Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms and Treatment

By Joshua Rosenthal—

For a parent, having a young child that does not listen or throws tantrums is often written off as normal “toddler” behavior that they believe their child will outgrow. Then that child turns into a pre-teen who becomes aggressive, defiant and has frequent outbursts – also often thought to be normal “teen” behavior. But before your child even hits the toddler years there are usually signs that may signal something more critical is going on and that these behaviors are not as normal as they may seem.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is not something that many parents consider when they are dealing with some of these challenging issues with their children because they do not know it exists. We have created the infographic below about ODD to help bring awareness to parents who may be having a hard time with their defiant toddler or teen. We hope that by bringing awareness to ODD we can encourage parents to get a professional evaluation and ultimately get the help they need to improve their child’s behaviors as well as create a better parent/child relationship.

Joshua Rosenthal, PsyD is a NYC child psychologist at Manhattan Psychology Group.