Dr. Alan E. Kazdin
The Kazdin Method® of Parenting
Imagine a situation in which you would like your child to do something but he or she refuses or just does not do it without even refusing. Ok, no imagination is needed. If you have children or you have lived with another human of any age, you have all the examples you need. People do [...]
We have learned by now that one of the best ways to protect ourselves and others from the coronavirus is to distance ourselves physically from people and to stay at home with only occasional outings for essentials. These practices translate to being confined to our homes all day and all night, sometimes without the ability [...]
Dr. Alan Kazdin recounts how he came to be a psychologist and discusses where his emphasis is now: studying models of treatment delivery with the idea of completely changing who, and how many, can access treatment. He notes that "most people in need of psychological help receive no treatment." This is based on current [...]
Parents often are concerned about their children’s motivation and ability to focus on and stay with a task to achieve a goal. In fact, surveys show that most parents, among diverse ethnic groups and income levels, want their children to be hardworking. Clearly, parents have recognized the importance of characteristics such a persistence. Scientific research [...]
As the new year is beginning, many of us begin to think about what changes we can make in our lives. Parenting is such an important job, and we often hope that we are being the best parents we can be. Punishment for misbehavior comes so naturally to us. We barely even think about it [...]
Clinicians working with families and children are often faced with the tall order of helping improve school problem behaviors. It is a long school day with many factors and many different people involved. One way to tackle this seemingly impossible task is to use the very effective tool of simulation. Simulation involves role-playing a scenario, [...]
Summer is a great time to brush up on your professional skills. Let's review a key concept of Parent Management Training that you can use with all the parents you see. Praise!! When you teach parents to effectively praise their children for behaviors they would like to strengthen, be sure the following components are included. [...]
A common concern of parents is that their child is engaging in too much video game or TV time. Many families have televisions, computers, tablets, and video game systems in their homes to complicate the problem. When working with families to structure screen time, don't advise them to take all of it away, rather work [...]
Myth: The therapist should focus on and problem solve what the parent is doing wrong in order to change it. When working with parents of children with behavioral difficulties, you may want to hash out some things that the parent is doing wrong and try to fix those things. A better way to help is [...]
In sessions, emphasize a team approach and how great it is that they are both attending sessions. Interrupt all arguing and blaming in session and prompt for only saying positive things about the other. Praise parents for remaining calm and saying positive things about each other in the session. Set up similar point charts in [...]
