The Individualized Parent/Caregiver Guide (under construction)
   This approach to ODD-Ji revolves around an Individualized Caretaker Guide (ICG), a binder used by 
     the caretakers and therapist to keep track of what works and what doesn't work with a particular child. 
     Children and adolescents with ODD-Ji need highly individualized approaches, and these approaches are 
     developed through coached experimentation by caretakers. The ICG is the record of these experiments and
     of the self-care required by parents and teachers to undertake this journey with the oppositional youth.

The ICG is divided into sections that are outlined and then 
detailed in the paragraphs below. 

OUTLINE

1. Section One of the Individualized Parent Guide (ICG) addresses to questions. Who do you want to be during difficult conversations? What does being at my parenting "best" look like during challenging moments?
2. Section Two
   

Please write down a one or two sentences that describe how you would like to appear to your child during a discussion in which you are setting boundaries or consequences. Imagine that your child has done something wrong and you are going to talk to them about it. 

An example of a response is "I'd like to appear calm, collected, concerned, grounded in love but secure in the necessity of giving consequences sometimes."

This description of what your "Parenting Best" looks like is one of the the most important, guiding concepts of this approach.

With most children and adolescents, a caretaker or teacher engages them and often gives consequences at the time of problem behavior. In the responding to ODD with Justice Injury (ODD-JI), it is important (except when safety is an issue) to handle things in a quite different manner. Instead of confronting, the approach is to divert and/or tag problem behavior and deal with it at a better time. The better time is when the caretaker is grounded in being the person described in the exercise above. 


Unless safety is an issue, do not engage in corrective conversations about behavior or boundaries with your ODD-JI child or adolescent until you are confident that you can be your best self as described in response to the question "who Do You Want To Be During Difficult Conversations?" 


This might be the most difficult part of this whole intervention. It requires that we dispel a discipline myth. 

Terminology

ICG - An Individualized Caretaker Guide. This is a a binder used by the caretakers and therapist to keep track of what works and what doesn't work with a particular child. 

My Parenting Best - in the context of this program, this refers to how a caretaker wants to appear to a child or adolescent during a boundary-setting conversation.

Tagging - when a caretaker says something to the effect of "I saw that but will discuss it with you at a better time."

ODD-JI - Oppositional Defiant Disorder of the Justice Injury Variety. This is a term of guidance that helps us understand what works for whom in parenting and teaching situations. See the ODD-JI page on this website for a detailed description.

Section Two of the ICG: What does it take for me to be at my parenting best?

Escape strategies when the time is not right for discussion, and the child is resisting graceful disengagement.

Immediate self-care that puts caretakers into a "Parenting Best" state

Long-term self-care that allows caretakers to be at their best

Section Three of ICG: What Doesn't Work When We Try To Respond To Or Address Problem Behavior?

Section Two of Individualized Parent Guide – What Doesn’t Work When We Try To Discuss/Address Problem Behavior

• Some clinicians prefer to pick just a few problem behaviors to focus upon, other’s don’t and leave it to the client
• We are especially interested in what doesn’t work in terms of Timing, Content and Direction, and Mood of these discussions

Section Four of the ICG – Experiments to Try in Place of What Doesn’t Work