Behavioural management of defiance and oppositional behaviours

Overview & Definition

A parent says, “He never does what he’s told.” The teacher emails about office referrals. The child looks ordinary on the examination couch. Your job is not to argue about whether the child is “naughty.” Your job is to run a behavioural management plan for defiance and oppositional behaviours: decide what is age-expected, what is impairing, what maintains the pattern, and which first-line skills change it. [4] [10]

Defiance here means persistent noncompliance, arguing, and hostile conflict with authority that impairs family, school or peer function. Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is the named syndrome when angry/irritable mood, argumentative/defiant behaviour and vindictiveness form a lasting pattern with clear impairment — classically six months or more and severity judged by how many settings are affected. Not every tantrum is ODD. Not every ODD becomes conduct disorder (CD). [4] [16]

This page owns management in general paediatrics: assessment spine, parent training, school plans, comorbidity sequencing and the limited role of medication. Acute tantrum coaching and emotion-dysregulation detail live on the linked tantrums page. Deep ABC functional analysis technique lives on the behavioural-assessment page. Full ADHD ladders live on the ADHD page. Cross-link them. Do not hide second textbooks here. [10] [18]

[4] [5] [9]

References20Show ledgerHide ledger

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20. [20]Steiner H Practice parameters for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with conduct disorder. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 1997.PMID 9334568