Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The Role of School Personnel

Identifying, Assessing, and Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in School-Aged Children: The Role of School Personnel. Teaching Exceptional Children.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder that can make life excruciating. Obsessions and compulsions are not only time consuming, they can cause marked distress, interfere with a person’s usual routine, social functions, occupation and relationships with others. The article classifies obsessions as “recurrent and persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced, at some point during the illness, as intrusive and inappropriate.” This is especially distressful for children who may not always understand the irrational and senseless nature of their obsessions. Also, the article states that compulsions are “repetitive, purposeful behaviors or mental acts that individuals perform to relieve prevent, or undo the anxiety or discomfort created by obsessions or to prevent some dreaded event or situation.”

Some students have mild OCD that may not interfere with their academic or social functioning. However, other students may require special adaptations in the general classroom. Recent studies indicate that as many as 1 out of every 100 children and adolescents have OCD (Chansky, 2000). Because of the rise in the number of school aged children with OCD it is imperative that individuals working with children are knowledgeable about the disorder. Sometimes it is easier for educators to recognize a problem with a child because they can compare the behavior to the other children in the classroom.

Evidence shows that OCD is likely the result of a complication in the transmission of serotonin in the brain. There is also a higher occurrence of OCD in a child who has a blood relative with anxiety disorders or OCD. Usually, the onset of OCD can be linked to a specific and distressing event, such as death or divorce. However, a definitive cause of OCD has not been pinpointed; the one thing that is known for certain is that it is neurobiological in nature.

The article lists a helpful chart that lists common obsessions and compulsions and gives specific examples of how they may be demonstrated in school. Even though educators are not able to diagnose OCD, they can make important contributions in identifying, assessing, and treating children and adolescents with OCD. If a student’s behavior causes concern, school personnel can help by keeping written records of the behavior that is exhibited.

I feel that one of the dangers of not catching OCD in a child is that they spend a great deal of time and energy fighting the disorder and therefore start to fall behind in school and their relationships suffer.