O.D.D. - Oppositional Defiant Disorder - Anyone Have Experience with It?

ODD is quite frequently a gateway diagnosis or a comorbid diagnosis to another developmental issue. If you have not looked into a Developmental Pediatrician for your evaluation, I would consider it as soon as possible. Psycholgist and neuropsycholgists are alternatives, and psychiatrists are terrific case managers once you have a good diagnosis, but nothing beats the thourough nature of a Developmental Pediatrician (find them at children's hospitals.) If you go into a psycholgist and ask for an ODD evaluation, that is exactly what you get. If you go to a Developmental Pediatricians office and ask for an ODD evaluation, they are going to evaluate everything else that it might be instead, and everything that it could be combined with that will need treatment for you daughter to be more functional.

ODD and sensory processing disorder sound more appealing than autism or ADHD to many parents these days, as dyslexia and CAPD did several years ago. You should let a professional evaluate, and not try to guide the diagnosis and that will be much more effective for your daughter.

My experience as an educational advocate is that if you get one of the other diagnoses, even if ODD is comorbid, you will have a better outcome and prognosis than if your daughter has stand alone ODD, which is much more difficult to remediated than ODD that has a more treatable cause.

M.

Yes, I also have a daughter with ODD (actually 2). My 18 yr old has ODD and ADD and my 8 yr old daughter (one of my set of triplets) has ODD and ADHD. I hate to say it but it seems to get worse the older they get.

You have a lot of good answers here, in particular the woman who is an advocate and her direction to get a good evaluation. I would suggest going to abc. com and going into the archives and looking for the episode on I believe 20/20, fall of last year that addresses ODD. There are therapists from the Yale team giving direction to families with children who have the same diagnosis. You also see other children with the ODD diagnosis.There are many children with the diagnosis, often there is co-morbidity( another problem) there are support groups for parents for many of the issues, hope that helps.

Hi K.: You are not alone. I went through similar things with my son, who is now almost 17. He was diagnosed with a mood disorder at 4 and has been on medication ever since. When he was younger, consistency was very important, as someone else said. When I gave him a warning, I followed through. It is way harder on you than it will be on her, but still, it has to be done. Having said that, however, if she really does have a biologically based reason for her behavior (and it sounds as if she does), then she can't always stop her behavior. Does she have any sensory issues: e.g. do loud noises, lots of commotion, bright lights, socks on the wrong way, bother her? I found that the further I could keep my son from a lot of stimulus the better. Also, I found that ignoring the behavior (which is SO HARD) was best. Although they may not be able to control their behavior, they also learn quickly what will get them attention - you don't want to reinforce bad behavior. How does she do at school? Are there issues there, or is it mostly at home? If there are school issues, I wouldn't hesitate to get her certified for Sp.Ed. She will get a lot of support there if she needs it (and it is not the negative label it used to be). To this day, my son does best when he has a very defined schedule, which is, of course, harder to do during the summer. He has come a long way since the age of 6, so don't get too down about this. I think it's very good that you are having her evaluated. As someone else said, the best dr. to see would be a Behavioral Pediatrician or a child psychologist. Is she your only child? I had an older son, so it was easier for me to distinguish between the usual behavior at a specific age and that which was outside of the norm - because, remember, some of it IS just age-appropriate behavior. I know you said you've read a lot of books, but just in case you haven't read this one, I would highly recommend "The Explosive Child" by Dr. Ross Greene. If you would like to email me directly, please feel free. I have done a lot of parent support work over the years and would be happy to help if I can. P.S. I am in Michigan, too. Have you been to the Behavioral Peds. dept at U-M? That might be a good place to start.

What do you do when she acts up? I believe that being overly punitive (and I don't just mean spanking) can cause a child to have behavior problems.

I'm assuming since you've read all those books that you've tried positive discipline.

My daughter was finally diagnosed in her teen years. It would have been so much easier to know and have been able to deal with her differently. I suggest Love and Logic parenting training. Look around at local mental health centers, county health departments, and even at your local elementary schools. They often offer the parenting classes and they should be free. If you can find actual classes/seminars done by the founders then pay for the seminar. They are worth the cost but take as many free ones as possible first.

http://www.loveandlogic.com/