Ep #136: Using behavior skills with ADHD and ODD

Many children with ADHD also have Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Understanding the difference between these two diagnoses will help parents better understand how to help their child. Whether your child has ADHD, ODD, or both, the skills we teach on Smarter Parenting will work to help improve your child’s behavior. How you implement the skills will change depending on your child’s diagnosis because your child will need different things depending on their diagnosis. Do you wonder if your child has ODD? All children can have moments of difficulty when they are angry or argue. Children with ODD show persistent anger, moodiness, arguing, defiance, or vindictiveness towards you or other authority figures. Their behavior goes beyond normal child’s behavior. Children with ODD tend to angry, irritable, argumentative, or defiant and deliberately annoy, upset, or blame others for their mistakes. Children with ODD tend not to take responsibility for their actions, making them less likely to respond to consequences as they don’t believe they did anything wrong.  Instead, they respond well to Effective Praise as it reinforces their self-motivation and self-rational. Children with ADHD do respond well to Effective Negative Consequences as children then tend to act without thinking. We love the skills of the Teaching-Family Model because no matter what diagnosis your child has, they can help.  We know that implementing the skills when your child has a diagnosis can be challenging. If you need help, we offer individual coaching tailored to your child and your specific situation. Sign up at SmarterParenting.com/coaching We can’t wait to help you!