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Child mental health

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Oppositional Defiance Disorder

3 replies

suzi2 · 09/10/2011 21:52

My DS (6) has all the signs. Except that he was a joy in school... until this week when he acted up for teachers. He was violent towards the assistant head and showed the teachers no respect. Assistant head said he was very defiant and very, very stubborn. I chuckled a little as he's like this at home - and has been VERY bad the last few weeks.

I'm not keen on labelling him up with something TBH. I think I've read everything and tried everything to deal with his huffy, aggressive, angry, stuborn behaviour. But I don't want it rolling over into school.

So... has anyone been through similar? Can you advise what's best to do? Get a referral or self-help at home? If self-help, what sort of things can we do to try and manage this? As I said, we've tried everything we can think of with little effect. I know that some things (such as us showing anger) will probably make things worse, but I don't know what will make things better. DH and I both lose the plot with him eventually, because if he can't wind us up, he starts to set upon his little sister, which eventually gets a rise out of us!

OP posts:
Selks · 11/10/2011 15:12

I'm not sure on the usefulness of this kind of label for a young child, and anyway the 'treatment' is the same label or not i.e. treatment offered by a service such as CAMHS would be to do with working with the parents re managing the behaviour. Best starting point IMHO is to read 'The Incredible Years by Carolyn Webster Stratton.

suzi2 · 12/12/2011 20:46

Thought I'd update this one... we are getting there. We have to handle him very carefully and I'm using some 'techniques' that my friend uses for her autistic child. They seem to help. We're being very careful to make sure that tiredness and illness are spotted quickly as they're huge factors in it all. More than anything he got his work checked at school and they said he wasn't being challenged at all so have pushed him on a lot. This has been a bit difficult, as he's now separate from the rest of his class for a couple of things and the work he's doing is a few years on, but ultimately it's kept him busy and not getting into trouble! I think he's also feeling a bit proud of himself too.

OP posts:
Selks · 10/01/2012 20:57

Good to hear a positive update. Hope things keep going well.

(Still recommend the book though......Grin)

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