If a child is struggling with OCD in the classroom, they may be distracted, frustrated in completing their work, and even disruptive to other students. Your child’s therapist is able to give specific advice on the best way to work with the school and teachers, including:

• Explaining your child’s OCD symptoms and when they are more likely to happen
• Setting up a plan for how the teacher can help your child when the symptoms come on
• Minimizing any behavioral problems or challenges

Some therapists go into the school to help train teachers on how to support a student with OCD.

Here are some strategies to help your child focus on learning while at school.  We recommend that you explore these options with your child’s teacher to develop a support system that will be reasonable and most helpful for your child:

• Preferential seating: Being seated near the teacher will allow them to communicate quickly and discretely when OCD symptoms are coming on.  Teachers may also be able to gently redirect your child when needed.
• Extended time for tests and papers: If writing is a challenge for a child who needs to find the perfect way to say something, extra time may take off that pressure.
• Laptops for writing: If writing, erasing, and rewriting is really problematic for a child, consider using a laptop for taking notes, and having all assignments be typed instead of handwritten.
• A buddy system: A buddy is a peer coach who sits next to the child and gives prompts to help with staying on task. It can also be great for the buddy to be able to aid someone in need, and good for fostering friendships.
• Private testing rooms: Kids with OCD are less overwhelmed and are more in control of their thoughts and of their reactions if they are in a quiet place away from the other students.
• Skip reading out loud: Kids who feel the need to read perfectly may have to go back and reread sentences or whole paragraphs over and over to make sure it sounds right to them. Reading can become a very labor-intensive task and reading in front of the class can become a nightmare.  Consider having your child complete reading aloud assignments one on one with the teacher.  
• Books on tape: If kids get so hung up reading and re-reading that it takes forever, listening to the books aloud can be a solution.  Reading while listening to the audio book helps reinforce what is written on the page.  
• Break homework into chunks: If looking at a whole page of math makes kids feel overwhelmed and anxious (ex. think of all the possible mistakes they could make!), the problems can be broken down into smaller chunks. It helps kids stay focused on doing the problems instead of worrying about making a mistake.  Another idea is to use a blank piece of paper to cover up all the problems on the page except the one that your child is working on.
• Plan an escape route: Try to work out a signal system so that if the student feels OCD symptoms coming on, they can discretely let the teacher know and leave the classroom or go to a protected place in the classroom, without interrupting the class. It can prevent an embarrassing and disruptive blowup of symptoms in the classroom, and prevent the other kids from teasing.
• Be aware of activating events:  It is very important for teachers to know what kind of things might bring on the symptoms. Parents need to be proactive in communicating when these events might occur with the teachers.  
• Allow breaks when needed:  Fatigue is a huge piece of OCD, and it can be worsened by medication.  It is important to know that if a child is drowsy in class and putting his head down, it is not because he is being oppositional or disrespectful, but overwhelmed with fatigue. Frequent episodes of being overly fatigued should be discussed with your child’s clinician, teacher, and all caregivers.  Parents and teachers should try to come up with ways to give the child a break without disrupting class too much.  
• Advance notice:  Changes in schedule can be very disruptive for a child with OCD, so it can be helpful for teachers to give advance notice of things (ex. assemblies, field trips, joint activities with another class). This is often called “frontloading.” Kids who know what to expect are less likely to be derailed by the change.
• Seating arrangement:  If the school has noisy hallways, you might not want to have a child with OCD sit by the door. You might have them sit in the front of the classroom, where they will be less able to hear the noise, and stay more focused on their work. On the other hand, a child who has very observable symptoms, and does not want other kids to see them fidgeting with their hands, or rocking, or getting up a lot, might be better off towards the back of the room.
• Peer understanding program:  Finally, children oftentimes are teased and bullied because of their OCD symptoms. Kids feel very uncomfortable about their obsessive rituals, knowing that they are being watched. During a peer understanding program, the teacher may consider having a presentation in the classroom that explains (with the child participating if willing) what OCD is.  This is a way to decrease the stigma surrounding mental illness which often arises from lack of education about the condition. The child might say, “Listen, I have OCD. It is an anxiety disorder. It makes me think that my hands are dirty and I have to wash my hands a lot, so if you see me getting up and going to the sink to wash my hands, that is why.” Psychologists can role-play with the teacher and child ahead of time, to anticipate questions his classmates might ask, and how to answer them. This is a good way to educate the whole class about what is going on. It can be a very effective if a child is going to be in the same school for a number of years, and often inspire a surprising amount of support from other children.

This publication was adapted from information from the Child Mind Institute

Reviewed by:  HB M.D., PL M.D.  | 01/2024