends more easily, but it does not guarantee that this will happen.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 29 Session 27: Application of Social Problem Solving to Group Entry and Negotiation With Peers

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Ball

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Two-person games (checkers, Connect Four, etc.)

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Video camera equipment (optional)

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Videotape player/television (optional)

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Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Illustrate skills associated with successful group entry

■

Reinforce peer negotiation skills

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Entering an Existing Group Role-Play In order to convey the ideas of skills associated with successful group entry, you and your co-leader can conduct a role-play exercise. In this role-play you and your co-leader or other staff member will act out ineffective ways to join in with a group, and the children will be asked to indicate what was wrong with the entry approaches. For this roleplay, enlist one of the children from group to act as part of the group to be entered. One group leader and one child are playing catch with a ball. The other group leader attempts to join by walking up to the two individuals playing catch and saying loudly, “Hey! Can I play with you guys? Can I play catch? That really looks like fun.” During this exercise the leader playing the role of the joiner should try to stand very close to one of the people playing catch. The group leader throwing the ball should respond by saying, “No, we are playing together.” The person trying to join then says quietly, “Can I play catch with you?” without looking at either person. Again, the group leader throwing the ball should say, “We are playing catch with each other.” The person trying to join in should then say, “Well, it really looks like you are having fun playing catch. Do you think I could play with you in a few minutes?” The other group leader should then say, “Well, okay. How about if you give us a couple of minutes to play together and then you can play with us?” The person approaching then says, “I really would like to play this game with you now. Why don’t you throw me the ball?” Group Leader Note: ■

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If the group members identified other ineffective or negative ways of making friends or joining a group, you can incorporate these negative methods into the role-play. An alternate approach to the role-play would be for the leaders to combine the latter two communication difficulties and have the

person trying to join the group look down as he or she is asking to play in a few minutes. Following the role-play, ask group members to identify what the person trying to join the game did wrong. Responses may include all or some of the following: ■

Stood too close

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Too intrusive

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Tried to join in

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Did not look at the people playing the game

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Spoke too softly

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Did not listen to what the other person said

Use the Problem-Solving (PICC) Model with children and pick apart the problem of trying to join a group of kids who are already doing something. Ask the children to generate possible solutions (e.g., raise voice, make eye contact) and the consequences of each of those solutions.

Negotiating With Peers Role-Play In order to convey to children the basic ideas related to negotiating with peers, you and your co-leader can conduct a role-play exercise. In this role-play exercise you and your co-leader or other staff member sit down to play a two-person game (see Materials Needed section). Leader A starts off by saying, “I want to go first, so I think you should let me.” Leader B says in response, “You always get to go first. I want to go first this time.” Leader A then says, “I do not always go first, and I think that I should go first this time.” Leader B does not argue at this time and Leader A starts the game. After taking a couple of turns, Leader A says to the other, “Ha ha! I am winning! I can always play this game better than you.” Leader B says, “No you can’t. I usually win this game, and you do not play as well as I do.” At this point, you and your co-leader can stop

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the role-play and ask group members what the problem is. After group members have identified the problem (e.g., both people want to go first, one person was making fun of the other because he or she was not winning, one person was bragging), ask them what the two people could have done to avoid these problems, or how they could have helped the game go more smoothly (e.g., flip a coin, tell other person that she can go first and you will go first the next time, compliment the other person when she makes a good move, do not brag when you have made a good move, do not laugh at the other person). Discuss the importance of being skilled at negotiating with peers and being able to interact with a minimum amount of conflict. Point out to group members that the way they interact with their friends now will, in part, dictate how people view them, and can either help or hinder their ability to make friends in the future. People who are seen as friendly, caring, easygoing, and considerate have a much easier time making friends and getting ahead in life than do people who are inconsiderate, mean, and unpleasant to be around. Make sure that the children understand that this does not mean that they should act like a “pushover” and do anything that their friends want them to do because this type of behavior would also lead to problems in the future. Emphasize balance, as well as the ability to set appropriate limits in a polite and respectful manner.

Optional Exercise Place the two-person game on the table and instruct the group that they can play the game for the next several minutes. One child should be chosen to work with a group leader in observing and coaching the group members. Instruct the child to give feedback to any student who displays any of the positive behaviors listed during the game (e.g., while the players are engaged, the coach should be actively offering feedback on positive/prosocial game behaviors). You can determine how capable the child is of accurately noting these behaviors and assist him or her to the extent needed in the observation and coaching task. Observe the children and note how they decide who will begin to play and how they decide to take turns at the game. Also, observe sportsmanship and how

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the children respond to winning and losing. If possible, videotape this interaction. At the end of 5 minutes, inform the children that their time is up. Ask the child who was involved in the coaching to point out the behaviors she observed and who displayed the positive or more sportsmanlike behaviors. Then ask group members to comment on their decisionmaking process by asking the following questions: ■

How did you decide who would play first?

