Understanding why a kid is exhibiting challenging behavior is one of the most important parts of helping him or her. If you've watched the video programming in the What is Collaborative Problem Solving? section, then you know why kids are challenging: they're lacking the skills not to be challenging. Challenging behavior occurs when the demands of the environment exceed a kid's capacity to respond adaptively. So your first goal is to identify the specific lagging skills that are making it difficult for the challenging kid you're trying to help to respond adaptively to the demands being placed upon him or her. Viewing challenging behavior through the "lenses" of lagging skills is much more accurate, compassionate, and productive.

Your next goal is to identify the specific conditions (these are called unsolved problems) under which challenging behavior is occurring. In other words, with whom, over what, where, and when are challenging episodes occurring? The goal of intervention is to solve those problems... collaboratively. It's very hard to do Plan B without knowing the specific problems you're trying to solve.

There are two instruments that can help you accomplish these missions. The first -- called the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems (ALSUP) – is very useful for...you guessed it...identifying lagging skills and unsolved problems. The second – called the Plan B Flowchart – is useful for keeping track of the unsolved problems you’re currently working on and where you are in the process of solving them. Download these forms here, and then copy and use them...often!

Click here for the ALSUP

Click here for the ALSUP in Likert scale format

Click here for the Plan B Flowchart