Quick guide for teachers
Primary School
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a pattern, with an irritable and choleric mood combined with defiant, argumentative, vindictive, and challenging behaviours. One of its fundamental characteristics is that these patterns are frequent, persistent and generally pervasive, i.e. present in multiple environmental contexts.
The book ODD – What to do (and what to avoid) is a Teacher Training handbook, a quick and ready-to-use guide for primary school teachers who have pupils with ODD to help them learn more about the disorder and manage it in the best possible way.
It presents the most effective strategies for managing a child with Oppositional Defiant Disorder by offering clear, concise and concrete indications on what to do and what not to do in the 12 statistically most frequent difficult situations that occur at school.
BOOK STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS
The book presents a brief introduction to the topic and is then structured into 12 chapters that analyze the most frequent problematic situations experienced at school by children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder in the 6-11 age group.
What to do and not to do
The reason for each problem behaviour is initially explained in a few short sentences (Why does he/she do this?), followed by brief and simple indications for the teacher on the attitudes to adopt and those to avoid (What to do, What NOT to do). This is followed by an in-depth analysis on the theme (What to keep in mind) and finally tools and strategies are provided to build the intervention (How to intervene).
At the beginning of each chapter, a drawing introduces the analysed behaviour.
• Explanations of the problem behaviour being considered: Why does he/she do this?
• Brief and simple indications that can be useful to the teacher as a reference point for quickly deciding What to do and reflect on What to avoid.
• A more in-depth description of the specific problem behaviourbeing worked on: Analysis of the problem behaviour.
• The tools and educational strategies to create the intervention: How to intervene.
Each chapter closes with The expert advice: reflections to further understand and enrich the teacher’s “briefcase of educational tools”.
Leaf through some pages of volume which have been translated into English to facilitate your evaluation of the product.
THE AUTHORS
Pietro Muratori Clinical Psychologist at IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, professor of Psychology of Education and Inclusion at the Degree Course in Primary Education Sciences, University of Pisa. He is an Italian trainer of the Coping Power method, title conferred by prof. John Lochman (University of Alabama) with whom he has been collaborating for many years.
Marina Papini Psychologist, specializing in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy at IPSICO. Specialized in Specific Learning Disorders, she has been collaborating for years with the IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation in school prevention projects.