Emotional and Behavioural Disabilities in Schools

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Importance of Teacher Training and Teacher Awareness
Exclusion of Students with Behavioural and Emotional Disabilities
Dealing with Behavioural Disabilities in Classroom
Proactive Teaching Interventions
The Educator’s Role
Conclusion
Reference List

There is doubt about whether there has been a moment when the issue of emotional and behavioural disabilities was of no importance in the sphere of education. Furthermore, there is equal doubt about whether the professionals in the sphere of education give no significance to the term of emotional and behavioural disability itself. According to Garner, Kauffman and Elliot (2014, p. 22), the term emotional and behavioural disability is frequently used as children-specific quasi-clinical and administrative category. The most frequent denominators are the words like ‘alienated’, ‘at risk’, ‘disruptive’, ‘excluded’, and so on (Clough, Garner, Pardeck, & Yuen 2005, p. 7).

Importance of Teacher Training and Teacher Awareness

The Disability Scoop article written by Jackie Mader and Sarah Butrymowicz told the story of 12-year old Cody Beck having put to jail for losing his temper in the classroom. When teachers could not do anything to calm Cody Down, they decided to call the authorities. As a result, the boy was sent to a mental health facility and released after twelve days. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder and provided with a special education program as well as additional accommodations, Cody Down was not allowed to study with his peers despite a medical cause that explained his erratic behaviour. Furthermore, he was called to the youth court a couple of times after the incident.

The article emphasized the fact that one in three arrested children happen to have some sort of a disability ranging from dyslexia to bipolar disorders. Furthermore, it is underlined that the lack of counselling and coaching for teachers remains one of the main reasons for children with disabilities being jailed. Because many of the arrested students are suspended from schools, they get into further trouble without the guidance from teachers and peers (Mader and Butrymowicz 2014, para. 2). Thus, there is a critical need for school efforts and resources to improve the system of dealing with students that have behavioural or emotional disabilities.

In their article ‘The Importance of Teacher Self-Awareness Working with Students With Emotional and Behavioural Disorders’ Richardson and Shupe concluded that there is a significant number of teachers that have not received appropriate training on how to deal and interact with students that have behavioural and emotional disabilities. Even though the success of an educator when dealing with students with EDs is connected to a variety of factors, there is an increased importance of teachers’ self-awareness (Richardson & Shupe 2006, p. 12).

Exclusion of Students with Behavioural and Emotional Disabilities

According to the Investigation Report ‘Left Behind: Students with Emotional and Behavioural Disabilities in the Hartford Public Schools’, the system of Hartford public schools has been discriminating against students with the mentioned disabilities. The investigators visited various school facilities for two years to get information about the major reforms as well as their impact on students. The investigating team concluded that students who have EDs have been denied from the ‘Free Appropriate Public Education that is their fundamental right’ (Garrison, Gaynor & Quiros-Dilan 2010, p. 2).

Also, the team underlined the fact that improvements in the Hartford Public School system will not be possible if schools do not stop abandoning certain students. Through the denial of the right of students to receive appropriate education means the denial of the future for them.

Dealing with Behavioural Disabilities in Classroom

There are no quick solutions when it comes to working with students that have emotional and behavioural problems. On the other hand, over the years of studying and addressing the issue, educators were able to outline some recommendations on how to deal with such students. The U.S. Department of Education has offered a three-tier approach that addresses the issue of emotional and behavioural disabilities in students:

Introduction of primary efforts of prevention targeted at voicing the behaviour of expectancy to all students;
When required, early intervention can become a first step in dealing with students most likely to be exposed to behavioural issues;
Involvement of intensive services that target students struggling with emotional disturbances (Quinn et al. 2000, p. 3).

Based on the outlined three-tier approach, the conditions that perpetuate positive behaviour in the classroom include teaching clear expectations about behaviour, sound response to the behavioural and emotional issues, individualized programs. To deal with emotional disturbances in students and create a positive atmosphere in a classroom, the teaching personnel along with the administration is advised to create an engaging schooling curriculum, making changes and adaptations that account for the needs of the emotionally challenged students.

