When a child is diagnosed with ODD, their caretakers and doctors may do the following:
This involves itervening with parents, providing positive ways to manage their child's behavior, discipline techniques, and age-appropriate supervision. Parents learn to get away from negative parenting practices (e.g. harsh punishment, focus on inappropriate behaviors) and learn to develop positive parenting practices (e.g. supportive, consistent supervision and discipline, predictable responses, positive reinforcement)
This means teaching kids positive ways of responding to stressful situations when they find themselves overwhelmed - practicing self-regulation strategies. It's about reframing: positive ways of seeing situations and responding to them appropriately replace negative interpretations and responses (and inappropriate behaviors).
Medication alone is not effective for treating ODD. However, medication can be part of a larger treatment plan, where it might be aimed at controlling specific behaviors or treating coexisting conditions (e.g. ADHD, anxiety, mood disorders). Intuitively: when children with ODD have these coexisting conditions, treating those conditions with medication has been shown to help lesson ODD behavioral symptoms.