5 Ways to Identify Symptoms of OCD in Children

1. Look for Signs of Excessive Cleaning

Children don't always know how to express their fears and anxieties, so it pays to look for quieter signs of obsessive compulsive behavior. One common facet of OCD is a need for cleanliness and the development of compulsive rituals designed to keep clean. You may notice that you're running out of soap or paper towels at a high rate. Your child may have chapped or raw hands from excessive washing, or he may take an exceedingly long time getting dressed in the morning.

2. Watch for Hoarding or a Fixation on Numbers

A child with OCD may start collecting odd or unusual things, such as soda cans or bubble gum wrappers. She may start hiding food under the bed and grow agitated when you suggest throwing anything in the trash. She may also show an obsession with counting--something that goes beyond simple childhood lessons. For example, a child with OCD might count the number of footsteps from the front door to the car and never deviate from that number. Likewise, she may be obsessed with placing a specific number of napkins on the center of the table. Similar obsessions with symmetry and placement of specific items may crop up as well.

3. Check for Repeated Actions

OCD often entails elaborate rituals surrounding specific activities or simple tasks repeated over and over again. The child may repeat a task in an effort to "get it right," even though it was clearly done correctly the first time. Religious households may note an excessive amount of praying--repeating the same chant over and over again, and the child may repeatedly ask for the answer to the same question. A good tangential way to spot this is to examine the child's homework. There may be signs of repeated erasures--to the point of wearing through the paper--as letters and numbers are drawn and redrawn over the same space.

4. Look for Generalized Fears and Anxieties

People with OCD are often troubled by unpleasant thoughts that enter their brains whether they want them to or not. The thoughts tend to trigger a great deal of anxiety and stress, which ironically only causes the person to fixate on them all the more. Your child may seem excessively worried about germs or sickness. He may exhibit an irrational fear of hurting himself or someone else. He may become fixated on notions of death and what happens to us after we die. There may be concerns about an unfinished task--something he is worried that he hasn't done, even though it's very clear that he has. These thoughts are usually irrational and speak to larger or more diffuse fears.

5. Be Wary of Misdiagnosis

OCD can sometimes be tricky to spot and may be erroneously identified as another condition. Alternately, a doctor may believe it is OCD when in fact your child has a different disorder, such as depression or attention deficit disorder (ADD). Adults with OCD are often ashamed to talk about their conditions, and a child may hide his behavior for fear that he has done something wrong. Be aware of alternate explanations for your child's behavior, and don't jump to any conclusions before speaking with a physician.