Identifying Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in School-Aged Children

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Recommended: The role of fear in education

Very few people fully understand the implications of obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobias, but experts lead the way in making sense of these disorders. There are so many ideas as to what causes these conditions, and ways to treat them. Another implication that a lot of people don’t know or care to consider is whether or not these disorders are highly associated with violence. In the classroom setting, it is important to keep everyone safe. Students with such disorders may be at risk of hurting themselves and others. It is crucial for professional educators to understand these disorders thoroughly and make sure there are no high risks for these students; with high risk students it is important to understand how to handle specific behaviors and avoid harmful difficulties.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is defined as having unwanted ideas, feelings, thoughts, sensations, or behaviors that make them feel driven to do something. Although, a lot of “typical” people have behaviors and or sensations out of the general norm; OCD is only considered when these thoughts and/or behaviors are persistent and take up a lot of time. When these thoughts then make no sense, be the cause of suffering, or interfere with a person’s life then it is considered severe OCD. For example, if an individual cannot leave their home, because they have to continuously recheck their stove, or even count everything in their home backwards and forwards. These are severe OCD’s because this person cannot continue with their day without these behaviors. If this were a student, they may be sleepy before school because they spent the night doing this, or they may never arrive to school because they keep doing the procedure incorre...

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McLoone, J., Hudson, J., Rapee, R. (2006). Treating Anxiety Disorders in School Settings. Education and Treatment of Children, 29, 2, 221-233.

Pence, S., Sulkowski, M., Jordan, C., Storch, E. (2010). When Exposures Go Wrong: Trouble-Shooting Guidelines for Managing Difficult Scenarios that Arise in Exposure-Based Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 64, 1, 39-51.

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