Recently, I have had a conversation with parents who were complaining about their kids’ inability to control/regulate emotions, to adapt and be flexible to any change of plans on their request. Some teens simply get overwhelmed under such circumstance, while others may burst into tantrums, arguments and and absolute resentment and disagreement.
When you do a little research, you would know that a teen who is actually able to control their behavior through proper parenting techniques and motivation while being more adaptive is called Oppositional Defiant (ODD). It’s easier to train these teens for the restoration of their health.
The question: Why do you need to know if your child is ODD or not?
Well, it’s the ultimate secret to bring out the best out of your child. Parents have a habit of requesting their kids to change their habits, behavior and response, but if you know what your teen is capable of, you would only try those things that can make your child a better person.
On the contrary, there is an inflexibly explosive teen. This kid has all the motivation needed to acquiesce to parental requests, but they can’t tolerate, self-soothe or calm themselves in a meltdown. They would shout, cry and frustrate quicker than other kids. This is due to the inability of these kid to resolve a conflict in a mutually beneficial way. Negative or positive reinforcement, it doesn’t work on these kids at all.
If you are planning onto tell them to do something for you, they can quickly resort to verbal and even physical aggression. Their explosive behaviour would spark out of the blue, leaving many baffled about their actions. Explosive teens also tend to believe that they are surrounded by bunch of heartless, uncaring and uncomprehending adults.
Dr. Richardson has provided some predisposed conditions inherent in an inflexibly explosive teens, they include “genetically-transmitted temperament problems, an inability to sustain a focus of attention, executive function deficits, difficulties processing spoken language, nonverbal learning disabilities, social skills problems, mood swings, social anxiety, or sensory integration problems.”
Successful treatment of these individuals requires timely diagnosis and management of the underlying predisposed conditions.
The treatment of explosive teens changes with every individual depending on the contributing conditions that are prevalent at certain point in time, however, there are a few “home remedies” to make your child less anxious and frustrated. You need to create an environment at home that doesn’t lead your child to a meltdown.
My teen child feels frustrated a lot whenever I enquire about where he is going. He doesn’t like that I call him and ask about his whereabouts. That’s why a parental control apps like TrackMyFone allows me to locate him in real-time. This way, I don’t have to call or question my son for everything. It has also helped me better understand him.
Also, you need to teach your teen necessary strategies to handle frustrating conditions, and for that, you would need expert’s help.
The article is based on the work of Dr. Ross Greene: Changing the lives of behaviourally challenging kids and their caregivers.
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