Proactive Teaching Interventions

Since schools are created for support and provision of instructional programs which facilitate success in the education of all students that then become citizens who make their contributions into the society. The promotion of successful teaching interventions when it comes to students with emotional and behavioural disabilities is no doubt a challenging objective that requires a cohesive and multi-dimensional approach that will meet a large number of needs (Lehr & McComas, 2005, para. 1). The following interventions provide a multi-faceted system

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)

The implementation of PBS comprises three levels of emotional and behavioural disabilities. The primary level includes interventions conducted schoolwide, aimed to target the reduction of behavioural disturbances in students. Such interventions include behaviour control strategies implemented class-wide and instructional practices implemented in the school-wide level. Secondary preventions are targeted directly at students with higher risks of emotional issues. On this level, interventions like anger management and training of problem-solving skills are implemented in a smaller group environment. Tertiary interventions are directly connected with specific students that exhibit behavioural disabilities. On this level, an intervention takes a form of an individualised plan of behaviour.

Comprehensive Classroom Management

This proactive teaching intervention was designed by Jones and Jones (2004) and places a primary focus on the community support, parent cooperation, problem-solving skills, and active student participation in the creation of behavioural classroom norms. Furthermore, Jones and Jones have found that the implementation of comprehensive classroom management in their study resulted in the reduction of up to fifty per cent of suspensions or disruptive student behaviour (Christensen et al. 2005, p. 7).

Individualised Behaviour Intervention Plan

While the above-listed teaching interventions have an impact on a general scale, some emotionally and behaviourally challenged students to require a personalised approach. Individualized behaviour intervention plans are usually designed and conducted by professionals and target a specific student based on his or her behavioural assessment.

The Educator’s Role

Teachers and paraprofessionals are the primary entities within the school staff that diagnose, refer, and subsequently plan a programme of behaviour management. Furthermore, it is a teacher who most often facilitates and starts the process of getting help for the misbehaving student. First, an educator should identify the student behaviour that disrupts the learning process. With the aid of a pre-referral intervention system targeted at reducing the need for additional educational services for misbehaving students (Nelson et al. 1991, p. 243), an educator can address the issue and start it is resolving on the primary level.

When necessary, an educator can facilitate student referral. Most frequently, students are referred to a specialist per parent request or by the request of the school staff at any time in the period of the teaching intervention (Connecticut State Department of Education 2012, p. 15).

Furthermore, an educator can document disruptive or dangerous student behaviour in a specific way. By clearly identifying the behaviour, for instance, ‘continuously pushing a classmate,’ a teacher can provide primary behaviour information that will become a basis for a planned teaching intervention.

Conclusion

Students with behavioural and emotional disabilities should never be excluded from the teaching process. On the other hand, they should be engaged into the process with careful monitoring, documenting, and planning of suitable interventions that can be implemented on the school-wide level, class-wide level, and an individual level. Positive behaviour support and comprehensive classroom management are interventions that have proven to be successful on the first two levels while the individualized intervention plan focuses directly on the problem management of specific students with a behavioural disability. In this sense, the primary role of an educator is linked to controlling and monitoring, as well as facilitating the start of a teaching intervention.

Reference List

Christensen, B, Jaeger, M, Lorenz, R, Morton, S, Neuman, L, Rieke, E, Simpson, B & Watkins, C 2005, Teaching students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders: best practices guide to intervention, Seattle University, Seattle, WA. Web.

Clough, P, Garner, P, Pardeck, J & Yuen, F 2005, Handbook of emotional & behavioural difficulties, Sage Publications, United Kingdom. Web.

Connecticut State Department of Education 2012, Guidelines for identifying and educating students with emotional disturbance. Web.

Garner, P, Kauffman, J & Elliot, J 2014, SAGE handbook of emotional and behavioural difficulties, 2nd edn, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. Web.

Garrison, B, Gaynor, C & Quiros-Dilan, L 2010, Investigation report. Left behind: students with emotional and behavioural disabilities in the Hartford public schools. Web.

Lehr, C & McComas, J 2005, ‘Students with emotional/behavioral disorders: promoting positive outcomes’, Impact: Feature Issue on Fostering Success in School and Beyond for Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, vol. 18, no. 2. pp. 2-4. Web.

Mader, J & Butrumowicz, S 2014, For many with disabilities, special education leads to jail. Web.

Nelson, R, Smith, D, Taylor, L, Dodd, J & Reavis, K 1991, ‘Prereferral intervention: a review of the research’, Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications, paper 39. Web.

Quinn, M, Osher, D, Warger, C, Hanley, T, Bader, B, Tate, R & Hoffman, C 2000, Educational strategies for children with emotional and behavioural problems, Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC. Web.

Richardson, B & Shupe, M 2006, ‘The Importance of Teacher Self-Awareness in Working with Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders’, Teaching Exceptional Children, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 8-13. Web.

Click Here To Order Now!