Coaching practices for Explosive Child Strategies

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Explosive Child Strategies, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• Every time I put my foot down and insist, my kid blows up worse
• My kid blows up over the same things again and again, and I keep calling it defiance or attitude
• Every blow-up hits me like a brand-new emergency and I’m just putting out fires all day
• I keep trying to reason with my kid right in the middle of the meltdown
• When my kid is melting down I feel trapped between two bad options

Practices that may help

1. Recognize when Plan A (unilateral imposition) makes things worse
   Adult-imposed solutions can win the battle and lose the war — notice when enforcement is escalating rather than solving.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
2. Identify the lagging skill behind the behavior
   Name the cognitive skill the child is missing, not the behavior you want to stop.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
3. Maintain an unsolved problems list
   Write down recurring triggers so they become solvable problems rather than repeated emergencies.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
4. Hold Plan B conversations proactively, not reactively
   Solve the problem before the next explosion, when everyone is calm.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
5. Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
   Ross Greene’s Collaborative Problem Solving model holds that kids with explosive behavior lack the cognitive skills to handle frustration and inflexibility — not the motivation. The approach replaces punitive consequences with structured adult–child conversations that build lagging skills over time. Randomized trials in clinical settings show significant reductions in explosive behavior, though most real-world evidence is clinical and observational.
6. Use empathy to de-escalate, not to capitulate
   Name the child’s emotional state without agreeing with every demand — empathy and limits can coexist.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
7. Use Plan B: the three-step collaborative conversation
   Empathize with the child’s concern, share yours, and invite them to solve it together.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
8. Evaluate solutions for durability: realistic, mutually satisfying, safe
   A collaborative solution that fails one of three tests — realistic, mutually satisfying, safe — will not hold.
   Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene)
9. Refuse to energize negative behavior
   Give consequences briefly and blandly — no energy, no lecture, no drama.
   The Nurtured Heart Approach (Howard Glasser)
10. Engage in safe rough-and-tumble play
    Wrestling, chasing, and physical silliness build the regulation capacity that calm activities cannot.
    Special Time (Lawrence Cohen — Playful Parenting)

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