Step one: Empathy

“How sad.”

“I bet that hurts”.

Step Two: Send the “Power Message”

“What do you think you’re going to to?”

Step Three: Offer Choices

“Would you like to hear what other kids have tried?”

At this point offer a varizty of choices that range from bad to good. It’s usually best to start out with the poor choices. Each time a choice is offered, go to step four, forcing the youngster to state the consequence in his/her own words. This means that you will be going back and forth between step three and step four.

Step Four: Have the Child State the Consequence

“And how will that work?”

Step Five: Give Permission for the Child to either Solve the Problem or not Solve the Problem