Topical Teaching

There used to be a stigma attached to those students diagnosed with a disorder. Soon the stigma will be reserved only for those yet to be labeled with one.

It is quite disappointing that it has come down to this. Instead of treating naughty behaviour as naughty behaviour, disrespect as disrespect and anger as …. you guessed it – anger, every socially unacceptable emotion must be aligned with a disorder.

NAUGHTY kids are turning up to school with notes from doctors who have given their unruly behaviour a medical name – oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).

And children who lash out at teachers or students have also been diagnosed with a condition termed intermittent explosive disorder (IED).

Psychologists are diagnosing ODD – characterised by persistent anti-authoritarian behaviour – at a greater rate than autism.

Child psychologist Lisa Good said the condition was real and created a lot of stress for parents, who couldn’t understand why their child was mucking up.

Ms Good, from the Psych Professionals in Brisbane, said she had diagnosed more children with ODD and conduct disorders over the past two years than autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or anxiety.

“It is a lot more common. I would say it was the majority of my appointments this year,” Ms Good said.

Teachers don’t know how to handle the aggressive students and governments do not recognise ODD for special classroom funding.

Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates said schools were having a hard time dealing with the rise in behaviour disorders.

“It has become an extremely significant problem, that’s having severe effects on our schools now,” Mr Bates said.

“The sorts of things people think are just naughty kids now have a medical diagnosis.

“As (doctors) identify more and more disorders, (parents) expect the system will have a special response.”

Mr Bates said unlike with autism, the Government offered no extra help to deal with ODD students, and often they ended up being suspended or excluded.

So let’s take stock: There’s ODD, ADD, ADHD, IED and ASD.

What they really need to establish is OWMEAD – the Obsession with Making Everything a Disorder!

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