Going in Depth into Emotional or Behavioral Disorder
Emotional or behavioral disorders, also known as EBD, are hard to define. “Many people experience short, mild disturbances throughout their lives, so a child must show these characteristics over a lengthy period of time to a marked degree or significant level of intensity” (Smith & Tyler, 2014). Professionals must take into consideration the child’s age to determine if their behavior is problematic. In the classroom, teachers and educational professionals will use the IDEA concept of emotional disturbances. “To be classified under Emotional Disturbance a child must exhibit one of the follow characteristics over a long period of time: inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors, inability to build/maintain interpersonal relationships, inappropriate behavior or feelings, pervasive mood of unhappiness/depression, tendency to develop physical symptoms related to fear associated with personal or school problems. Emotional Disturbance also includes schizophrenia but, the term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance” (Smith & Tyler, 2014).
Throughout history some societies individuals with EBD as enlightened and humane but, usually these individuals have been treated poorly. Some societies would beat them, some believed that individuals with EBD were possessed by the evil and even believed these disorders were contagious therefore banishing them from the community. In the Middle Ages if a person had EBD treatment was imprisonment, placement in a poorhouse, beatings, chaining, straitjacketing, and other cruel actions. Dorothea Dix exposed the horrible conditions that the “insane persons” were faced with, and her works led to the creation of state institutions for people with mental disorders. In the mid to late 1900’s the focus turned to the child. During this time there was the creation of a definition for EBD, an advancement in ways to teach children with EBD, and which environments and class structure the child will flourish in. Smith and Tyler addresses the study that emphasized applied behavioral analysis (ABA) techniques, which sparked a new interest in the importance of how the environment can influence a student’s behavior and learning.
EBD can be classified into three different types: externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors and low-incident conditions. “Students with externalizing behaviors are characterized by aggressive and coercive tendencies, whereas students with internalizing behaviors are characterized by anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, and even self-inflicted pain” (Lane et al., 2013). Smith and Tyler explain the relationship between aggression and its positive correlation with future violence, delinquency, and school dropout. ADHD and EBD are comorbid, so it is not surprising that students with EBD exhibit hyperactivity and impulsivity (Smith & Tyler, 2014). Internalizing behaviors often go unnoticed by teachers even though they have been found to exist at higher rates than externalizing disorders (Forness et al., 2012). Low-incident conditions occur infrequently but are very serious when they do occur. Schizophrenia is one of the low-incident conditions that makes an individual have delusions, hallucinations, etc. “A child that has schizophrenia must have an IEP that involves collaboration of multidisciplinary team members from medical and mental health fields” (Smith & Tyler, 2014).
Emotional behavior disorder in individuals has no single known cause, but there are a number of factors that can promote a child to obtain a predisposition for it. Chemical imbalances in the brain and body of your teen can make managing emotions challenging. “Prenatal exposure to drugs or alcohol, a physical illness or disability, an undernourished or malnourished lifestyle, brain damage, hereditary factors, trouble at home can be the number one cause of stress or anxiety for a teen leading to EBD” ("What Causes Emotional Behavior Disorder?", 2017-2018). “Family income below the poverty level, stress in the family unit due to divorce or some other emotional upset, inconsistent rules or expectations as well as inconsistent and unhealthy discipline are home life issues that have been connected to emotional disturbance.” ("What Causes Emotional Behavior Disorder?", 2017-2018). Parents that show a lack of interest in their child leading to a lack of supervision or neglect can lead a child to develop EBD. Parents or siblings that are physically abusive towards the individual leading to an overall low rate of positive interactions and high rate of negative interactions in the family. “Sometimes situations at school can be the cause of emotional disturbance in teens, such as: teachers aren’t capable of managing the teen’s classroom, creating a negative environment, the school is unresponsive to student differences or cultural issues, or the school rules are inconsistent” ("What Causes Emotional Behavior Disorder?", 2017-2018).
Less than 1% of all school-age children receive special education services under the IDEA category of emotional disturbance. But, some experts believe that the frequency is closer to three percent to six percent of all students. “Overall, just over 55% of adolescents with serious emotional or behavioral difficulties received school services. Among adolescents with serious emotional or behavioral difficulties, boys (60.5%) were more likely to have received school nonmedication mental health services compared with girls (48.9%). Among adolescents with serious emotional or behavioral difficulties, a higher percentage of boys than girls received services in school settings. This finding may be due, in part, to the higher prevalence among boys of externalizing and developmental conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders, which negatively affect their school achievement and participation” (Jones, Pastor, Simon, & Reuben, 2014). Many people believe the EBD students receive their education in self-contained or segregated classes, but they actually work in general classrooms, resource rooms, separate special education classrooms, special schools, the juvenile justice system, institutions and hospitals. Despite the movement toward inclusion, many more students with EBD are being placed restrictive settings than their peers with other disabilities. Emotional Behavioral Disorder is very common among the male population but more specifically in African American youths (Smith & Tyler, 2014).
