Family Perceptions

While continuing to wonder about conversations I am now wondering how family members receive conversations about their children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.  When searching for articles online I came across this one:

http://lauriestroupe.hubpages.com/hub/living-with-an-odd-child

This is an article written by a parent who has a child with ODD.  She describes multiple tough situations that she had to overcome being the parent of this child and how she was lucky it didn’t affect her marriage.  At the end of the article she mentions how relieved she was the first time someone had told her that they knew what she was going through with her child.  Following the end there is a place for people to comment and from reading the comments I have noticed that most people feel the same way.  They are happy that they are not the only ones going through situations like these and that they are able to talk to people who have a family that is similar to theirs. 

After reading this article I had my family member read it to see what her reactions were.  She agreed with most of the feelings that people were saying they had.  She felt hopeless and it was very difficult when people didn’t understand what she was going through.

I believe in order to communicate with the family the teacher needs to know information about the disability or disorder.  For a disorder like ODD the child acts normal to people who are not close to them such as, the public, but tests the people are close to them.  Only a person who knows and understands ODD will understand this making it very important for the teacher to know about information such as this and any other disorder or disability that she or he comes across.

This blog has led me to wonder if there are any articles that written by a person with ODD.  I will have to do some digging to find this.

How to Hold a Difficult Conversation

Continuing from my last blog I began wondering once again how to hold a difficult conversation with others.  I believe that this is important because there are going to be multiple times throughout a given year that a teacher will have hold a difficult conversation with a family member or vise verse.  After researching I found this website:

http://humanresources.about.com/od/interpersonalcommunicatio1/qt/feedback_com6.htm

This article contains steps to provide feedback in a difficult conversation.  The steps were actually written for employees and bosses but they hold true for teachers as well.  For example, the first step says to seek permission to provide feedback, state that you have feedback you’d like to share, and ask if it’s a good time to hold a conversation.  I believe when talked to a family its important start the conversation by telling the family something positive about their child and then expressing the need to provide feedback.  Another step that is listed is using a soft entry and not jumping right into the feedback.  This goes along with stating something positive about their child to show the parents that they can trust you and you are trying to work as a team to provide the best education for their child. 

At the bottom of the article there is a quote that really stuck out at me.  “Care enough to hold the difficult conversation.”  This stuck out at me because the article talks about how most people are uncomfortable providing feedback about an individual’s personal dress or habits, as the person receiving the feedback.  At times when a teacher is talking to a family member they may not want to hear the teacher’s feedback and it’s important for the teacher to care enough to address the issue with the parent or caregiver.

I am now wondering how family members will receive conversations about their children with ODD.  I will have to see what I can find in my research.

The Role of Nonverbal Communication to an Educator

After exploring the role of effective communication to an educator, I thought I would consider specifically nonverbal communication.  Verbal and written communication are most times thought about and planned in advance.  My research tells me that the majority of messages are sent in the form of nonverbal communication.  I would like to explore the role of nonverbal communication in the interaction with children and family support members of a child with disabilities and specifically ODD.  I found the information at the following link very interesting:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/eq6_nonverbal_communication.htm

It has to be recognized when dealing with people with disabilities not all nonverbal communication can be interpreted as described. Even with typical people there has to be some confirmation before assuming these hold true, but I would feel confident to say that with the research on the subject that it is a great place to start. As a teacher these are good things to know so that you can coach family caregivers. I like the suggestion to ask positive question first to get people to open up when you see they are nonverbally closed or in a defensive position. I also think paying attention to signs of holding back like biting a lip and holding hands tight would help a teacher to know that if they are not able to get the person to open up then they should follow up at a later time.  There is more to be said that maybe they cannot share at that moment.

On the positive side it seems good to practice raising eyebrows if it helps others to smile.   

In doing this research I thought additional research maybe be helpful into how to hold a difficult conversation with others. There may be useful tools or techniques to keep in mind when talking to family members about their child with ODD.

