Family-Based Treatment for Young Children with OCD

Young children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often require professional help to overcome their symptoms. This workbook corresponds to a treatment program specifically designed for children ages 5-8 and their families. Your therapist will tailor the program to your child's developmental level and family situation. Parents have an important role to play in treatment; you will be attending all sessions and working at home with your child. In therapy, your child will face feared situations without avoidance or rituals until anxiety decreases. This is called exposure with response prevention (E/RP); sessions will tackle E/RP tasks of increasing difficulty. A reward plan will motivate your child to practice E/RP tasks at home with your help. You and your child will also be learning "tools" to manage and reduce OCD symptoms. For example, you will learn how to best use attention with your child and how to model positive behavior. Your child will learn how to "boss back" OCD symptoms and use a feelings thermometer to rate anxiety. This workbook includes all the information your family needs to participate in treatment. Chapters on "parent tools" and "child tools" review the skills learned in session. Instructions for E/RP assist with home practice. There are also tips for maintaining gains after treatment ends and how to handle future symptoms. Monitoring forms, reward charts, daily practice records, child forms, and session homework sheets are provided. As a family, you can successfully fight against your child's OCD and improve life at home.