■

How did you decide who would go next?

Also ask group members to comment on their game-playing behavior. You may ask the following: ■

Was good sportsmanship shown?

■

Is there anything that people would or could have done differently to make the game go more smoothly?

If you videotaped the process, review the tape and ask members to comment on their own or other group members’ behavior in terms of the preceding questions.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 30 Session 28: Sibling Conflict and Problem Solving

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Identify and discuss issues pertaining to sibling conflict

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Role-play alternative solutions to problem situations with siblings

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

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Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Identifying and Dealing With Sibling Conflict Problem Identification Ask group members to brainstorm various conflicts that have occurred or that could occur between brothers and sisters. Choose one or two common and solvable problems, and first engage in a discussion related to problem definition and perspective taking by asking, “What is the problem here?” Break the problem down into manageable steps, that is, “I want to watch one show and my brother or sister wants to watch another show,” rather than “My brother or sister always gets to pick the show to watch,” or “My brother or sister can do more things than me because he or she is older,” rather than “My parents are always giving more to my brother or sister because they love him or her more than me.” Use the following questions to facilitate the discussion: ■

What is the problem from your perspective?

■

What is the problem from your sibling’s perspective?

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How can the two (or more) of you come to see the problem in the same way?

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How could you agree on what the problem is?

If group members have difficulty generating problems with siblings, you can suggest one of the following sibling conflict situations.

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■

Your sibling has a game that you want to use and he will not let you use it.

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Your sibling teases you.

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Your sibling has borrowed something of yours and has broken it.

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You want to use something that belongs to your sibling.

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Your sibling has broken a rule/cheated while playing a game with you.

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Your sibling is refusing to take turns.

Solution Generation Have group members brainstorm all possible choices and record these on the Problem-Solving Worksheet in the workbook.

Consequence Generation For each choice generated, ask group members to identify the possible consequences for that solution and record these on the form under the consequence section.

Consequence Evaluation Have students indicate whether they think each consequence is good (⫹⫹), okay (⫹), or bad (⫺). Have a group leader or a group member record the evaluation of each consequence.

Develop a Plan Ask group members to decide which solution would be the best to try first, and then generate possible obstacles to that solution. Next, decide on a backup solution and generate obstacles to that solution. Decide on a second backup solution and continue until the group feels as though they have used all the appropriate solutions.

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Role-Play At this point in the session you and your co-leader or other staff member will role-play a sibling conflict situation. The situation can involve one sibling feeling jealous of what another sibling receives from a parent. One leader states excitedly “Mom just said that I can go to the mall with friends tonight.” The other group leader says in response, “Mom never lets me go to the mall. They love you more than they love me.” Ask students the following questions and instruct them to record their responses on the Problem-Solving Worksheet: ■

What was the problem according to each child?

■

What is the real problem?

■

What are his choices in this situation?

■

What are the consequences for each solution?

■

What is the best choice?

Have students indicate whether they think each consequence is good (⫹⫹), okay (⫹), or bad (⫺), with group leaders or a group member recording the evaluation for each consequence.

Group Member Role-Play Ask each group member to choose one of the choices that has received a rating of either ⫹⫹ or ⫹ and ask him or her to enact that solution with another group member playing the role of the sibling. After each student has enacted the chosen solution, ask the other group members if they thought the student was able to enact the solution. Have each student take a turn acting out a solution. Group Leader Note: ■

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It is useful to discuss the idea that different strategies will work best with different sources of conflict. For example, ignoring, leaving, distracting, or using humor are most useful when the conflict involves teasing. Assertion works best if a sibling has used something without

asking, if a sibling has broken a rule/cheated, or if a sibling won’t take turns/share. Seeking adult assistance works best if one of the solutions has been tried and failed, or if a sibling refuses to help with an assigned group chore. This discussion can occur following any of the objectives in this session.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 31 Session 29: Application of Social Problem Solving to Peer Pressure

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Two-person games (checkers, Connect Four, etc.)

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Pictures (either hand-drawn or clipped from magazines, newspapers, comics, etc.) that depict the various categories of peer pressure (optional)

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Slips of paper listing different reasons children may give in to peer pressure (optional)

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Hat, box, or other container to put the slips of paper in (optional)

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Reinforce peer negotiation skills

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Illustrate and discuss peer pressure and why it works

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Discuss ways of resisting peer pressure and sharpening refusal skills

Outline

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Group Leader Note: ■

The homework assignment for next week is to collect pictures to make a poster depicting peer pressure and resisting peer pressure. Prior to this meeting, consult with the school’s principal to request permission to hang up the poster at the school. Also, do not forget to complete the individual meeting for this month and complete the Neighborhood Questionnaire with each student. This questionnaire can be found at the end of the chapter and will be used as part of the discussion for next week’s session.

Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

What Is Peer Pressure? The goal of this part of the session is to define peer pressure, identify the different types of peer pressure that exist, and to talk about the different activities and/or behaviors that peers can pressure children into. Introduce this topic by referring to a school-based substance use prevention program, if applicable. Let the children know that this is their chance to show how much they have learned through such programs. Ask group members: “Who can tell us what peer pressure is? What does the term peer pressure mean?” Solicit ideas from group members for a

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general definition of peer pressure, with the basic idea being that peers try to encourage you to engage in behaviors in which you are not sure you want to engage (e.g., people try to get you to do bad things, people try to talk you into trying something you do not know if you want to do, etc.). Following the generation of a general definition of peer pressure, ask group members to give different reasons why children will give in to peer pressure. Alternatively, instead of asking the children to generate reasons, you can write the general reasons from the list that follows on slips of paper and place them in a hat or a box. Choose a student to pick a reason from the hat and have her call on one or two other students in the group to act out a short skit depicting the particular reason. Repeat this exercise until each group member has had a turn acting. Or, you can present the children with pictures (either hand-drawn or clipped from magazines, newspapers, comics, etc.) that depict the various reasons for giving in to peer pressure and discuss as a group. The basic categories of reasons for giving in to peer pressure include: ■

Group acceptance (to be accepted by a group)

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Approval (so that other kids will like you)

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Repetition (someone keeps bugging you until you give in)

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Being threatened physically/socially (kids might give in because someone threatens to hurt them if they do not do it/threatens to tell everyone what a wimp/chicken they are)

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Being put down (kids do not want to be teased or put down)

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Reassurance (the other kids say that there is no way you can get caught)

Refusal Skills Have group members generate different ways to resist peer pressure. Ask students, “What are all the ways that you can think of for refusing peer pressure? What can you do or say when someone is trying to get you to do

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something you do not want to do?” Alternatively, instead of asking children to generate ideas of ways to resist peer pressure, you can model each of the refusal skills from the list that follows and ask group members to label the type of refusal. The general categories that should be elicited from the group members include: ■

Say “No thanks.”

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Broken record (“I don’t want any, I said I don’t want any, etc.”)

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Make an excuse (“Well, I really need to get home now”)

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Leave the situation

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Change the subject (“What did you think of the basketball game last night?”)

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Make a joke

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Act shocked (“I cannot believe you would think of asking me that!”)

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Flattery (“I thought you were great in the basketball game today!”)

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Suggest a better idea (“How about if we go shoot some baskets instead?”)

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Return the challenge (“Come on, you do not really mean that! Why would you want to do that anyway?”)

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Find other kids to hang out with

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Try to use peer mediation

Refer children to the page in the workbook entitled, How Can I Stop Feeling So Pressured? Be sure to write down all the ideas that group members have on separate pieces of paper to use in next week’s session. It is not necessary for children to identify every type of refusal skill, just as many as you feel is appropriate.

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Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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NEIGHBORHOOD QUESTIONNAIRE (Please use as a guide to your discussion during your next individual meeting) Child’s Name: _________________ School _________________ 1.

Describe your neighborhood for me. (Try to get an understanding for the general feel of the neighborhood and then move on to specific questions.)

2.

Where do you go to have fun in your neighborhood? How do you get there?

3.

Do you go to community centers, churches, or other activity centers during the week? Are these places located in your community? Do you belong to any organized teams or groups (like scouts or church choir)? Which ones? How often do you do these kinds of things?

4. Who do you like to hang out with in your neighborhood? Are they older or younger than you? What do you do together? How do you make new friends or meet people in your neighborhood?

5.

What kinds of things go on in your neighborhood? Are there places in your neighborhood that you don’t feel safe? What makes you feel unsafe? (Note: Probe for violence, drug use/sale, and other illegal activities if you consider it to be appropriate.)

6. Are there groups of kids in your neighborhood who get in trouble? Do you hang out with this group?

7. Are there groups of kids in your neighborhood who don’t get in trouble? Do you hang out with this group?

8.

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What do you like best about your community?

Chapter 32 Session 30: Refusal Skills

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

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Slips of paper listing different types of refusal skills (optional)

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Hat, box, or other container to put the slips of paper in (optional)

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Board game spinner (optional)

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Prize box

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Review previous session

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Reinforce idea of the difficulty handling peer pressure in groups

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Role-play refusal skills

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Role-play use of refusal skills when faced with peer pressure

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Begin consideration for poster depicting avoidance of peer pressure and related problems

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Set new weekly goals

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Assign homework

Outline

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Influence of Peer Pressure Group Leader Note: ■

Prior to today’s session, you should recruit a group member to help you with the following exercise. Be sure to choose a student who is influential with the other children.

