School Strategies for Oppositional Defiance Disorder

If you are a teacher for very long, chances are good that you will have a student with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), especially since it is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral problem among school-age children. The real question is how do you know when one of your students has ODD, and what should you do about it so you can maintain order in the classroom?

Signs

• Children with ODD lose their temper easily and often, blame others for everything, argue with adults, and refuse to follow rules or directions. These kids are very easily annoyed and seem to go out of their way to bother everyone around them. In addition, they can be spiteful, mean, vindictive, vengeful and manipulative. They are also very stubborn and have frequent temper tantrums. ODD kids often say nasty things and seem to bring discord wherever they go. The biggest problem they have in school is refusing to do what they are told. While many children show some of these characteristics from time to time, ODD kids consistently behave this way over long periods of time--usually six months or more.

Referral

• Because of their behavior, ODD students put themselves in a position where they have difficulty adjusting to a school environment where they are expected to be quiet and follow the teacher's directions. The first step for a teacher who suspects one of her students has ODD is to notify the parents and administration and to refer the youngster to the school counselor, who can then get the student evaluated to determine whether he does, in fact, have this disorder.

Classroom Strategies

• Just because a student is diagnosed with ODD doesn't mean he will be removed from your classroom. As a result, you will have to come up with some kind of strategy for dealing with this individual. One of the most important things a teacher can do is stay calm. You should also determine which behaviors you are going to ignore. You can let pretty much anything go that doesn't disrupt your ability to teach or the students' ability to learn. Make sure that all the students understand the rules in advance, have agreed to them and know what the consequences are for not following them. Only give one warning and then follow through with whatever disciplinary action you have discussed beforehand. If you follow this classroom management plan consistently, you should be able to gain the students' respect, if not always their compliance.

  Having a very structured environment is helpful, since it seems to be comforting to students to know exactly what to expect on any given day. Also, don't forget to praise students for good behavior. In this way, you are recognizing their efforts to behave and do what they are told. Establishing a rapport with your students is also very important, especially for the ODD child. If you truly care about your students and what is going on in their lives, your students will tend to be more cooperative. Also, try to be reasonable and fair. You shouldn't take the defiance of the ODD student personally, and you shouldn't argue with the student or raise your voice when speaking with him. Whenever possible, give your students choices and some classroom responsibility. Doing so will give them some acceptable power and make them feel useful. What you don't want to do is get into a power struggle, so it's best to have private conversations with the student about her particular issues and your expectations about proper classroom behavior. When you are speaking with this student, make sure to listen to her point of view but be firm about the fact that she has to follow the rules just like all the other students in the class.

  Although dealing with ODD students is never easy, you can try to make the situation better by recognizing the problem and taking positive actions to help these students improve.