The Truth About Consequences 75then another. Maybe there are some kids who do well on
meds, but Amy wasn’t one of them ...all she had to
show for all that medicine was an extra thirty pounds. In
the meantime, we’re still trying to figure out how to live
with a kid like this.
“We’ve done everything we’ve been told to do. We’ve
paid a big price—and I’m not just talking about money—
listening to different professionals and trying strategies
that weren’t on target. All along we were convinced that
her explosions were our fault. If it’s our fault, how come
our other two kids are so well behaved?”
Psychology and psychiatry are imprecise sciences, and
different mental health professionals have different theo-
ries and interpretations of explosive behavior in children.
As you now know, children may exhibit such behavior
for any of a variety of reasons, so there’s no right or
wrong way to explain it and no one-size-fits-all approach
to changing it. The key is to find explanations and inter-
ventions that are well matched to individual children
and their families.
Probably the most recommended and widely used ap-
proach to understanding and changing the behavior of
explosive children—the conventional wisdom—is what
cangenericallybereferredtoasthe standard behavior
management approach. There are a few central beliefs
associated with this approach. The first is that some-
where along the line, noncompliant children have learned