Robyn's Nest - The Parenting Network - Identifying Behavioral Disorders

Identifying Behavioral Disorders

ODD, CD, and Bullying

There are 2 types of childhood behavior disorders. The first is Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or ODD and the second is Conduct Disorder, or CD.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) - Oppositional Defiant Disorder is defined as a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures. There is a current trend of increased occurance of ODD in young children, ages 4-6 years.

How do you know if your child's misbehavior is typical or a sign of something more serious?

The key to this issue is how frequently the behaviors occur. Every child has a bad day, but is this a pattern? Has it lasted over time?

The child with ODD shows a pattern of negative, hostile, defiant and disobedient behavior usually directed at parents. Here are some examples:

Often loses his temper.

Often argues with you

Refuses to follow your rules.

Deliberately annoys others.

Constantly blames others for what they did wrong.

Often seems angry and resentful.

ODD children are not always ill tempered, and can often be quite loving, at times. But when they go off, they go off big-time. These behaviors are usually seen at home at first but as the child gets older, behavioral meltdowns become more frequent and start to show up outside the home.

Conduct Disorder - A conduct disorder is defined as repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated. See Checklist below.

Children with Conduct Disorder are much more severely disturbed and demonstrate behaviors that actually violate societal norms. Examples of CD behaviors include:

Aggression to people or animals

Destruction of property

Lying and theft

Running away from home

School truancy

Bullying

If your child is 6 or 7 and is demonstrating ODD or CD-like behavior patterns, I strongly urge you to take him to a psychologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating these children and their families.

In all likelihood, as a parent you are exhausted, at your wits end and may be having significant marital and family problems. Typically one parent takes a hard line, punishment-oriented approach while the other tries to counterbalance this with more permissiveness and disagreements ensue. Neither approach is likely to work because children with these disorders do not typically respond well to praise and punishment. Even punishment, after a while, loses its effectiveness.

If there are other children in the family, chances are that they are suffering also. These are family problems. My message to you is to get help and to get it now before it's too late. There is a very good book that has come out recently by Dr. Ross Greene, called The Explosive Child. I highly recommend it as a starting point but it is not a substitute for professional help.

Untreated, these problems only get worse with time, not better.

A Related and Important Behavioral Issue is Bullying.

The Facts:

What is bullying? Bullying is a pattern of aggressive behavior in which one child is in a more powerful position that another and exploits this advantage.

Recent surveys have shown that more than 25% of children in middle school have experienced bullying either as a victim, a bully or both. These children often demonstrate poor social and emotional adjustment.

Bullying is most common in middle school and drops off in high school.

Bullying occurs more frequently with boys and often involves physical violence while girls tend to start rumors or make sexually demeaning comments. Interestingly, although bullying often involves put downs about another student's appearance or speech, it rarely involves racial or religious slurs.

You also may be surprised to learn that bullies tend to be popular and to make friends rather easily so there is apparently a social payoff to bulling.

However, the downside is that bullies are more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol and do poorly in school.

Victims of bullies, on the other hand, have few friends, are often lonely, and prone to depression.

The students who show the worst adjustment are those who have been both bullies themselves and the victim of bullies.

Revenge for bullying has played a role in some of the recent school shootings.

So what can be done about bullying? School programs are proving to be the most effective way to reduce episodes of bullying and its harmful, sometimes devastating consequences. Such programs in Europe have reduced episodes of bullying by upwards of 50% and appear much more promising than the zero tolerance programs found in most U.S. schools.

If your child's school does not have such a program, you may want to ask why.

Reprinted with permission from Connecticut Educational Services (CES)

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Behavioral Disorders