Begin this portion of the session by engaging children in an exercise that illustrates the influence of peer pressure. Draw three different lines, all of the exact same length, in different orientations or on different places on the dry erase board or flipchart. After the three lines are drawn, ask group members, “Which line is longer?” The child you chose as a helper should do his best to convince the group that one of the lines is longer than the others, even though that is not the case. He should try to exert influence over the other children. Following this activity, ask group members the following questions:

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■

How did you decide which line was longer?

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Did anything help you to make up your mind?

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Did you decide to go along with the other group members in the decision or did you stick to your original idea?

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How did it feel to have someone try to convince you that your viewpoint was not right?

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Is it more difficult to resist peer pressure if this occurs when a group of kids is around?

Have a general discussion about how it can be difficult to maintain your point of view in the face of peer pressure.

Practice Using Refusal Skills The goal of this exercise is to have each group member role-play at least one and possibly two ways to refuse peer pressure (see Session 29 for a list of refusal skills). You may choose from the following options. 1.

Have each group member choose two or three of the refusal skills that they believe would work best for them. Each group member then role-plays these refusal skills in the face of pressure from another group member (or group leader).

2.

Write refusal skills on separate slips of paper (you may have done this already last week), fold them, and place them in a container so that the group members cannot see what is written on them. Each child chooses one refusal skill and then they role-play using this skill in a peer pressure situation. Another group member (or group members) and/or group leader tries to pressure him or her to do something. The group members watching the role-play try to guess what skill is being depicted.

3.

Use a board game spinner with numbers on it. Assign a refusal skill to each number and instruct the students to take turns spinning the game piece. Each group member then role-plays the refusal skill represented by the number spun in the face of pressure from either you or the other members of the group.

Role-Play Use of Refusal Skills During Peer Pressure The purpose of this activity is to role-play peer pressure. Have one child or group leader leave the room. The remaining people should decide on a situation or activity they want the person who left the room to engage in when he or she comes back in. Try to get the group to generate their

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own ideas (e.g., examples include erasing something important off the teacher’s board, taking someone’s pencil without asking). Instruct the students to try as hard as they can to get the person to do what they want. Instruct the person entering the room to try to resist the pressure using the refusal skills they had identified as skills that would work best for them. Be sure to coach this child and help him to recall and use these strategies, using prompts when needed. Following this role-play, ask group members questions such as: ■

How did the group try to pressure _____?

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What did they do or say?

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How did the other person try to resist the pressure?

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What did he do or say?

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How did it feel to be pressured?

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How did it feel to be the person doing the pressuring?

Open up discussion of real-life experiences with peer pressure. Ask each member to volunteer examples of times they have been successful at using refusal skills and times when they were unsuccessful. It may be helpful to provide your own real-life experiences and the outcome of both successes and failures.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

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Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Instruct group members to begin collecting pictures from magazines, newspapers, or other sources that depict peer pressure, ways to avoid peer pressure, and ways to avoid other problems that children encounter. If they want to draw something that reflects this theme, that would also be fine. The clippings/artwork will be used to create a poster that will be displayed somewhere in the school. This poster will be created during Session 32 and displayed for two weeks or more. Remember to award two points to each child for bringing in clippings for the next two weeks. If available, show children an example of a poster to help the group conceptualize what they will be doing.

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Chapter 33 Session 31: Problem Solving About Neighborhood Problems, Deviant Peer Groups, and Centrality of Group Membership

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Different sizes/colors of paper circles (optional)

■

Prize box

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Review previous session and homework

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Review weekly goal sheets

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Problem solve neighborhood problems using the PICC Model

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Identify groups of children who do things together or who hang out together

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Identify groups of children who get in trouble together and those who do not get in trouble

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Reinforce the idea of defining group membership

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Set new weekly goals

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Assign homework

Outline

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Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week. Check that children have begun collecting pictures that depict peer pressure. Remember to award two points to children who return homework.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal. Group Leader Note: ■

Prior to this session, you should meet with each child in the group individually to interview her about the neighborhood in which she lives and complete the Neighborhood Questionnaire (see previous session). Be sure to meet with your co-leader(s), if you have any, to discuss the completed questionnaires.

