Family Forum: Parenting Children with ODD and/or Aggression

Parenting Children with ODD and/or Aggression

Every child is going to act out from time to time. For many, aggression seems to come with each new developmental stage. But knowing that most kids are defiant and aggressive doesn’t help much when you’re in the throes of it as a parent. And if you have a child who is diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, the behavior is severe, prolonged, and pretty disruptive to daily life.

Unfortunately, many youth with trauma histories are going to express themselves through aggression – it’s almost as if it’s their default response. The good news is that default responses can change – but it’s up to us as parents to know what help our children need, and even how our approach to conflict might be triggering our kid’s aggressive or defiant reactions. This forum is a must for anyone who has a foster or pre-adoptive placement with an ODD diagnosis, or whose child leans on aggression as a coping mechanism.