Ross Greene's model, known as CPS and set out in The Explosive Child, is the strongest challenge to the whole idea of rewarding behavior, and it is worth taking seriously rather than arguing with.
The claim
Children do well if they can. Where they cannot, the cause is lagging cognitive skills — flexibility, frustration tolerance, problem solving — rather than permissive or inconsistent parenting. On that reading, a child who melts down at transitions is not unmotivated. They lack a skill, and no amount of incentive supplies one.
The three plans
| Plan | What it is | When |
|---|---|---|
| A | You decide, and impose it | Safety. Otherwise it is what produces the explosion |
| B | You and the child solve it together, addressing both sets of concerns | The main work. Done proactively, not mid-crisis |
| C | Set the expectation aside for now | When there are too many problems at once and something has to give |
Plan B is the method. It is done on a calm day, not during the difficulty, and it starts by finding out what the child's concern actually is rather than assuming it is defiance.
What he is right about
That a chart cannot teach a skill a child does not have. If mornings fall apart because the morning is genuinely disorganized, no number of points will supply the missing structure, and a chart in that situation quietly becomes a weekly record of a child failing at something they were never equipped for. That is a real failure mode and it is common.
Where the two fit together
Plan B works out what the actual problem is and produces a solution both people can live with. What it does not do is make the practicing visible. A child who has agreed a plan and is now doing the harder thing four mornings out of seven has done something significant, and unless somebody is counting, the only feedback available is whether today went wrong.
Solve the problem with Plan B. Then notice, out loud and durably, that they are doing the thing they agreed. Those are not competing answers, and a house with a difficult child usually needs both.