How do skills taught on the Out On A Limb website help youth resolve conflicts?
Many of the conflicts that our youth are involved in continue over long periods of time because they fight each other rather than focus on the problem. How many times have you heard “I want the ball!” from one child, only to get the same response from the other child involved in the conflict. Those ever-present conflicts aren’t solved by the two age-old techniques used by adults: • An adult simply takes the ball – Here the children get into the conflict again when the adult walks off with the ball because the causes of the conflict are never addressed. • An adult tells the children what to do – This might seem to be a great option until they stop doing what you told them to do. If the agreement breaks down, the youth are still in conflict with each other, and now are in conflict with you because your idea didn’t work. Conflict resolution helps adults stay out of the conflict, freeing children to resolve their own problems. It teaches skills vital not only in disputes over the ball, the
