If you are a teacher who finds that "nothing works" to manage some students, this article may help. It's way past time for you to learn about ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

In college, you probably got very little training on basic mental health, but if you've been teaching for more than five minutes, you know that little bit of training wasn't enough. Here's just a quick peek at what they should have taught you in college about basic juvenile mental health. Be aware however that this article gives you just 1% of what you will need to know in your classroom in order to maintain control and best assist each challenged student.

Be sure to visit our web site (http://www.youthchg.com) to get more crucial mental health information you need. You can also look more on the net to track down other sources of aid.

WHAT DOES "OPPOSITIONAL-DEFIANT" MEAN?

"Oppositional-Defiant" is a mental health diagnosis that describes kids that have consciences but sometimes act like they don't. This diagnosis can only be applied by a mental health professional but will be very important for any youth worker to know and understand. This diagnosis is far more hopeful than "conduct disorder," which means the child lacks a conscience and a real capacity for relationships. While the oppositional- defiant child (ODD) may also appear to have little conscience or relationship capacity, you may be able to improve that with the right approach and methods. With conduct disordered youth, such improvement may not be possible.

** WHAT DOES "OPPOSITIONAL-DEFIANCE" LOOK LIKE?

Oppositional-defiant kids are often some of your most misbehaved students. They may disrupt your class, hurt others, defy authority and engage in illegal or problematic conduct. Though they may look similar to conduct disorders, their bad behavior is usually less severe, less frequent, and of shorter duration. The ODD label is often inaccurately applied as this dynamic can be a difficult concept to grasp and apply. Many ADD youth are also ODD, and boys dominate this category.

**THE 3 AREAS OF HELP FOR ODD YOUTH

The thrust of helping the ODD child must focus on 1) Skill building, plus 2)"Pulling up" that conscience and 3)Improving their relationship

skills. For skill building, teaching them how to regulate their anger, actions, peer skills, verbal output, etc. will be critical. But equally important, this child must be aided to care about others and to be guided more by conscience. These interventions will only focus on stimulating that conscience or "compensating" for it. If you want more than the handful of ideas given here, or, you want to see how to build skills or relationship capacity, the other two crucial aspects to concentrate on with ODD kids, then you will need to

further investigate this topic.

**EXAMPLE STRATEGIES TO STIMULATE THE CONSCIENCE OF ODD KIDS

*** To help "pull up" the child's conscience, use this intervention. It can be used pro-actively or reactively (before or after the child has engaged in misbehavior.) For example, let's say the child has stolen the teacher's pen, you can say "I want you to imagine that we're making a video about your life. Are you impressed?" That "uncomfortable sensation that the child may have in reaction to this intervention may be the conscience stirring.

*** Another intervention to stimulate the conscience: after the child has engaged in a problem behavior, such as stealing a pen, as in the example above, ask the child, "So what's your integrity worth to you?"

Remember: you've just gotten a tiny portion of the information you need on ODD students. Please be sure to read more, go to a training, or otherwise update your skills. Our web site (link below) has more free help if you want quick answers.

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