Have you ever heard of the term “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” (ODD)? If you do not yet know what ODD is, it refers to a type of behavior disorder that is mostly diagnosed in childhood. This behavior can cause a child to always be in an angry or cranky mood, often oppose or argue, or even behave rudely to parents.
If you find your children to be uncooperative, defiant, and hostile towards parents, peers, teachers, and other figures, you have to acknowledge that disciplining and educating a child with this condition is not easy. Of course, you must try to teach your children in a variety of ways.
Children with ODD face difficulties because they consistently exhibit this behavior. This behavior is sometimes followed by the destructive nature of their goods. Then, how do you discipline children with ODD? Thankfully! This post will show several tips that you can try. Let’s check them out!
Can Oppositional Defiant Disorder Be Cured?
It is known that ODD cannot be cured, but the main symptoms can be managed. There is no treatment that can directly cure ODD disorders. Even though doctors prescribe particular medications, they are aimed at relieving other symptoms that accompany ODD, such as excessive anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
When children are indicated to have an ODD disorder, several treatments can be done, including:
- Parent management training: This treatment helps parents and those around them understand the behavior of children with ODD.
- Individual psychotherapy: This treatment helps control anger in children.
- Family psychotherapy: This treatment helps to improve communication and mutual understanding between ODD children and other family members.
- Cognitive problem-solving skills training and therapies: This treatment helps reduce negative thoughts experienced by children.
- Social skills training: This treatment helps to improve children’s social skills and reduce their anxiety.
Children with ODD must not only understand therapy, but they must also receive good parenting from their parents. In disciplining your children with ODD, you play an important role in ensuring that they do not grow into teenagers with behavioral disorders.
How to Discipline Your Children with ODD?
Disciplining your children with ODD is a big challenge. However, children with ODD will continuously behave negatively and refuse or go against their parents’ orders. They will even feel happy if you look like you are having trouble caring for them.
Thus, children with ODD may have the potential to be smart, creative, and compassionate. If you can find ways to deal with the defiant child inside them, you may be able to “soften” their behavior over time.
We’ve discovered several ways to discipline a child with ODD that we got from some internet sources. Here they are:
1. Positive attention to your children
If you notice your children acting out in an upset manner, take some time. Make sure to get rid of your work and focus attention on children. You can try to invite them to play in the open field for at least 15 minutes every day. Giving positive attention to children will reduce their chances of trying to cause trouble.
2. Set the rules firmly
Children with ODD will really love to find loopholes in existing rules. Of course, you will need to set short, clear, and firm rules for your children, along with ground rules such as determining when they need to do homework, sleep, and eat daily.
When your child says, “I do not want to go to sleep,” you need to confirm and remind him by saying, “You need to go to sleep at 9 p.m., as you can see in the rules.” Make sure to do this firmly and consistently, so that your children have no reason to argue with us.
3. Give punishment and reward equally
It’s very important for you to communicate to your child that he will face consequences if he denies orders or gets angry. Otherwise, if your child obeys your orders, you can reward him for being an obedient child.
To teach children with ODD when they will be punished and rewarded, a token system must be implemented. When they behave positively, they may get a token. If they behave negatively, you can take the tokens they already have. At the end of the week, children can exchange their tokens for certain prizes. So far, this method has really proven to be effective in making children with ODD more disciplined.
4. Be consistent
The children with ODD do need to be punished when they behave negatively, but this should be done without physically violent means. If a parent once tolerates his defiant behavior, your child will continue to do the same thing and will not learn that his behavior is wrong.
5. Avoid arguing with an ODD child
Children with ODD are great at triggering their parents’ emotions. As a parent, you will really get angry, but it would be better for you not to be provoked. Arguing with an ODD child will only drain emotions rather than solve problems. If your child refuses to tidy up his room, you have to remind him of the consequences that he may receive if he does not do it.
It is so common to feel frustrated when disciplining a child with ODD. To make it easier, you may need to look for a community or forum that contains parents who have ODD children. If you meet with parents who are struggling with ODD children, you may feel like you have a comrade in arms.
Okay, those are the 5 effective ways to discipline a child with ODD. We hope the tips above can really help you deal with your ODD children. Good Luck!!!