Effective Communication

An important skill for an educator is to be an effective communicator. It seems obvious that teachers must be able to communicate to their students the lessons, but also important is the role communication plays in including family members in the academic curriculum. For children with disabilities this can be a major factor in the child's success. To learn tools for being an effective communicator, I recommend the following cite:

http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/guides/managing-hr/interaction/communication/listening

Although not written for the field of education, I see a number of good suggestions. Creating an open communication environment can be done in communication by being available before and after class and recess breaks. Children will often prefer a less rigid structure to ask questions and will find it helpful just to get to know a teacher on a personal level. For the family creating and open environment starts with a letter or meet the teacher night where introductions and contact information is given out.

Another key to a successful communication is having regular meetings with the parents. Generally schools coordinate parent teacher nights, but students with disabilities would benefit with more frequent meetings with supporting family members.

Also of importance is taking time to meet one on one with the student in an open environment. In previous discussions it was suggested that it is important to find out what motivates a child with ODD to use as performance management. This has to be done on a reoccurring basis. Children often change what motivates them. One on One sessions helps a teacher to stay fresh with ideas and reduce the tendency for conflict in the classroom. A teacher might also learn about what the student if finding interesting and what causes them to struggle.

Communication is not all verbal. I would like to explore types of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication can tell a person a lot about what that person is thinking. This might benefit a teacher of a student with ODD by helping them look for triggers to oppositional tendencies.

Guiding a child with ODD to manage behavior

To answer my last inquiry, I found this article on setting up a child to manage their own behavior.

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/kits/wwbtk7.pdf

Guiding a child to manage their own behavior involves careful observations of their current abilities and planning on what behavior you want to the child to manage. Another key ingredient that I discovered is observing what motivates the child so that it can be used as positive reinforcements to improve on the targeted behavior.  Some parents have and are successful at creating reward charts at home with stickers etc. to track feedback for rewards. These are often not successful because it relies on the parent to have the discipline to keep track. The self-monitor mentioned here may be the solution and another tool to be shared with a parent that may create a higher level of success.  Another tool to be used is to create a visual display of targeted behavior. When you think about a classroom environment this is understood. Teachers have been taught to incorporate visual display into their rooms. For parents this is not something you would normally see in a home environment. It would be something that a teacher could suggest for parents to be consistent with home and school behavior management.

When I consider helping a child self-manage with feedback or giving parents progress updates, I think the method of communication will be important. I would like to further explore communication skills that might serve as useful tools for a teacher. 

Poverty and ODD

In my last bog I left curious about what parents who cannot afford therapy for their child can do to change a child’s environment without therapist or intervention specialist and reduce the occurrence of ODD.  How would they relieve the stress that escalates the condition?  My research has taken me to this article about how teachers can dodge the power struggle. I don’t see any reason why the same tactics could not be used by parents and caregivers to prevent power struggles and manage the ODD.  As a teacher it is important to work on these tactics and share with the parent tactics that work.  I think the interruptive tactics should be in every teacher’s tool box.

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/challenging-students/dodging-power-struggle-trap-ideas-teachers

I find the concept of acknowledging the student is in control interesting.  Things like presenting the negative choice first with its consequence and then the choice you want the child to take last comes from observations that parents would not know if they were not connected to therapy.  I also like the concept of giving the student a face saving option with a question of what can be done to earn their cooperation. This has to make the student think. It also keeps the teacher calm and in control of the situation. These same tools could be used at home to keep families out of power struggles.  Even typical children are involved in power struggles with adults so every parent could benefit from this knowledge.

At his point I would like to explore if there are ideas on how children can be taught to manage their own behavior .

Environment

Continuing from my last post I start by answering the question: If the environment changes does a child still have ODD?  When searching I found this website.

http://arivacaboysranch.com/oppositional-defiant-disorder.php

I thought this website was interesting because it says that if the environment changes it can stop triggering the ODD situations or actions of the child even without medication.  With being said and being current information from 2012, this would mean that the environment the child is put in greatly effects how often he acts out because of ODD.

After looking through this website and with the knowledge of it I began looking for more websites that I can compare or contrast to it.  When searching I found this website.

