If you know me, or have read these blogs, you know that I've become quite a fan of CPS. Here's a recent example (as in all postings, materiel changes have been made in order to protect confidentiality):
Denise is a 7 year old who has no diagnosis of any kind that is discernible at this time, with the exception of a strong oppositional streak. She refuses to do anything educationally except participate in selected group activities she enjoys through the home schooling network in which her mom has her enrolled. She's not enrolled in any certified educational school program - parents had begun home schooling and she ratcheted down the expectations to include only social activites. I educated parents in CPS and when I first met her she was openly hostile to me, even as I took a very "collaborative" position, assuring her that the only thing I was interested in was her input to solve problems that the family might be having. I followed the CPS recipe carefully, withholding my impulses to put this young lady in her place (ODD kids are able to bring forth those urges in adults.) I later admitted to parents that this kid actually scared me - she really did. I wondered how I'd ever get through to her.
Long story short - we were able to use the model to successfully collaborate on toy clean up and bedtime routines. And despite her assurance to me that she would NOT attend school, she's begun to do so. I did tell her we'd be needing to collaborate on a solution about school, adding, for her to consider, that when we did so we would have to address the issue of truancy, as she had not been enrolled in any certified program for over a year.
CPS, a hot knife through the butter of oppositionality. How's that for a saying?
