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OCD has the potential to be an all consuming disorder that can make a child’s life feel controlled by their rituals and compulsions. As a result, life is not as fun, and places like school can become very stressful.
When at school, children with OCD can feel tremendous pressure from the time limits for completing assignments or tests. The child’s compulsions and rituals are so time consuming that they leave little time for the child to do their work, or even stop and listen to the teacher’s instructions.
As time goes on, a child with OCD may feel so much pressure to operate under the time limits of the classroom, that they may start to dislike school all together and make excuses to not go. In addition, they may drop out of extra-curricular activities, such as sports, to avoid stressful conflicts between the demands of their OCD and their life.
Teachers can be supportive of students with OCD by being conscious of the conflict OCD creates for a child in the classroom. Also, teachers can support strategies developed in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help their students diminish the need to perform rituals.
John S. March, MD, has written an excellent resource for parents, students, and teachers who need help with the demands of OCD. “Talking Back to OCD: The Program That Helps Kids and Teens Say “No Way” – and Parents Say “Way to Go” is written in a readable format that both kids and adults can relate to. March describes OCD as a “brain hiccup” that can be managed with developing coping skills, and in some cases, with the additional help of therapy and medication.
March’s book provides an eight step program that can be completed in three to five months. The program stresses an awareness of the causes of OCD and gives children worksheets and journaling ideas for managing their obsessions and compulsions.
Special Education teachers can benefit from modeling lessons after March’s worksheets. The key to management of OCD is self-awareness, therefore, children with OCD would benefit from keeping records of their OCD cycle.
One example is as follows:*
Create a table in word with four columns. Label the top row with the chart categories from left to right: 1) Action/Situation/Trigger (if any); 2) Obsession; 3) Compulsion; 4) Temperature (1-10)
A sample answer for the “Action/Situation/Trigger” could be “touching doorknobs”.
The subsequent sample answer for “Obsession” could be “I’ll get people’s germs and get sick” and the “Compulsion” could be “use shirt, tissue, or coat to hold door knobs.”
Lastly the temperature reading is how hard it is to resist this compulsion. If it’s only a little hard, you can put a 1. If you could not imagine doing it under any circumstance (e.g. touching a doorknob without any protection), then put a 10.
*this chart is excerpted from “Talking Back to OCD: The Program That Helps Kids and Teens Say “No Way” – and Parents Say “Way to Go” by John S. March, MD.