Working with Oppositional Defiance Disorder

A friend from work just sent me this information about how to work with oppositional defiance disorder. This seems really good for any defiant behavior. I will definitly be using this on Tuesday, I'll let you know how it goes.

PULLING IN THE REINS

Pulling in the reins is a technique to decrease the struggling with your child. By giving him/her choices, and encouraging appropriate actions, your child learns that if he/she does not make a choice, YOU WILL. Pulling in the reins helps the child learn to make decisions and to be responsible for the choices he/she makes.

HERE IS HOW TO PULL IN THE REINS:

When the child’s behavior is creating a problem for you, begin by giving a choice with wide parameters.
“Would you like to write on regular lined paper or special paper?”

If your child argues, continues to complain, and basically does not comply, do NOT repeat your original choice. Give him/her a new choice with narrower parameters, or rather, without the best option.
“You can write on regular small lined paper or regular big lined paper.”

If your child does not comply, take away another choice, again the better of the two options, and provide him/her with a less attractive choice.
“You can write on the front of the small lined paper or the back of the small lined paper.”

If your child is still struggling with you, give them the choice of doing the task voluntarily or involuntarily, but you MUST follow through.
“You can write by yourself, or I will help you write.”

If your child still refuses, physically guide him/her to complete the given task.

Your child will soon learn that if they don’t make a decision, you will make their decisions for the. For a child who often engages in power struggles, he/she will fight to retain their decision-making abilities. Thus, after several times of “Pulling in the Reins”, you will notice your child will act more quickly to make better choices to prevent you from making the choices for him/her.

Hyperlexia, Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Disapointment

I went back to work today for a staff inservice, the children come next Tuesday. My position is a 1:1 aide in an autistic support room. I have been working with one boy for two years as his one to one but when I got in today his teacher (my supervisor) said I would be working with another boy. This was so disapointed because my boy is very important to me, I have developed a great bond with him, and I finally understand him and how to manage his behavior. Now I have to start all over with a new boy, whom I've worked in the same room with for six weeks over the summer but not one to one because it we were told that another aide would be working with him through the school year, so she worked with him over the summer. I wish I would have paid more attention to him. But things will be different anyway, we will be trying to do regular ed as much as possible.
Aside from the disapointment of leaving my old buddy, it will be exciting to work with a new child. He has Hyperlexia and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Both disorders are unfamiliar to me, so I will do research to help me structure his reward systems and behavior plan. I'll post my discoveries here.

Working with Autism

Over the summer, during my time off, I have been building an Autism website. (www.workingwithautism.info)This is the first one I have made since college, I forgot how tricky publishing can be. It took my a few hours to get everything up and working. Hopefully you find it helpful and informative. My favorite page is the behavior management one. Tomorrow is my first day back to work, so I will be blogging more often.

Things to come

I go back to work in the Autistic Support Room next Tuesday. I am going to post different behavior management techniques and how or if they were effective. I just had an idea to use a small puzzle as a reward system. Good behaviors would earn a puzzle piece and when the puzzle is completed a preferred activity would be the reward. I'll see if I can put that to use.