Oppositional Defiance Disorder

[AspieMel]

Wonder if anyone has had experience in homeshcooling with a child who has ODD? We have had mention of this before with my oldest, and here lately I see it more and more. His old school Psychologist swore up and down he didn't have it, that it was just another facet of his Aspieness. But the more we are at home this summer, the more I think his Neuropsych was right. Now I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into! Anyone with experience in this?

[sheryl]

Wonder if anyone has had experience in homeshcooling with a child who has ODD? We have had mention of this before with my oldest, and here lately I see it more and more. His old school Psychologist swore up and down he didn't have it, that it was just another facet of his Aspieness. But the more we are at home this summer, the more I think his Neuropsych was right. Now I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into! Anyone with experience in this?

 

Hi again Mel!

 

That's a tough one as your oldest is 6 yo. That's an age where they are making a transition from babyhood (few responsibilities) to childhood/student (more respon).

 

Yes, my dd was dx with add, adhd, odd. She just turned 11 in May. What I've come to learn from dd's psychiatrist is that so many of these beahvioral issues seem to overlap. If your son, Conner? is suspected with odd then that is the manifestation of another root problem/s. In other words, what's causing the odd?

 

Honestly it takes time, patience, drs, etc to finally piece it all together.

 

My dd was on risperdal for odd. It's a nasty drug. We decided that we were going to wean her from this....it's been 2 weeks tomorrow. The psychiatrist said 2 weeks ago that it stays in the body for 2-3 weeks after the last pill. So far it's OK. It will be interesting to see her the next 1-2 weeks.

 

Was the neuropsy test complete? If so, what did the test reveal were his strengths? His weaknesses? At his age, I'd try to rehabilitate his weaknesses. Identify what his weaknesses are and work on improving those.

 

However, you know your ds best and medication may be in order.

 

Sheryl <><

[Spellbound]

I don't have experienced with with ODD specifically, but I do have very intense children that when there is stress in the family, cannot be managed with traditional tools. It can get BAD sometimes. The first thing I do is check myself, they can READ my stress level and it escalates them. The next set of tools I pull out is Transforming the difficult child : the nurtured heart approach / Howard Glasser and Jennifer Easley. I have never had to do the entire program, but I've done a scaled down program that really helps. The next tool for me sometimes is time. When I took my kiddo out of school, it was very stressful and sometimes just unstructured summer is stressful for him. These are things that worked for me. Good luck :001_smile:

[mom4him]

Mel, I will share our experiences.

Our youngest has had 'issues' since he was very little, 2 or so. We have never had him officially diagnosed so this may not be what will help you.

He used to go into rages 1-4 times a day. Long,destructive times.

These are the things that we have done:

We follow the Specific Carb. Diet and have now for over 4 1/2 yrs. We are VERY faithful with it and have seen great improvement through it.

 

We have become aware of his chemical sensitivity, cleaned out our home of all items that he reacts to or that can be problematic(contact me if you want further info). Again, we have seen more great improvement with this.

 

We have had him treated by a Chiropractor that does NAET treatment. This has been difficult as sometimes he gets worse until you can get him back for another treatment. It has not been an easy road but again we have seen more improvement. One of the main things is we have been able to go to things without him reacting that we couldn't before we started the NAET.

 

We also do an assundry of supplements.

 

If you want to talk to me about any or all of these feel free to send me a pm. I don't normally subscribe to threads so that is about the only way to get a hold of me. :001_smile:

[mom4him]

I don't have experienced with with ODD specifically, but I do have very intense children that when there is stress in the family, cannot be managed with traditional tools. It can get BAD sometimes. The first thing I do is check myself, they can READ my stress level and it escalates them. The next set of tools I pull out is Transforming the difficult child : the nurtured heart approach / Howard Glasser and Jennifer Easley. I have never had to do the entire program, but I've done a scaled down program that really helps. The next tool for me sometimes is time. When I took my kiddo out of school, it was very stressful and sometimes just unstructured summer is stressful for him. These are things that worked for me. Good luck :001_smile:

Oh, I so agree that my dc NEED structure/routine. This is a must in our home.

[Twinmom]

I have a child with SPD whom I also think has ODD traits. To be honest, she's going back to school on a trial basis this year in part because our conflicts at home are causing problems with her little brothers' education. She has improved quite a bit, however, and continues to do so. I learned a lot about how to handle her through reading the book "The Defiant Child" by Doug Riley. His books are unique in that he understands/explains underlying conditions that can play a role in developing ODD...most ODD books I've read do not take SPD into account, for example.

 

Best of luck. It is a hard road that requires an amazing amount of tenacity on the part of the parent.

[Mom2J112903]

*I* do not think Connor has ODD and you know J's hx ;)

 

J sees a GREAT doc in B'ham, wish you guys could come see him as well. ODD was *never* mentioned but SPD was and is. We have came to the conclusion that J is simply a severe case of SPD, nothing more, nothing less. With severe SPD being un-controlled, you get some *awful* behaviors which can mimick ODD.

 

How long has it been since he has a GOOD eval? Like an OT, ST, PT, neur-pysch sort of eval. This is where I would start with him.

 

You also know what sort of health problems we are going thru wtih J. True the south and its mold does not play nice, but thanks to his meds, his immune system has weakened. We are hopeful that with his intense OT he can come off the meds. He has made HUGE gains with them though, but yeah, the health issues, yeah....

 

HUGE *hugs* and we shall do a zoo day and/or children's museum soon. :)

[Renee in NC]

My 9yo has ODD tendencies - meaning that he didn't meet DSM-IV criteria for ODD, but he was very close. We have seen GREAT strides with occupational therapy, including Interactive Metronome and Therapeutic Listening. He went from 1-4 rages a day (even just 6 weeks ago) to 1-2 a week. They are of a much lower intensity and duration than they were.

 

The psych told me that his rages are due to frustration at his inability to learn. I don't think so - he has had them since he was 2-3 years old. I think they are sensory-related.

[Mom2J112903]

We have seen GREAT strides with occupational therapy, including Interactive Metronome and Therapeutic Listening. He went from 1-4 rages a day (even just 6 weeks ago) to 1-2 a week. They are of a much lower intensity and duration than they were.

 

The psych told me that his rages are due to frustration at his inability to learn. I don't think so - he has had them since he was 2-3 years old. I think they are sensory-related.

 

I am SO happy to read this! :D J *just* started OT and will be using both of these.

 

I can relate to the rages, J's first "WTH?!" moment was at 18 months of age. He ran across the room and hit another child in the nose with a wooden block because of the noise level in the room.

[Twinmom]

My 9yo has ODD tendencies - meaning that he didn't meet DSM-IV criteria for ODD, but he was very close. We have seen GREAT strides with occupational therapy, including Interactive Metronome and Therapeutic Listening. He went from 1-4 rages a day (even just 6 weeks ago) to 1-2 a week. They are of a much lower intensity and duration than they were.

 

The psych told me that his rages are due to frustration at his inability to learn. I don't think so - he has had them since he was 2-3 years old. I think they are sensory-related.

 

:iagree: That's where we are at as well!