Be careful of "Defiance disorder" in children

Defiance disorder in children appears to begin from a very early age (between one and three years, in fact). One study has found that if a parent is an alcoholic and has been in trouble with the law, their children are three times more prone to have defiance disorder. Characteristics of children with this disorder are mainly negative, hostile and continuously defiant. They include

* losing their temper often;

* are often angry and resentful of their peers;

* taking delight in arguing with adults and refusing to comply with reasonable requests or rules;

* taking pleasure in deliberately annoying others:

* blaming other people for their own behaviour or mistakes;

* being spiteful and vindictive to get their own way.

The actions which seem to occur relentlessly every day involve deliberately annoying peers in a needling way and being angry and resentful at others. These tend to set the pattern of their behaviour within the classroom. Losing their temper, arguing with, and defying, adults appear to occur regularly too, at least once per week and teachers need to be on their guard against that.