Opposition Defiant Disorder
– it DOES exist
15th June, 2016
Nick discusses
Opposition Defiant Disorder and expels some myths surrounding it, as well as
providing a strategy to assist pre-service teachers in teaching a child
diagnosed with ODD.
I was watching an investigatory news show a while back
and there was an article on Opposition Defiant Disorder (ODD). By the end of
the article my friends on social media were posting their opinions on how they
believe ODD is not actually a disorder; rather it is just terrible parents
raising rude and obnoxious children. These posts were very interesting to me as
there were many misconceptions surrounding this relatively new diagnosis. I
wanted to create this post to expel some of the common misconceptions that surround
this particular disorder.
ODD is a child exhibiting ‘bad behaviour’, is quite
often what people say to me when this topic comes up. One of the reasons why
this cannot be the case is the fact it is NOT a one off behaviour. Symptoms of
ODD are frequent and repetitive rather than a one off
outbursts of anger. Children with ODD are seen to be constantly noncompliant
and hostile towards others, especially adults. Children with ODD can also
display violent and aggressive behaviour towards peers or adults.
As
a future teacher what can I do to assist these children to make my classroom
run smoothly?
In my opinion the most important thing you can do for
a child with ODD is have clear and explicit expectations and consequences for
particular actions. If these expectations are breached a consequence such as, being
removed from the learning space to deescalate the behaviour is an effective way
to calm the child down. After the teacher consistently removes the child from
the space they will know when they have breached expectations and begin remove themselves
without having to be asked. In doing this, it is teaching the child which
behaviours are appropriate and inappropriate. It is also important to let the
child choose when they are ready to rejoin the rest of the class without the
teacher demanding them to come back. By allowing the child to choose when they
want to rejoin the class it is teaching the child the skill of self-regulation,
as well as teaching them to own their own behaviour.
A process like this can take time to establish and
relies on the teacher being patient and being prepared to follow through EVERY
time an unwanted behaviour is exhibited. It is also important to have a
conversation with the child when they have calmed down and explain to them why
they were asked to leave the space and why their behaviour was inappropriate. This
is a further way of the children taking responsibility for their own behaviour.
Remember as graduate teachers you are not alone! There
are always more experienced teachers willing to help you with students who may
be demonstrating these types of behaviour or have been diagnosed with ODD. Another
important idea to remember is to never take
behaviour personally. It is documented that children feel and then act without self-regulating;
this can be amplified in children with ODD. It is our responsibility as
educators to teach our students the skill of self-regulation.
Another great way to assist those children is to liaise
with their parents. Having consistent approaches to behaviour management
between the home and school environment can have positive outcomes on a child’s
social learning.
- Nick
