Would you know how to spot a child with OCD at school?
Here are five clues to look out for:
1. Signs of Childhood OCD: Avoiding rooms, people or desks
Children with OCD will often avoid classrooms, people or desks.
A fear of becoming contaminated usually drives this.
How do people, classrooms or desks become ‘contaminated’?
Let’s use covid as an example.
Let’s say that a child may have become traumatised by catching Covid.
This could be triggered by a number of factors, including:
- Fear of passing it on to a loved one.
- Fear of being ostracised (or avoided by others) if they catch Covid.
- Fear of dying from Covid.
This can lead to them avoiding people or places to reduce the risk of contracting Covid.
2. Signs of Childhood OCD: Leaving items in school
Home can become like a safe sanctuary for children suffering from contamination OCD.
It becomes their ‘safe’ space due to the fact that they can freely carry out all manner of compulsions to protect their environment.
In contrast, school can be regarded as a less safe space because children feel less able to carry out compulsions to ‘protect’ their environment.
This can lead to children believing that items taken into school can pose a contamination threat and will result in them leaving items in school so as not to have to risk ‘contaminating’ their home.
Items that a child may leave behind may include:
- Books
- Stationary
- School bags
3. Signs of Childhood OCD: Being lost in thought
Another sign of OCD can be a child looking as though they are daydreaming.
However, what they are actually doing is having mental compulsions or thinking about OCD fears.
One way to tell the difference is by interrupting their thoughts.
A child who is daydreaming will just come back into focus without any drama.
Whereas a child with OCD will become irritated if their thoughts (or compulsions) are interrupted, as OCD will convince them that something bad will happen if they don’t do a compulsion correctly.
4. Signs of Childhood OCD: Low school attendance
Often, OCD will target intelligent and creative children.
This can make childhood OCD so much more challenging for both children and their families.
Because OCD has a knack for getting children to avoid school which results in:
- School attendance plummeting.
- Nasty letters being sent.
- Teachers not knowing what level of exam to enter a pupil at.
It can also lead to a lot of tears watching a child’s future being taken away from them by a cruel, invisible bully.
5. Signs of Childhood OCD: Children wearing the wrong school uniform
Children with OCD often have a set list of compulsions to go through before school.
These compulsions can often go wrong, which can lead to a massive meltdown before school.
And can also result in uniforms having to be hastily re-washed before school.
When this happens, parents are faced with three choices, which are:
- Give in to the child’s demands to stay off school…again!
- Wait for the uniform (including shoes) to be re-washed and persuade their child to go to school late.
- Allow their child to wear the wrong shoes or item of uniform to school to avoid another late mark or no-show.
So, with this said, please don’t draw attention to the wrong item of uniform, as getting our child through the school doors is already tough enough.
What can schools do to make school less challenging for children with OCD?
Here are a few tips:
- Avoid drawing attention to OCD.
- Have a discreet chat with the child and/or their parents.
- Allow children to work elsewhere if their anxiety is high.
- Give plenty of notice of any events likely to create OCD meltdowns, such as school photographs or changes to lessons.
- Stop absenteeism letters from being sent out to parents.
Would you like to get a clearer understanding of what having OCD is like and how to support a child with OCD at school?
Introducing the Parenting OCD in Teens and Tweens digital handbook.
Although written with parents in mind, the Parenting OCD in Teens and Tweens Handbook has also been purchased by school counsellors to support children, too.
The handbook is delivered in a PDF format and separated into the following five sections.
Section 1: How to understand OCD. Learn how OCD operates and how to outsmart it.
Section 2: How to Manage Anxiety. Discover methods for calming anxious times and reducing OCD meltdowns.
Section 3: How to start challenging OCD. Start using ERP therapy to challenge OCD.
Section 4: How to overcome challenges. Simplify challenges and overcome resistance to therapy.
Section 5: How to get support. Learn how to get support from schools, family and friends to alleiviate challenges and isolation.
Click on the link below to purchase your copy today.
