The students who have the behaviour disorder known as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are some of the most challenging that teachers have to accommodate in mainstream classes.
These students don’t process social information in the same way as their “normal” peers. Dodge (1986) identified the unique social processing displayed by these students. When they encounter a social situation that is challenging or even just different, they don’t access long term memory for a solution. Most of us in this situation would think “Now what did I do last time I encountered something like this?” and then we’d act accordingly.
People with ODD will see conflict where there is none and will then try to move the situation into aggression as this is something that they understand.
We, as teachers need to get out of the way of this conflict and refuse to become part of the problem.
Watch this space for more strategies on teaching these difficult people.