Our Neighborhoods This portion of the session is based on the individual interviews you conducted with group members. The main theme to keep in mind is that you want to talk about how to deal with peer pressure, deviant peer groups, and dangerous situations within the neighborhood environment. If the neighborhoods appear to be safe, discuss the issue using hypothetical situations that provide some enticement or temptation. You may use the following sample dialogue: As you may remember, we met with each of you to talk about issues in your neighborhood. We have looked at some of the answers you gave us to the neighborhood questionnaire and wanted to talk about these questions and your answers. Many of you indicated that _____ is a problem in your neighborhood. What are the ways that you try to

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cope with this problem? Are there any other ways you can try to cope with this problem? If appropriate, you may want to focus specifically on peer pressure. All of you may experience peers pressuring you or tempting you to become involved in activities in which you may not want to be involved. What are some of the possible things people could try to pressure you to do? Refer the children to the Problem-Solving Worksheet in their workbooks. Choose one community problem mentioned during the discussion and have the students complete the worksheet using the PICC model. Examples of questions that may get group members thinking are: ■

What are all the different ways that this problem could be coped with or handled?

■

Are there any adults who could be consulted if this problem really occurred?

■

Are there any other places or people in the neighborhood or community who could help you handle this problem?

It may be useful to raise the issue that different types of solutions are more or less appropriate depending on the situation (e.g., neighborhood versus the school). Ask group members to brainstorm different strategies that they think might work in the neighborhood and, after the list has been generated, ask the group members to rate each consequence as either good (⫹⫹), okay (⫹), or bad (⫺).

Assessment of Cliques/Clubs/Groups at School Group Leader Note: ■

If you or your co-leader is based at the school where the Coping Power Program is being conducted, it would be helpful to try to identify the different groups of children who hang out together at the school and to identify some relevant characteristics of these groups. This information can then be used for facilitating the following discussion with group members if they appear to be having difficulty identifying groups at their school.

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The purpose of this exercise is to assist group members with defining different types of groups and the characteristics of the different groups at school. One of the functions of this exercise is to begin having children identify the different groups that they could become involved in, and the groups that could have a positive influence on them. You may use the following sample dialogue to introduce the exercise: Today we wanted to talk about the different kids you hang out with at school and to what kinds of groups kids at your school belong. We already talked about some of the groups and some of the pressures that you experience in your neighborhood. Now, we want to focus on the people and groups of people who hang out together at school. Who are the kids you like to hang out with? Who would you choose to play with or eat with or talk to? Once group members have identified the children they prefer to be around, ask them to think about groups of children who prefer to be together. Ask, “Are there groups of kids that you like to hang out with? Are there other groups of kids who hang out together?” Write these names on the flipchart, leaving room next to each group or each group of names. Then ask group members: “What do these kids do together? What are any other characteristics you can think of for this group of kids? What would be a good nickname for this group? Which of these groups of kids do things that get them into trouble, and which groups of kids stay out of trouble?” Write down the characteristics, nicknames, and whether the children get into trouble or not next to each group. Once the different groups have been identified, ask members to identify the groups they belong to.

Identification of Children’s Group Membership and Group Status The purpose of this exercise is to have a different method for group members to define the groups to which they belong. Provide group members with different sizes/colors of paper circles and ask them to identify what groups they see themselves as members of. Use the different types of groups generated previously as a guide for this activity.

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Ask them to use a different circle to represent each group to which they belong, with the largest circle representing the group that is most important to them and so on. Write the name of the group in the middle of each circle. Once they have identified all groups they see themselves as members of, each individual group member can glue/staple/tape their circles onto a piece of paper, overlapping the circles if there is some overlap in group membership. This can also be a discussion achieved through with group members verbally indicating where overlap occurs. In fact, this entire objective can be accomplished a through discussion, where each group member verbally recognizes the different groups he feels he is a member of, how important these groups are to him, and where overlaps in membership exist. An alternative approach to this activity is to have each student represent his group by wearing or holding a sign that identifies it. Each child can relate what groups he is a member of and the people representing these groups can stand in different locations in the room. The child who is identifying his own group membership can then stand close to or far away from each person to indicate his status/placement within each group. The final concept to convey in today’s session is about the differences between being a main part of a group versus being on the edge of the group. You may use the following sample dialogue: In all groups, there are people who are at the core of the group or people who are the main members, and there are people who belong to the group but are more on the edge of the group and not really a main member. If you were in the middle of a group you would be involved in almost everything the group does. If you are toward the edge of the group, you would do only some of the things the group does. These can be thought of as different places within the group, and all places within a group are important places. Are there any other ways you can tell what place or position a person has in a group? For each of the groups that you feel you are a member of, do you see yourself as a primary or main member, or do you feel you are more on the edge of the group? If you are not a part of a group and want to be,

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how can you try to join this group? If you are on the edge of a group of kids, how can you become more of a central or main member? The purpose of the following activity is to assist group members with identifying their role or status within each group. Instruct the children to think about what place they have in each of the groups they belong to. If students participated in the group circle exercise earlier, tell them to place an “x” on each circle that represents where they see themselves in terms of group membership. If a child feels he is the most central person in a particular group, he should place the “x” in the center of that group’s circle. If a child feels he is more of an outside member, he should place the “x” toward the outside of the group circle. If the children did not participate in the group circle exercise, have them discuss their statuses instead.

