Far North Parent-Professional Partnerships
Building Partnerships • Understanding Basic Systems • Best Outcomes

Building Parent-Professional Partnerships

Problem Solving

Parent Talk

Hearing different ideas and approaches from other people helped me think of our situation in a new way. We came up with a whole new approach and it worked!

Problem Solving is a natural part of your daily life. When faced with a problem you unconsciously use your problem solving skills; that is, you identify the problem and then come up with a solution. For example, if your car doesn’t start in the morning and you need to get to work, you review your options (call a cab, ask a neighbor or friend for a ride) and determine a solution to your transportation problem.

When you are dealing with some of the problems that arise with raising a child who has disabilities and complex issues, problem solving takes on a wider dimension! Being able to bounce ideas off of others and to generate new or different solutions becomes essential to finding the best outcomes for your child.

The following is a breakdown of steps useful for solving problems:

Step One: What area of your life is causing you concern?

Step Two: What specific situation would you like to change?

Step Three: How many possible solutions can we create together?

Step Four: Which solution looks the best to you?

Step Five: What is our plan? (monitoring to keep plan moving forward)

Problem Solving Worksheet

Worksheet is in pdf format and require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have the reader on your computer an installer is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.