Yet another trendy term has appeared on the list of childhood disorders. Certain children who are continually defiant and openly hostile towards any figure in authority can be diagnosed with ODD.

But how do you know whether your child has Oppositional Defiant Disorder or is not just naughty? If only it were as simple as having the child undergo a blood test or a brain scan. There are no such tests for this condition - children suspected as having this condition need to be evaluated by a trained professional. The professionals will conduct a series of observations and will make their diagnosis on the outcome of these tests as well as information collected from the parents and teachers.

All parents find parenting difficult at times. Children are a blessing but there is a reason that they begin as cute little babies. If they arrived as toddlers, families would be smaller and the human race may be in danger of extinction! Add a child suffering from an illness such as ODD to the mix and we have the beginnings of a true nightmare. Parents of children suffering from this disorder need help and extra training – not because they are lacking in parental skills but because family life can resemble a war zone most of the time. These children would test the patience of a Saint never mind the normal parent. But the relationship between a child and their parents is crucial to the child’s happiness in later life. It is easier for a parent to deal with the affected child if they themselves have received proper training.

The coaching for parents is similar to that of other parenting classes. The parents are encouraged to learn to praise children when they exhibit flexibility and cooperate with them. In other words, you need to find your child being “good”. In between arguments, develop a habit of taking time out to assess yourself and your point of view. Try letting your child win a couple of battles – just make sure you win the War!

Eventually, you may find that the child will begin to copy your approach. A significant breakthrough occurs when a child with Oppositional Defiant Disorder asks or takes time out to consider their own actions.

Parents should try and make sure that they get sufficient “me” and “us” time. A well nourished, well rested parent has a better chance of staying patient with a demanding child. But it is also important not to forget the relationship between the parents. Having children tends to mean less time and energy for the original relationship but having difficult or ill children means even less relationship time. Try to arrange for a trusted babysitter at least twice a month to allow you both time to enjoy each other’s company and rediscover why you got together.

Positive parenting plays a big role in helping children with ODD. Children learn by example although as a parent I sometimes wonder why my kids only follow my bad examples!

Treatment for your child will be determined by their physician or psychiatrist who will consider such things as:

• The age of the child

• The general health of the child as well as their medical history

• Just how bad your child’s symptoms are

• Which treatment they think your child may respond to well

• Your opinion

The possible treatments that may be available for children with oppositional defiant disorder include:

• Cognitive behavior therapy and psychotherapy. These therapies may help to improve a child’s problem solving, communication skills, anger management and impulse control.

• Some family therapy may be required with the aim to make some changes within the family structure and routines. Sometimes an increase in family interactions can help a child’s ODD symptoms and it can also be beneficial for the whole family to improve their communication skills. It is easy to lose control when you are a parent of a child that is constantly naughty and so family therapy can teach you new ways to deal with the child and ways to cope as a parent of a child with ODD.

• Your child may need some group therapy so that they can learn or improve their social and interpersonal skills.

• Medication is usually not very effective for oppositional defiant disorder itself, however if your child has ODD in co-existance with another disorder then medication could be suggested. Medications do have side effects so only use them as a last resort.

• Natural therapies are an option as often the cause of the child’s behavior problems could be an underlying problem such as leaky gut syndrome or a food intolerance. Often if these are taken care of there will be an incredible improvement in the child’s behavior.

The number of behavior disorders being diagnosed in children is definitely increasing over recent years and it is possible that this could be due to all the additives and preservatives that are including in the ingredients of most foods that we eat. It can be hugely beneficial to your child to have a healthy diet and to try and avoid as many additives and preservatives as possible.

Sheryl Polomka is a mother of an eight year old boy with Aspergers syndrome and ODD. She has now devoted a website to child behavior disorders which you can visit at http://www.ourexceptionalkids.com

To read one of her articles about the symptoms of ODD Click Here

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sheryl_L_Polomka
http://EzineArticles.com/?Treatment-for-ODD-(Oppositional-Defiant-Disorder)&id=1150906

Welcome to our blog - again. Rachel and I started this blog a few weeks ago but due to a technical error we lost our data and are now starting over. So, once again I welcome you to our blog and we hope that you come back and visit often.

Rachel and I are both mothers of special needs children and we know how difficult it can be raising a child that, although looks perfectly normal, does have some issues to deal with. We know how the behavior of a special needs child can often be mistaken as just ‘being naughty’ due to the fact that they don’t have any physically obvious looks of any medical problem.

In fact, I myself at first thought that my son was just going through a stage of bad behavior and I waited for him to outgrow it. It wasn’t until this behavior increasingly got worse over a few years to the stage that we then knew it was not just normal ‘being naughty’ behavior.

Sometimes it isn’t easy getting your child diagnosed when they don’t have all the obvious symptoms and the whole diagnosis process can be very frustrating. These are just some of the reasons that Rachel and I got together to create our site at http://www.ourexceptionalkids.com  and this blog, so that we could share our experiences and our knowledge and so our visitors could read ‘real’ information from mothers who have lived it.

So we hope that you do gain some help from our site and blog and please feel free to leave us comments here on the blog. If there is anything that you would like to see included in our site or blog or even if you would like to tell us your story and we could publish it on our blog, then please leave a message in our comments.

If you haven’t already done so then have a look at our site http://www.ourexceptionalkids.com  

Take care
Sheryl