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/jones.html

This website states that when a child with ODD grows older, the characteristics of their behavior change and they often get worse.  The child then starts to lie and steal, engage in vandalism, substance abuse, and show aggression towards peers.   It then can be led to the diagnosis of CD or Contact Disorder.

I believe that both these websites are interesting as well as the other ones from previous blogs.  Up to this point I've seen that environment places a big role in how a child with ODD acts or reacts and if the child has ADHD they are likely to get ODD but if they have ADD they are less likely.  My question now is what happens if the family is in poverty and they cant afford therapy or assistance and they can't seem to fix the environment they live in.  How would they relieve stress and cope in this situation?

Causes of ODD

When deciding what to blog on I noticed that the last study I posted was from 2008.  I began wondering if new studies and information as been found since then.  As I looked for studies to compare to this one I found this website.  

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/oppositional-defiant-disorder/DS00630/DSECTION=risk-factors

This website interested me because it includes possible risk factors that could cause a child to get Oppositional Defiant Disorder.  The list of risk factors that the website includes are mostly environmental risks instead of biological or genetic factors. This made me question where they had gotten their information from because my family member who has ODD doesn't meet any of these environmental risk factors but there is a history of ADHD in my family. This website made me wonder if other websites say similar environmental risk factors or if they lean towards biological or genetic factors more.  This led me onto a search where I found another website that gave me information about the causes of ODD.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/oppositional-defiant-disorder

This website gave information on biological, genetic, and environmental factors that could cause a child to have ODD.  One thing that I question is that on the first website they made it a point to say that "there's no single factor that causes ODD" were as the second website mentioned that "the exact cause of ODD is not known".  It makes me wonder if there are more causes in one of these three areas than the other.  It also makes me wonder if the environmental risks are fixed / changed will the child no longer have ODD?

Dr. Lavigne Study Groups

While I've been thinking about how to deal with a child who has ODD in public when outsiders try to help I have not be able to find any information on this.  It shocks me to find that no one has written about this but my family member was in a situation where the outsider made it difficult for her to manage a situation that happened in public with her son.  I did find, however, an interesting study that Dr. Lavigne completed where they took two groups of preschool aged students and their parents to test therapies for ODD.  This can be found the website http://www.childrensmrc.org/news/odd_studies/.  I thought it was interesting because they said that both groups were successful but one was more successful for boys and the other more successful for girls.  It said that it also depends on how involved the parent was when tending the sessions and it depending on some other factors.  I had never thought about having to choose which treatment you'd like your child to go through and the factors that might play into this.  I'm interested in looking for more studies to compare and contrast with this study.  I will also continue looking for ways to cope with a child who has ODD in public.

Parents and Teachers

When beginning to blog I was wondering how a teacher may work with a family to help them cope and what things this teacher could do in her classroom to accommodate their child.  I have found a website that gave me some interesting information on how to accomodate a student in the classroom with ODD.

Surprisingly, many teachers who believe that they are evenhanded a clear about expectations often are not.  Among the elements most important are:

http://specialed.about.com/od/behavioremotiona1/a/Oppositional-Defiance-Disorder.htm

A Structured Environment Some assumptions about how a classroom should be organized may be inappropriate for students with ODD.

Seating arrangements that put children into clusters of 4 creates too many opportunities for disruptive behavior and work avoidance for students with ODD.

Often rows or pairs are the best way to start out a school year or introduce a new student into the mix.

Supplies, text books and resources can often be problematic if you are not intentional where you put them and how students are permitted or not permitted to access supplies.

Focus on routines rather than rules.  To do this plan thoroughly what you expect from your classroom to make it structured.

Set up a reinforcement plan with what students like or think are important.  Consider rewarding good behavior or reaching academic goals with free time on the computer.  Most children with ODD love working on the computer, and most schools block any objectionable sites.

Understanding the behavior objective and not engage in the battle.  The reason for ODD is often to engage people in authority in a tug of war or power play.  Have a strategy that will allow for you to remain calm and in control.