Although students with EBD exhibit different behaviors, they face challenges in similar areas. These areas include social, behavioral and academic skills. Students that have emotional or behavioral disorders have fewer social skills than their peers. Hyperactivity, such as short attention span and impulsiveness is very common. Also common is, aggression or self-injurious behavior such as acting out, fighting; withdrawal or not interacting socially with others due to excessive fear or anxiety. Immaturity, inappropriate crying, temper tantrums, poor coping skills and learning difficulties resulting in academically performing below grade level also are known characteristics of students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders ("Behavior Disorders: Definitions, Characteristics & Related Information", 2018). One intriguing possible contributing factor to emotional disturbance can be found in deficits in communication. An estimated 71% of students with emotional disorders also have expressive and receptive language disorders that impact their ability to understand and communicate with peers and adults (Emotional Disturbance, 2013). Most individuals with EBD achieve below grade level in academic achievement, with the greatest struggle in both math and spelling. Many have a coexisting learning disability of some type. Students that exhibit externalizing behaviors are at the greatest risk for continued deficits in academic functioning. Students with emotional disorders are less likely to attend post-secondary school than students in many other disability categories (Emotional Disturbance, 2013).
Students with EBD need “a set of wraparound supports that include social skills training, academic and behavioral interventions and in some cases mental health and medical intervention” (Smith & Tyler, 2014). “Wraparound planning is a collaborative process that has shown great promise in supporting students with emotional disorders, both in research and in more practical application. This planning process brings all of the involved service providers (i.e., adult rehabilitation services, mental health services, guidance counselor) and individuals together to create a natural support system that is founded on the strengths of the individual student and the community in which that student lives. The family is an integral part of this process, and the overall goal is to devise a program that will capitalize on the strengths and interests of the student while utilizing community resources for placement and intervention” (Emotional Disturbance, 2013). Social skills programs focus on the skill deficits and are ensuring they are being taught, demonstrated, practiced and implemented. “Key components to these programs are: initiating instruction as early as possible, training for teachers and parents in the use of positive discipline techniques, embedding the training within the general education curriculum, providing numerous practice opportunities to promote generalization and maintenance and using peer supports” (Smith & Tyler, 2014). Creating a behavior management system is also seen to be beneficial. This system “provides clear guidance for a student’s behavior in the form of classroom rules, procedures, and consequences for both compliance and non-compliance” (Smith & Tyler, 2014). “The Good Behavior Game is an evidence-based behavioral classroom management strategy that helps children learn how to work together to create a positive learning environment. It promotes each child’s positive behavior by rewarding student teams for complying with criteria set for appropriate behavior, such as working quietly, following directions, or being polite to each other. The team-based approach uses peer encouragement to help children follow rules and learn how to be good students. It also enables teachers to build strong academic skills and positive behaviors among students “(Good Behavior Game, 2016).
Smith and Tyler explain that some students may require mental health services, including support from a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or social worker. Some students even need to take medication to aid their deficits. “Antidepressants might be prescribed for students with anxiety disorder, antipsychotic medication are usually prescribed for students with schizophrenia, and stimulant medications could be helpful with those who are hyperactive or impulsive. It is extremely important that teachers and parents/guardians work together to monitor the effects of the medication on the student, confirm that the medication is being taken and ensure the it is beneficial and is producing results” (Smith & Tyler, 2014).
“While some studies suggest that students with disabilities are more likely to be exposed to violence in schools, research on exposure to school violence (both as perpetrators and victims) and students with EBD is scarce. This is strange while given that the characteristics of students identified and diagnosed with EBD might predispose them to experience school violence at rates greater than those of their peers, both with and without disabilities” (Gumpel & Sutherland, 2010). Smith and Tyler explain that many students who repeatedly bully, fight, steal vandalize, or engage in acts of noncompliance clearly display emotional or behavioral problems are not referred or identified as having emotional behavioral disorder.
Technology is something that is seen to be extremely beneficial to the students with EBD. For many students with EBD, assistive technology (AT) holds the promise of reducing the effects of their disabilities and allows students to focus their ability on the specific demands of academic tasks of importance and successfully demonstrate acceptable behaviors that could not otherwise do without the AT (Parette, Crowley, & Wojcik, 2007). Parette, Crowley, and Wojcik explain that in the area of reading, text-to-speech software programs holds great promise as they allow screen presented text to be read aloud to the student therefore, minimizing the challenges of tasks such as, decoding print. In the area of writing, three specific tools have particular applicability for student with EBD, including talking word processors, graphic organizers, and speech recognition software. “Graphic organizer approaches aid students with EBD because it can reduce or eliminate frustrations that might arise resulting from the anticipation of having to organize thoughts prior to composing a written assignment” (Parette, Crowley, & Wojcik, 2007). Speech recognition is a powerful tool that has yet to be fully used in public school classrooms, though it holds great potential to remove multiple challenges for a student with EBD during the writing process. When it comes to math, certain types of calculators have great potential for helping students who have struggled with math in the past. These calculators will provide the ability to simplify factions and such that will help the students that are uncomfortable with the anticipated demands of knowing operations for math problems, being able to check answers, and other related tasks (Parette, Crowley, & Wojcik, 2007).
Resources
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Jones, L. I., Pastor, P. N., Simon, A. E., & Reuben, C. A. (2014, August 27). NCHS Data Brief.
Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db163.htm
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