How Will ODD Affect the Child?
The typical behaviour of children with ODD includes: • Easily losing their tempers • Refusing to follow rules • Deliberately annoying others • Blaming others for their own mistakes • Being stubborn and unwilling to compromise or negotiate with other children or adults • Deliberate testing of the limits by ignoring rules, arguing, etc • Being hostile toward others (however, hostility is usually verbal and not acts of physical violence as seen in conduct disorder) These behaviours are usually directed against others that are well known and not against total strangers. It is important to realise that the behaviour is often very different between boys and girls. • Boys are more likely to display more typical, overt characteristics. These are obvious behaviours such as arguing or fighting. • Girls, on the other hand, tend to display more covert behaviours, including relational aggression and theft. Relational aggression includes behaviours such as deliberately destroying friendships, exclud