Prepare for Poster Creation Ask group members what materials they have collected for the peer pressure poster. Gather these materials and inform the group that the actual completion of the poster will take place during the next session. Although they have one final opportunity to gather some materials, it will be useful to begin organizing them now and thinking about how the poster should be constructed. You may use the following sample dialogue: Remember that we have been talking about different problems that occur with other kids, and one of the topics we discussed was how to cope with the problem of peers pressuring kids to do something they might not want to do. What would be some ways to present the problem and different choices kids have on a poster? What would be some way of organizing the pictures and words that we already have? What are all the ideas we want to convey? Are there any other kinds of pictures or words that we still need to find? If you have magazines that the group members could borrow to look for pictures of relevance, the members could use these during the week to cut out words or pictures.

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Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

Homework

✎ Instruct group members to continue collecting pictures for the peer pressure poster and to bring all their pictures to next week’s session.

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Chapter 34 Session 32: Group Creates Peer Pressure Poster

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Peer pressure pictures or drawings collected by group members

■

Poster materials (construction paper, markers, stickers, glue, and tape)

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session and homework

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Reinforce public commitment to the use of refusal skills by having children complete the peer pressure poster

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

A few weeks ago, group members were introduced to the idea of creating a poster to display at their school to assist other children with resisting peer pressure. You should come to today’s session prepared with a series of peer pressure-related pictures, in case children did not complete the homework assignment to bring pictures of their own. Children can use these pictures, as well as the supplemental craft materials (e.g., markers, stickers) to create the poster.

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Review Previous Session and Homework Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week. Check that children have brought their pictures for the peer pressure poster. Remember to award two points to children who completed this assignment.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Create Peer Pressure Poster to Display in School Work with the children to create a poster about peer pressure. You may use the following sample dialogue to facilitate the activity: Remember that one of the problems we have been talking about in group is related to peers pressuring kids to do things they might not want to do. We think this is a problem that all kids experience at one time or another, whether in school or in the neighborhood. We want you to create a poster that might help other kids in your school think about different ways to cope with peer pressure. This way you can share your ideas with the other kids with the hope that these ideas will help them to refuse to succumb to the pressures of their friends. We can organize the magazine pictures we have collected, or we have some paper and markers if you want to use them to write words or draw pictures. We do not have much time to complete this poster, so let’s work really hard to get this done during this session. Here are the ideas from last week for how we could organize the poster. After we have completed the poster, I will have it laminated and will bring it back to hang somewhere in the school.

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Allow group members to work on this project for the remainder of the session. Provide instruction and help if necessary. Ask group members to decide on a prominent place to display the poster.

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 35 Session 33: Positive Quality Development and Peer Relationships

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Identify personal strengths and how these strengths help when joining in positive peer activities and groups

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Describe good leadership qualities and identify specific qualities for group members to further develop

■

Set new weekly goals

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

Prior to this session, you should have received permission to hang the group’s peer pressure poster in a location at the school and should have done so. If the group has not seen the poster hanging on the wall, take them to it at the end of the session.

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Review Previous Session Begin the group session by asking each child to recall one point from the previous group session. The review section of each meeting should be used to have group members recall the primary message from the previous week.

Review Weekly Goal Sheets Check that children completed their weekly goal sheets. Remember to award points to children who successfully achieved their goal.

Strength Bombardment Ask the children to turn to the Strength Bombardment worksheet in their workbooks. Ask each group member to write down their strengths, positive qualities, or interests on the circles. Once each child has completed his bull’s-eye, he can share it with the rest of the group. At this point, the group is expected to “bombard” this member with other positive attributes of himself that he may have overlooked. Instruct the member who is being “bombarded” to write down some of the different strengths that other people suggested. The goal of this section is to get the children to think about ways they can become members of a positive peer group. Encourage them to come up with strategies for joining groups of people with similar interests and goals. You may use the following sample dialogue: Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about different groups of people and asked each of you which groups you were a member of? Wait for the group to respond. Today we want you to think about some of the groups you might want to join or for which you may want to become more of a central member. What kinds of things do you need to think about in order to do this?

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■

Are their interests similar to yours?

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Are their long-term goals similar to yours?

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What are the strengths you have that you can use to try to join a group?

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How can you become a more central member to this group?

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How can you show other kids the strengths you have?