After looking at other articles I also found this website to be interesting.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5753133_effective-teaching-oppositional-children.html

When reading this article there was a part that really stuck out at me.   "A single, educational strategy does not exist for teaching children with ODD. Using multiple approaches is the most effective way to teach a child with ODD." (Anni Martin)  I thought this was really interesting because when teaching we know that there are no two children who are exactly alike therefore we use multiple approaches to figure out what is best for the child and for the family but I wonder what happens when the class is in the hallway or the family is in public.  A child with ODD looks like a 'normal' child therefore when an outsider thinks their helping the situation they could possibly be making it worse because of lack of information.  How does a family or a teacher cope with this?

Parents Perspective

This week I explored some personal dialogue between families dealing with issues of ODD on the Mayo Clinic site.  This site allows people to connect on various health issues and share information on what is affecting their life and seek advice from others who may have similar issues.

http://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussions/893-overcoming-odd

is the case of a 17 year old high school student with ODD who is having difficulty in unstructured areas such as on the bus, during school and in the locker room (without supervision).  His ability to graduation high school is being questioned.  In this case others commented based on their experience that he may need to go to a less restricted environment.  Another person suggested a physical outlet for him like playing a noncompetitive sport. This would help take out some of his energy.

A second family in the following attachment reports a 5 year old that most days just needs time out and redirection, but every two weeks or so she goes crazy for 48 hours breaking rules like harming family members, lying and stealing, busting through locked doors and cabinets.

http://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussions/217-my-child-is-5-and-has-adhd-and-odd---suggestions-i-need-help

A response to this plea for help suggests that taking things away and making her earn them is a much better punishment than time out (they get use to it and it's no big deal to them) and even popping her on the butt or holding her when she is in a rage.  Their son is currently in the hospital for a violent rage requiring Intensive In-home therapy as that is where most of his rages occur.  I suppose this implies the writer has experience, but one might question the effectiveness of their wisdom.

A few others suggested tools for positive reinforcement.  I can understand from these comments that it is important to understand a child's environment when they act out and look for patterns.  It is important to communicate this to parents and school support so that it may be possible to change the environment that makes them feel out of control.  Physical responses are believed to occur when they feel not in control.  Having a physical outlet such as hitting pillows or tearing paper can help.  Emotional responses from authority make things worse.  Finding a therapist and supplements were also suggested in the conversation.

I wonder what role physical spanking can play in instilling discipline.  One writer suggested that she saw a difference in the respect that was given to her husband who was known to spank her child.  Her child made life more chaotic and difficult with her and did not hold back in loving his father.  His father got respect because he spanked him.  She was an advocate of rewarding positive behavior, but acknowledge that what is important is that everyone needs to search for what works for the child and family.  With the mix of responses it is understood that there is no one solution, but many families hurting and trying to find a solution.

My relative says that maybe it is important to have a mix of the physical discipline and positive reinforcement.   She thinks that the child need to understand boundaries and know that they can do things right.  It seems like they are always getting into trouble and it probably feels worse emotionally to them particularly if they have siblings to compare themselves to.

If it is a child or adult, mental illness can significantly disrupt the lives of both the affected person and those who care about him or her, and it's normal - and healthy - to need help coping.  After reading these conversations I can understand the role of a mental health provider in helping people with strategies to enjoy and succeed in their own life without guilt.

Teachers are not mental health providers, but I would like to explore how a teacher can support a child and family with ODD.

Adults with ODD

From my last post I was wondering about what happens when a child with ODD grows up. Some of the questions I have asked include:

• Does this child still have ODD when they grow up?
• Does the family have to cope a different way than how its suggest to cope when they are a child?
• Does ODD slowly disappear in a person or does it get worse as they get older?

To help answer my questions I asked my family member if she believes that her son that is now 21 still has ODD and how the family copes with it. She said that he likes to do what he wants and when its not his choice he can get angry. Once he's angry he likes to have his space. He will walk off to cool down. She said that she believes he still has ODD but she wasn't sure. To follow what she was telling me I went online to see if I could find any information that supported the actions she had pointed out.

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/9139.html

After reading a couple websites I had found this one. This website interested me because it says that as adults they are relentless when someone says they are wrong. That they tend to feel misunderstood and disliked. These were things that she had mentioned and that I have seen by being near him. The website also suggests that ODD is related to ADHD and ADHD medication and anger-management classes maybe helpful to manage the symptoms.

