Adjusting to Life with Little J

Sometimes this little girl is the sweetest that can be and she's playing well with everyone and she's affectionate and laughing about something. But then you need to correct her for something or request that she does something and she does a complete turn around. She's start throwing a temper tantrum, try to hurt Deidra's toys, or she goes after the person that she's angry at or even tries to hurt herself. My caseworker brought over her initial assessment review on her and I was able to see that the psychiatrist diagnosed her with a mood disorder and ODD (oppositional defiance disorder) and that's what she takes the meds for. Well, I didn't know a whole lot about ODD so I did some research about it after the incident with her yesterday.

What happened yesterday? Oh, Andy asked them if they wanted to come inside and watch Barbie and the Magical Princess and when they came in the argument started that the movie was really Barbie and the Island Princess and Little J wouldn't stop arguing about it and trying to correct everyone on the right name. Deidra took her arm and said "let's not argue about this anymore." Little J proceeded to kick her in the stomach to which Deidra ran upstairs crying and proceeded to throw up. Little J was put into time out for a long time and then they were both talked to and told to play separately for awhile. They weren't talking much to one another for the rest of the day and the only time they were allowed to play together had to be in the line of direct supervision.

Anyway, back to the ODD.

Common behavior symptoms seen in Oppositional Defiant Disorder include:

Losing one’s temper

Arguing with adults

Actively defying requests

Refusing to follow rules

Deliberately annoying other people

Testing limits

Blaming others for one's own mistakes or misbehavior

Being touchy, easily annoyed

Being easily angered, resentful, spiteful, or vindictive.

Speaking harshly, or unkind when upset

Seeking revenge

Having frequent temper tantrums

Oppositional Defiant Disorder usually does not occur alone.

50-65% of ODD children also have ADD ADHD

35% of these children develop some form of affective disorder

20% have some form of mood disorder, such as Bipolar Disorder or anxiety

15% develop some form of personality disorder

Many of these children have learning disorders

So what happens to these children? There are four possible paths.
Some will grow out of it. Half of the preschoolers that are labeled ODD are normal by the age of 8. However, in older ODD children, 75% will still fulfill the diagnostic criteria later in life.


The ODD may turn into something else. 5-10 % of preschoolers with ODD have their diagnosis changed from ODD to ADHD. In some children, the defiant behavior gets worse and these children eventually are diagnosed with Conduct Disorder. This progression usually happens fairly early. If a child has ODD for 3-4 years and he hasn't developed Conduct Disorder, then he won’t ever develop it.

The child may continue to have ODD without any thing else. This is unusual. By the time preschoolers with ODD are 8 years old, only 5% have ODD and nothing else.

The child develops other disorders in addition to ODD. This is very common.

I have a lady coming out to help me develop a behavior intervention plan for her today and all I can do is hope that her behaviors improve the more that we work with her. I don't think she was ever really disciplined at all by her parents and so I can see how this would be hard to try and deal with now, but even though it's hard to see her try and harm herself (she bites herself and scratches herself and pulls her hair when we have to correct her), I know that I can't just let her have her own way either. Usually, we tell her that she needs to be nicer to herself and then she'll tell us that she doesn't care about herself and she can be mean to herself. I usually can get her to stop though by holding her face in my hands and telling her that we care about her.

She can definitely be sweet and affectionate and nice to be around when she wants to be and I think that side of her is what keeps us going. The struggles are hard though and you almost have to anticipate what she's goign to do next to stay one step ahead of her.

This little girl needs so much healing and love and I think she is really starving for attention. I try to give her as much as I can...but she is so smothering of the other kids too and wants all that attention for herself as well. My heart breaks for everything that she's been through in her 5 years of life and I just hope that she will come to understand that we do care about her here and how normal people treat one another.