Teaching Strategies to Help Children with OCD The first strategy is to identify the symptoms, the earlier the symptoms are recognized the better. Also get to know the child and their individual characteristics. Teachers must be on the same page as the parents’; frequent communication is a must, such as collaboration with progress in academics, medicine, and social skills. Have one on one time with the child and establish positive but unwavering rules and goals for the child. Teachers cannot pinpoint or embarrass children with OCD because they are already anxious about messing up. Instead teachers need to be able to recognize the issue and again positively repeat the goal and expectation for the child. Assistive Technologies Very important for a device is to make sure it meets the exact goal of the individual needs of the OCD child. A computer based instruction may help an OCD child, because it gives the child different options on how to respond. Social assistive technologies can help an OCD child because it gives them options on how to interact with peers and helps children gain that skill. Visual Aids are a huge help for OCD children. It can show directions or assignments in an easy simple way. It can give a child other ways to concentrate on assignments. Sources Jakes, Ian. “The Definition of Obesessive Compulsive Disorder”. Journal of Mental Health.Sept. 1994, Vol 3: Issue 3. 14 Sept. 2010. Web. Dyches, Tina, Melissa Heath and etc. “Teaching Students with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder”. Intervention in Schools and Clinics. Hammill Institute on Disabilities. 2010. 15 Sept. 2010. Web. Interesting Facts about OCD: 1. OCD is the fourth most common pediatric psychiatric disorder in the US. 2. OCD affects 1 out of 200 school aged students OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER IN YOUNG CHILDREN “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops” -Henry Adams “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles” - Christopher Reeves By: Marybeth Leitch Your Name Here Your Title Here Symptoms of OCD In young children, symptoms are many times overlooked due to the child’s embarrassment. A young child is good at hiding his or her own differences in a classroom. Symptoms of OCD can distract children and a most of the time, student’s academic achievement will decline. Symptoms are rituals that cannot be broken or a child not being able to accept their mistakes. Also children with OCD sometimes also have other learning disabilities. Examples of symptoms are repeatedly washing their hands, fear of dust, germs, and constantly organizing items by shape or color. What is ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder (OCD)? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a chronic disorder that is time consuming, and causes unnecessary distress, anxiety and impairments. Obsessions are intrusive, repetitive and distressing thoughts. Compulsions are ritualistic, repetitive behaviors that are involuntary. OCD sufferers have a problem with their brain, such as the frontal lobe. Also there are low levels of serotonin in the brain, so the neurotransmitters have trouble communicating with other parts of the brain and body. Most of the time OCD symptoms appear during stressful times in a child’s life, a viral infection as an infant or just genetics. Needs for a Child Daily routines to stay on track Positive encouragement when accomplishing tasks Learning to accept mistakes Longer time to accomplish goals Support from others finding the gifts and talents of the child Communication lines between classroom and home settings are constant Daily stress release exercises Teaching the child to live with the symptoms of OCD Nine-tenths of education is encouragement. -Anatole France Accommodations for the Classroom In the classroom, children with OCD have trouble transitioning from one subject to another. Teachers need to set up a daily routine for the child, so they know exactly how the day with plan out for themselves. OCD children also have problems with relaxing during stressful classroom experiences. Teaching strategies of relaxing in the class is a great way to teach all children to relax and have fun with learning. Teachers also need to model that making mistakes are okay for anyone, but also to praise the child for staying on task with assignments. Sometimes children with OCD have trouble concentrating sometimes just letting the child take a break from the assignment, gives them a chance to collect themselves and begin again. Have a child focus on one main thing rather than many little nuts and bolts. For example, for a written assignment have the child focus on just grammar, rather than spelling and punctuation and handwriting.