|
|
|
From the Desk of Bill Cirone...
February 4, 2000
Helping Teens with Problem-solving
Teenagers can learn to size up a problem and come up with common sense ways to solve it. Here’s a six-step method that works and can be done easily at home by parent and child:
Step 1: What is the problem? The first step in solving a problem lies in stating it accurately. For a teen, the problem could be whether to go to a certain party-or the real problem might be whether to spend time with certain people.
Step 2: What can be done about it? This is the time to come up with a wide array of solutions. Brainstorm as many as possible, without judging which ones are better. Just keep the ideas coming.
Step 3: What are the good points and bad points of all the solutions? This is the time to make judgments, and assess the possible solutions in light of your experience and the way the world works.
Step 4: Make the decision. At this point, you choose a solution to try. It sometimes helps to talk about why a certain solution was selected.
Step 5: Put the decision to the test. Talk about what might be expected. What obstacles can you anticipate? What help can you expect? How can you avoid any traps?
Step 6: How did it go? Now is the time for follow-up and evaluation. How did it work? What changes should be made so that it will work better next time? Sometimes a solution that sounds good doesn’t work as well in real life.
These steps have proven to be highly effective, and serve as good discipline to develop, for people of all ages. But they seem to work especially well with teenagers. Once a young person has developed a general approach for solving problems, many day-to-day traumas suddenly seem to be more manageable. It’s certainly worth trying.
© Santa Barbara County Education Office
<.shtml>