The Explosive Child

Dr. Ross Greene provides a compassionate, practical approach to treating -explosive' children. Rather than viewing their behavior as willfully disobedient, he draws upon recent advances in the neurosciences and his extensive experience working with challenging children at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in explaining that the difficulties of these children stem from brain-based deficits in two critical developmental skills: flexibility and frustration tolerance. These children may suffer from oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and bipolar disorder. Often misdiagnosed under the broad umbrella of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), they are too readily treated with drugs that can exacerbate their behavior. In a departure from treatments relying on rewarding and punishing, Dr. Greene's approach helps us grasp the underlying problems of explosive children, defuse explosive episodes, and reduce tension and hostility levels for the entire family by providing valuable tools for coping.