Oppositional Defiant "Disorder"

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My younger sister has an official diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder as well as an intellectual disability: and yes, it is much more than teenage rebellion as these behaviors have been in place from when she was a young child: even in kindergarten.

A typical day involves her swaring and acting out at my parents a few times...and my parents in turn let her do whatever she wants and preferred activities in order to subdue her anger. If she gets angry/testy: it can potentially get to the point of physical harassment, kicking, biting etc. and she has been suspended from school and even pulled out because of this. She has always had behavioural problems at school since she was small: even in her life skills/special education classes.

She has a real conduct disorder in that she'll challenge anyone in authority for any reasons at all: teachers, her parents, and even me. People who know her well can tell that it's because of her intense anger issues and a lack of impulse control: it's not that she needs more discipline, but traditional discipline approaches simply do not work for her as she simply cannot control herself.

The group home I was in was specifically for people with psych labels, it wasn't the same as more standard group homes (I knew people who were in those, too, and that was quite a different situation than either the psych-specific ones or the way the one I lived in became). It technically wasn't called a group home, but rather a residential treatment center.

funny... thats what one of my coworkers considers autism to be, bad parenting that could be solved by more discipline. what makes odd any less valid a diagnosis than asd? i guess all you kids just need to be beaten more =)

Same here, I do like my work to be guided though.

My son was diagnosed with what they called "Oppositional Defiant Behavior Syndrome" almost 20 years ago, when he was 4. In his case, the issue that needed to be addresses was biting at preschool. Instead of going the medications route the state doctors suggested, I went to the classroom so I could see for myself what was going on.

What I observed was, like all the other kids, he would get into little conflicts with others - but the difference was that when emotions started to escalate, he was unable to get any words out fast enough to respond to what the other kid was saying. I would see him struggling to find the words, and then lashing out by biting or hitting when he couldn't say what he wanted to say.

I retained a speech language therapist who worked with him for a year, with much success - but the behavior actually stopped after about 6 weeks of work with the therapist.

He's continued to be socially awkward through his teens and into adulthood, but he was never a defiant or violent child in any way. He's super-intelligent and very kind. I'm not sure a diagnosis of ODD means very much in and of itself . . .

Ummm no.

I had two ODD kids in my after school program. This is more than just snit fits and little tantrums. An ODD kid will alienate everyone around him/her in a few weeks.

Then the other little s**t heads will start egging on the ODD kid for grins and giggles until the kid lashes out. It is a full bore, over the top, burnt Earth response.

They had no true friends. Everyone sort of tolerated them.

Everything turned into a battle. You give an ODD kid an ultimatum, you could pull off his toe nails and he still won't do it.

It is sad. Where some will have patience with an Aspie kid, and even with his melt downs, none have patience with an ODD kid. They think he's just being a belligerent jerk.

I don't doubt some pain in the necks kids get this label, but the children who truly do have this, my heart just breaks.

The last time I remember when I was dxed with AS I was dxed with other piggy backing traits such as ODD.

I thought this might be a good thread to mention PDA
http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/r ... drome.aspx.
Although this info is from the leading autism charity in the UK, this diagnosis is not widely accepted or understood even here. It might explain why some people get a diagnosis of autism plus ODD, when I diagnosis of PDA alone might be sufficient.

My own daughter has a diagnosis of Aspergers now, but prior to that, I was investigating having her assessed privately for PDA. I don't think she has PDA now, as it's become clear that much of her demand avoidance is down to sensory issues, i.e. remove the discomfort and she complies. The rest of it is down to distractibility and being obsessed with playing all the time, i.e. she's not just refusing to do as she's told, due to being asked to do something, she just can't drag herself away from her obsession.

I think my son has this. He just turned 5.