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What kind of help might you need to get started in this group?

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What kind of help might you need to stay involved in this group?

Positive Quality Development Ask the children to think about other kids who are well-liked, who are good leaders, or who are central figures in their respective groups and what qualities these kids have. Encourage group members to brainstorm many possible positive qualities that good leaders/well-liked children/central group members have. Write these qualities on the dry erase board or flipchart. Once a list has been generated, ask group members to choose one or more of those qualities that they would like to develop in themselves. Group members can then role-play a situation (e.g., trying to join a group of children who are playing kick ball at school; starting a new social club or team sport after school, such as Boy Scouts or baseball or Girl Scouts or softball) and act as if they had these qualities. Following the role-play, ask the group member: “How did it feel to act as though you were _____? What did you do differently in this role-play than you do in real life? Do you think you could act as though you had these qualities when you are with a group of kids at school?”

Set Weekly Goals Remind each student to set a new weekly goal (or continue with their current goal if it has yet to be achieved) and complete the goal sheet in the workbook. Remind the children to bring their signed goal sheets to next week’s session.

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Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your co-leader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

Free Time If time permits, allow children a free-play period of 5–10 minutes at the end of the session (see Chapter 2 for more details). Remember to keep an eye out for any potential problems that may arise between group members during this time and use it as an opportunity to practice problem solving.

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Chapter 36 Session 34: Review and Termination of the Coping Power Program

Materials Needed ■

Dry erase board or flipchart and markers

■

Board game spinner

■

Program review questions

■

Certificates of completion

■

Prize box

■

Review previous session

■

Review weekly goal sheets

■

Reinforce group members’ positive influences on others

■

Reinforce pubic commitment to use refusal skills and the idea of being a positive influence on other children in school by displaying the peer pressure poster

■

Plan for the end of the year party

■

Review the program and hand out certificates of completion

Outline

255

Group Leader Note: ■

This is the final “working” session for the year. Prior to today’s meeting, you should have prepared a number of questions about the Coping Power Program to use in a review exercise with the group (see end of chapter for sample questions).

Continuing Positive Quality Development Ask each student to share with the group ways that they have been a positive role model for other children at school or ways that they have helped other children out this past semester. You can also ask each group member to identify the qualities they currently have that make them a good leader/positive role model for other children.

Final Review/Termination This session is designed to serve as a final review for group members, as well as a forum for sharing feelings related to termination. The review element of the session is best achieved by playing a game. Use your own questions or the ones provided at the end of the chapter and engage the children in a review of the Coping Power Program. You may use the following sample dialogue: We have created a game for you to play during this last session together. Each of you will take turns spinning this game piece. Whatever number you land on will determine what question you will be asked. For every question you get right, you will receive one game point. Let’s see how many points we can earn as a group! Points earned during the game can be used to purchase prizes from the box or can simply be calculated as game points to see who wins this particular game. Begin this activity by commenting on the things that you remember from group and on each child’s progress over the course of the year. Also share your feelings of loss that are associated with the group no longer meeting and talk about the things you will remember from the group,

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and what memories you will keep with you. Emphasize that although the group is ending, you will always have your memories of the group. Ask each group member to share his memories of the group and the activities he will always remember. You can also ask group members to share their feelings related to the loss of the group.

Planning for the End of the Year Party The purpose of throwing a celebration at the end of the year is to reward all group members for their efforts and to end the year on a positive note. Ask the group members what type of food they would like to eat at the party next week (e.g., pizza, ice cream, cake, etc.) and what kind of activities they would like to have planned. If there is an opportunity for recreational activity in the school gym or field, it may be possible to play a game of basketball, touch football, or soccer. Board games are also good ways to engage the children in fun activities. Before closing the session, hand out certificates of completion to all group members and congratulate them for completing the Coping Power Program successfully.

Positive Feedback As outlined in Chapter 2, at the end of each session you and your coleader will ask all group members to identify one positive thing about themselves and/or one positive thing about another group member.

Prize Box Remember, children can earn points during group (see Chapter 2 for more details). Tally the points earned for each child and award prizes, if applicable.

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Sample Review Questions

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What is a “coping statement” you can say to yourself to keep from being angry?

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Tell about a weekly goal that you were proud of ? Why?

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What qualities do you look for in a friend?

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How can you tell what someone else is feeling?

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What problem situation did we portray in the PICC video?

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What did you learn from bringing your book bags to group and sorting the different colored word cards?

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Name two things that you can do if you don’t understand something in class.

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Tell us three good ways to make a new friend.

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What is “self-talk”?

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Tell us one thing that you can do to resist peer pressure.

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Tell us one good thing to do when you are playing a game with other kids.

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What is a barrier?

