If your teenage kid or child has persistent or frequent anger, arguing, irritability, vindictiveness or defiance towards any of the authority figures, including you, he or she may experience the oppositional defiant disorder. However, as a caregiver or parent, you no longer need to go alone to try to manage the child with oppositional defiant disorder. Instead, you should approach doctors, child development experts, and mental health professionals to get help.
Behavioral treatment associated with oppositional defiant disorder consists of various learning skills, which intend to help you in building positive family interactions and to assist in managing problematic behaviors. However, depending on underlying symptoms, doctors may recommend additional therapy and medications to treat a wide range of mental health disorders.(1)
Coping Strategies To Deal With Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Coping strategies associated with the handling of oppositional defiant disorder depend on different factors. These include the ability of your kid to involve in or tolerate different therapies, severity associated with the child’s symptoms and the age of a child. However, psychiatrists in most of the cases recommend two prime coping strategies to deal with children suffering from the oppositional defiant disorder. These are as follows-
Parenting Management Training
If your child is of school age, the psychiatrist may recommend parenting management training commonly as the initial approach to therapy or treatment. The underlying principles associated with this type of parents’ training are-
Therapy helps you to become a role model for your child by simply reducing the coercive interaction between parents and children. If you become overwhelmed because of emotions, you should choose to take a break for a while. Moreover, you should never contribute towards the conflict and model to handle everything properly.
Next, you should put efforts to create positive reinforcement and hence, look for various ways to appreciate your kid and give rewards for non-defiant and pro-social behavior.
Set various reasonable and appropriate limits according to age and apply certain consequences to enforce on your child consistently and readily. These include loss of various privileges, time-out in a gentle way and similar others.
You should select the battles wisely based on the prioritization of different things, which your child should do.
As a parent or caregiver of your child, you should manage your anger and stress to create a good support network for you.
If you find dealing with your oppositional defiant disorder affected child as difficult, you should take help from your spouse, your child’s schoolteachers and guides to work with you and your child. Irrespective of the step you take, it should essentially be in favor of your kid instead of working against the oppositional defiant disorder child.
Collaborative And Proactive Solutions
Alternatively, the Collaborative and Proactive Solutions strategy is an alternative strategy related to parenting with kids suffering from the oppositional defiant disorder. This type of strategy focuses on assisting children and parents to learn to resolve various problems, which contribute towards defiant behavior issues proactively and collaboratively. The treatment strategy aims to enhance adaptability, flexibility and problem-resolving skills in both the children and parents.
Major principles associated with collaborative and proactive solutions are-
- To understand the specific child and adult contribution towards the development of oppositional behavior of children
- To create awareness about three major elements to deal with unmet parental expectations
- To impose the willingness of adults
- To develop collaborative based problem-solving skills
- To recognize the influence of involved elements on the interaction between children and parents
- To improve the compatibility between parents and children
Other than this, parents of oppositional defiant disorder affected children should essentially be proficient to resolve disagreements and should defuse potential conflicts, which may result in various episodes of the oppositional defiant disorder.(2)
Conclusion
To conclude, we should say that coping strategy contributes a lot to manage the symptoms or avoid the episodes of your child’s oppositional defiant disorder.
Also Read:
- Best Exercises/Activities For Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Is Oppositional Defiant Disorder A Serious Condition & Can It Be Reversed?
- How Do You Discipline A Child With Oppositional Defiant Disorder?
- What Happens To Untreated Oppositional Defiant Disorder & When To Go To Doctor?
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, Complications
- Who Is At Risk For Oppositional Defiant Disorder & Is There A Blood Test For It?
- Home Remedies For Oppositional Defiant Disorder
