The Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour Service (RTLB) in Aoraki is bringing Dr Greene to Timaru on January 27 and 28 to speak to educators and parents about managing children with challenging behaviour by using a model of intervention called collaborative and proactive solutions (CPS).
Manager Nikki Poulter said the session for educators was already at capacity, with 500 people booked in to the Caroline Bay Hall, but an evening session for parents and caregivers had been added, funded by Family Mental Health Support (FAMHS).
Dr Greene has been working with children and families for over 30 years.
His work is known throughout the world and he is the best-selling author of The Explosive Child, Lost at School, Lost and Found, and Raising Human Beings.
He is the founding director of the non-profit Lives in the Balance website, which provides a vast array of free, web-based resources on the CPS model.
Lives in the Balance collaborated with Lone Wolf media to produce the Netflix movie documentary The Kids we Lose.
The CPS model focuses on solving problems rather than on modifying behaviour, emphasises collaborative rather than unilateral solutions, encourages proactive rather than reactive intervention, de-emphasises diagnostic categories, and provides practical, research-based tools for assessment and intervention.
In these sessions, Dr Greene will provide an overview of the CPS model, along with more advanced coverage of the nuances of assessment and engaging children in solving the problems that affect their lives.
Ms Poulter said South Canterbury currently had a high rate of stand down, suspension and exclusion when compared with wider Canterbury and New Zealand.
"If we do not address the increasing behavioural challenges teachers are faced with in their classrooms then the teaching and learning environment will not thrive no matter what is in the curriculum.
"CPS gives teachers tools to be able to help students find solutions to unsolved problems in a collaborative way.
"It sounds simplistic but Dr Greene has worked with some of the most challenging youth in the US justice system and has had success with this approach."
Parents, caregivers, and whānau wishing to attend the one-and-a-half-hour evening session at the Caroline Bay Hall on January 27 from 5.30pm-7pm can email email@example.com or call (03) 684-4523 or 0800 732 000 to register.