Offers guidelines for parents to help their young children manage conflicts and disagreements. Guidelines include calmly articulating needs, listening to others' needs and frustrations, seeking win-win solutions, seeking general rules, modeling good conflict resolution strategies, and reviewing and celebrating successful solutions. Asserts that…

A shortcoming of traditional caretaking models is an emphasis on telling children what not to do. The adaptive alternatives caretaking approach is based on behavior shaping: it minimizes blaming, breaks problems down to manageable size, makes children partners in problem solving, and creates positive relationships by focusing on alternative…