■

Tell us at least two positive qualities about yourself.

■

When you want to say “no” you can . . . ?

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Name one reason kids might give in to peer pressure.

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Give yourself a compliment.

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Give an example of a coping statement.

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What makes you feel scared?

■

What behaviors do you show when you are happy?

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What is another word for “sad”?

■

What makes you feel sad?

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Name one thing you learned about the teacher you interviewed.

■

Name one of our group rules.

■

What behaviors do you show when you are sad?

■

What did you learn from the puppet activity?

■

Give a compliment to a group member.

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What behaviors do you show when you are angry?

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What is another word for “angry”?

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What is another word for “happy”?

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What is a “consequence”?

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What is a short-term goal?

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What are three things teachers expect from students?

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When is it a bad time to try to talk to another person about a problem?

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Tell us at least three good solutions to this problem: You want to watch TV and your brother wants to play a video game (you have only one TV).

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Tell us one group that you want to belong to in the future and if being in this group is a “good” thing or “bad” thing for you. Why?

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What is one way that you can show other kids that you are an independent person who thinks for yourself ?

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What is a long-term goal?

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When is it a good time to approach another person to discuss a problem?

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What can you do if you set a goal that is too high for yourself ?

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What is the name of the problem-solving model we have learned during group?

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What did you learn from “ The Wise Men and the _____” story?

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Tell us one reason why someone may laugh as you walk past them.

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Tell us one good solution to this problem: a kid makes fun of your new haircut.

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Tell us one good way to enter a positive peer group.

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What is something you can say to yourself to keep calm?

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Tell us one reason why kids sometimes give in to peer pressure.

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Name one item that the group decided not to throw overboard during the Trouble at Sea activity.

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What does perspective taking mean?

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What did we practice doing using the puppets?

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Name one item the group threw overboard during the Trouble at Sea activity.

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What feeling(s) is (are) hard for you to express and why?

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When is a bad time to approach someone to talk about a problem?

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What did the six blind men argue about in the story “The Wise Men and the _____”?

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Why do we set goals for ourselves?

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What can you do or say when someone is trying to get you to do something you do not want to do?

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Tell us a solution to this problem: Your mom wants you to clean your room and do the laundry but you have been invited to your friend’s house (and you want to go).

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What would you use the “broken record” technique for?

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What was a good solution to the problem portrayed in the PICC video?

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What is something you should avoid when trying to talk to another person about a problem?

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Does everyone always see a problem the same way? Why or why not?

Chapter 37 End of the Year Party

Materials Needed ■

Party supplies: food, drinks, plates, cups, utensils, napkins, etc.

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Games for children to play

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Have fun!

Outline

Group Leader Note: ■

Remember to bring food, beverage, and whatever is necessary to have fun with your group members. Plan to play sports or games following the lunch party and thank all group members for participating in the program and wish them well in the future.

Ending the Year on a Positive Note Provide a meal for the group and congratulate them on successfully completing the Coping Power Program. Allow the children to play games and participate in fun group activities. Talk to them about their plans for the summer and their feelings about transitioning to middle school. The goal of this final group meeting is simply to have fun and make sure that everyone has a good time.

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About the Authors

John E. Lochman, PhD, ABPP, is Professor and Doddridge Saxon Chair in Clinical Psychology at The University of Alabama, where he also directs the Center for Prevention of Youth Behavior Problems. Dr. Lochman has over 240 publications on risk factors, social cognition, and intervention and prevention research with aggressive children, including outcome research on the Coping Power intervention. Dr. Lochman is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, serves on the NIH study section on Psychosocial Development, Risk and Prevention, and is President of the American Board for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Karen C. Wells, PhD, is Associate Professor of Medical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, where she is the Director of the Family Studies Program and Clinic and also the Director of the Psychology Internship for Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Wells is widely published in the areas of psychosocial treatments for childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, and adolescent suicidality, with a special emphasis on family and parenting factors in etiology and treatment. Dr. Wells has worked with Dr. Lochman on the development and evaluation of the Coping Power Program for the last 15 years. Lisa A. Lenhart, PhD, is the senior psychologist in the Testing and Tutoring Service at The Treatment and Learning Centers (TLC) in Maryland. She is a child clinical psychologist who has provided diagnostic and therapeutic services to children and families for over 15 years, using researchbased treatments to help individuals with a variety of difficulties to function more effectively in life. She has extensive supervision experience, both of

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professionals and students, and consults with other professionals on an interdisciplinary team. Dr. Lenhart currently oversees the testing department at TLC, ensuring the clinical quality of all psychological evaluations and treatment conducted at this agency. She was the project coordinator for the Coping Power Program for three years, and continues to implement the strategies developed in this program in her work with children and families.

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