This article has made me wonder why I don't hear much about ODD. There were multiple websites, blogs, or comments that I had read where people mentioned there wasn't much information about adults with ODD. I'm wondering why this is when this article suggested ways to cope with it. It brings into question the experience of the people who are writing these articles when there isn't much written on it.

Ways to Cope

When thinking of things to blog about I began thinking about where my last post left me wondering. Once I had found out that if you say "never the less" or "regardless repeatedly and calmly it de-escalates the issue I mentioned it to my family member. I also asked her how she coped with her son refusing to do things she asked of him. She told me a story about how when she was driving he would get out of his car seat multiple times and refuse to sit in it. She said that her method of coping was giving him an ultimatum that he didn't like. In this situation she pulled over and told him that he had two choices. He had to choose between standing there and waiting for her to pick him up later or he could come with them and sit in his car seat. She said that this worked for her son but it might not be the best way to cope with a child who as ODD. I looked more into solutions or how a family might cope and after reading multiple articles this one really stuck out at me.

http://www.squidoo.com/Oppsitional-Defiant-Children

This article stuck out at me because it has 13 tips for families and how they can cope when they have a child with ODD in their family. I also noticed that from reading a couple websites most of them included some of the same key strategies to use when coping with ODD. They said to stay consistent, learn the child's warning signs, pick your battles, and look for positives. I am interested in finding out what happens when a child who has ODD gets older. Does the child still have Oppositional Defiant Disorder? Does the defiant behavior increase or decrease? Do the strategies or tips that are suggested still work or does the family have to find other ways to cope? I wonder if I can receive answers to my questions through research.

Solutions for ODD

Today I began looking for more information about ODD. After figuring out that ODD is an ongoing pattern of uncooperative, defiant, and hostile behavior towards authority figures, I had asked my family member for a situation that had happened where there child was doing this. She told me that there was one time she had went to go pick up her son from school and he wouldn't get in the car to go home. She kept trying to get him in the car by saying things like "lets go home" but he refused. This is an action that a "normal" child would have completed without hesitation but her son wouldn't. After I heard her story I was wondering what solutions or comments she could have made to help resolve this issue before it got worse.

http://www.guidancefacilitators.com/odd2.html

This is the website that I have found that listed some solutions or strategies to avoid conflict. The reason why this was so interesting to me was because if I had a child in my classroom who had ODD it would be very difficult to get this child to complete normal tasks throughout the day and I was wondering how you avoid conflict with your words. This article had mentioned to use the words "regardless" and "nevertheless" repetitively and calm because it will de-escalate the situation. This made me wonder that if my family member had said these words to her son if that would have calmed the situation down and if this is the only thing they have found to work. I will have to look more into this.

What is Oppositional Defiant Disorder?

Hi everyone! I have decided to explore Oppositional Defiant Disorder and how it effects families or other caregivers such as teachers. I chose to explore this disorder because there is someone in my family who has Oppositional Defiant Disorder. I just recently found this information out and I wanted to look more into it. When I heard about Oppositional Defiant Disorder I began wondering what this included. In my mind 'Oppositional' meant the opposite. 'Defiant' meant completing inappropriate actions and then 'Disorder' meant that it doesn't just happen once. I also had some questions that popped into my head. These included:

• What is ODD?
• What are the symptoms?
• Does ODD last forever or will it eventually disappear?

I wanted to check to see if my thinking was right and to see if I could answer some of my questions, therefore I used the information my family member had gave me and went to use the resources on the internet. Below is a link that I found about Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

http://www.aacap.org/cs/ODD.ResourceCenter

This website was very helpful to me. It gave me more information about Oppositional Defiant Disorder or ODD. It includes frequently asked questions as well that had answered some of my questions that I had asked myself. It also provides information to parents or families by giving them ideas and places to go for help as well as books and other resources that could be used. I did notice that it says this website was last updated in 2009 which makes me wonder if there is new information out since then. I will have to continue my search to find out more information about Oppositional Defiant Disorder and how it effects families.