Many of you did send comments with your email when you requested assistance with very rowdy, unmanageable students. Some of you commented about how you still had as many-- or more-- problem kids than ever, but due to budget shortfalls in your area, you had less resources than ever, to manage your youngsters. A couple of the letters were terribly sad, especially from Oregon, where Portland Public Schools will now have the shortest school year in the nation because voters failed to allocate funding for schools and other services. One Oregonian wrote us that she was about to lose her job, but asked if she could still come to our Portland class in April. That type of selflessness and commitment to troubled young people by someone who is losing her job, was devastating to us.

It was a simple pop quiz that generated all the fuss. In our regular Problem Student Problem-Solver magazine, we asked our readers to answer a few questions, and the quiz started the emails coming. (Subscribe free at our web site: link below.) Here again is the quiz, with additional information offered with the answer. We hope the expanded answer will help.

THE POP QUIZ

Test your knowledge now: In many groups, there is one child who causes way more than his/her fair share of disruption. One teacher said that this child is the "1% of my class that takes 99% of my time." I bet you have a child that fits that description too. Here's the question:

Name the child who causes the most disruption, and state how you must work with that child differently than all your other students.

THE POP QUIZ ANSWER

Your most out-of-control student is probably a conduct disorder. That's the child who lacks a heart or conscience, so they do what they want, when they want, to who they want. It's ironic that after the grim discussion of budgets above, that at the time your budget may be shrinking, your number of conduct disorders is almost certainly growing. So you may have more hard-to-manage kids than ever before, but less staff and other resources than ever before to control these most difficult youngsters.

"Conduct disorder" is a mental health term that you had better know backwards and forwards, or else you probably will continue to struggle with this child. Only mental health professionals can diagnose the problem, but nearly all youth workers have this child in their setting. You don't need a diagnosis to adjust how you work with a child who you fear may be conduct disordered. It is wise to make some adjustments immediately if you think that the young person might be conduct disordered.

The second and third issues of our Problem-Kid Problem-Solver internet magazine covered this child. If you are a new subscriber, you will be receiving those issues soon. If you are an "old" subscriber, you may wish to dig those issues out of your trash to review if any of this information presented here is unfamiliar. Workshop past participants: This should be familiar ground for you! Our web site has a little bit of help too in our free Solution Center (site link below.) If the information offered here is unfamiliar, make sure that you do something to upgrade your skills because CDs are usually 11-15% of your group, and they may pose a serious safety risk to both people and property. They are much more than just your most disruptive kid.

Here are some tips on working with conduct disorders and kids that may be conduct disorders. However, these strategies are just a tiny part of the comprehensive, detailed help that we give in our Breakthrough Strategies classes. So, still be especially careful with this child if you are not very familiar with conduct disorders, because this smattering of tips is absolutely no substitute for fully updating your skills. However, it's not realistic to try and cram all you need to know into an e-mail, but hopefully this at least helps a bit. Remember that this child is potentially dangerous as they lack a conscience don't attempt to skate by without getting the full picture. Otherwise, there can be serious results.

Here's just a few key tips:

DO DO DO DO DO:

Watch out for manipulation such as "that's not fair!"

Avoid/severely limit heart-to-heart relationship approaches.

Use "muscle" heavily.

Be a power, never a pawn.

Start off in control of the class it's almost impossible to re-gain control.

Be a unified team or expect to be "divided and conquered"

Make sure the boss at your site knows a lot about conduct disorders, or manipulation is highly likely

Give a wide range of possible consequences, never give just several specific ones

Remember that if you are an administrator or counselor, this is the child you see the most, for the most serious infractions

Remember that half of ADD kids are conduct disordered or have a similar problem

DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT:

Don't turn your back or isolate with the student

Don't make idle threats, be ready to do as you say

Don't be consistent when dispensing consequences

Don't be predictable

Don't be fair

Don't work with CDs like you work with everybody else

COMPREHENSION TEST FOLLOW-UP

If you don't know WHY we recommended each Do and Don't, then you do not sufficiently understand this population. You need to know the why's, and not just follow some tips without the logic being clear to you. Please consider doing something to broaden your skills. In your defense, unless you are a mental health professional, this information was probably not included in your training.