POWER-Solving

POWER-Solving®: Stepping Stones to Solving Life's Everyday Social Problems is a social emotional learning curriculum designed to teach children and adolescents to become independent problem-solvers via a hands-on, user-friendly, positive-practice, interactive approach. Through the use of child- and adolescent-friendly, engaging materials, which rely heavily on visual cues and supports, participants gain the "tools" necessary to successfully problem-solve. They are taught how to problem-solve first using their "toolbox" (i.e., the five steps of POWER-Solving®). Subsequently, they can apply this "toolbox" to various challenging social situations, which allows them to develop and enhance their social-emotional skills. The goal is for children and adolescents to learn valuable POWER-Solving® skills that they can apply to an infinite number of social situations throughout their lives.

This program has the flexibility to be used as part of a primary prevention program prior to the identification of any specific disorder or disability, and it can be incorporated into various school curricula to promote social and emotional learning, including as part of life skills, health and physical education, character education, anti-bullying, social studies or other associated curricula. In addition, children and adolescents identified as "at-risk" would benefit greatly from acquiring the social skills associated with the program. Finally, any child or adolescent who has been experiencing significant social problems could benefit from this program, as it would enhance their existing intervention plan. POWER-Solving® incorporates many states' Core Curriculum Content Standards, promotes sensitivity regarding multiculturalism and individual differences, emphasizes a process approach, develops higher-level thinking, and provides practical activities and strategies for adults to facilitate generalization across various settings.

POWER-Solving® has been applied successfully in multiple settings such as the classroom, a summer treatment program, clinical settings and home environments. POWER-Solving® has been used with youth whose development is typical, as well as with those who present with various mental health diagnoses and/or special educational classifications, including high-functioning autism, Asperger's syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disability, anxiety, adjustment disorders, and others. Recent research has found highly favorable results in terms of counselor, parent and child/adolescent satisfaction, as well as positive results regarding social skills gains.

We have customers in more than 40 states and 11 countries. We have also translated POWER-Solving into French.