SPE 600 Current Issues in Special Educational : Theoretical Practice and Procedures
Spring 2011
Providing Support For Students with Emotional Distrubances
As a Paraprofessional I have worked with many Special education populations. The most perplexing however was working with students diagnosed with Emotional behavior disturbances. The teacher that I supported has little training in dealing with students with this diagnosis. The level of frustration was always at a maximum. The teacher explained to me that he had just been thrown into the unit and had never had any formal introduction or training in dealing with this population. The administration had only looked at the fact that he was highly qualified in all subjects areas.
The teacher and I worked together for a year in the Social Behavior Skill unit and along with the district trainer we were provided the neccessary training in dealing with this particular population. The perceptions and myths that we originally had were dispelled, these were not just bad kids, they had valid diagnosis and the SBS unit had a specific purpose.
Students with Emotional Distrubed Label
In working with children that are diagnosed with Emotional Behavior Disturbances teachers face the daunting task of dealing with the diagnosis and providing beneficial educational environments. In fact, most children are considered problematic by at least one their teachers during their school years (Rubin & Barlow, 1978). Children with information processing and cognitive disorders, such as learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and attention deficit hyperactive disorders, typically p...
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Rubin, R. A., & Barlow, B. (1978). Prevalence of teacher identified behavior problems: A longitudinal study. Exceptional Children, 45, 102-111.
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More specifically, safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities, while maintaining a safe learning environment for all are top priorities. I currently oversee a middle school who has a large special education population, as 23% of the students receive special education related services. In addition, the school has two new assistant principals who have limited administration and special education experience. Providing ongoing support as well as relevant information is critical. Sharing evidenced-based practices combined with elements of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBiS) has proven to be beneficial. It is imperative students with disabilities who engage in maladaptive behaviors are exposed to proactive interventions as opposed to reactive response. A suspension may mask the issue, as the primary root of the behavior is not addressed. Creating functional equivalent replacement behaviors (FERBS) that seek to meet the behavior need in a more appropriate fashion is
Mahoney, Diana. "Bullying and school violence." Clinical Psychiatry News June 2007: 36. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
There are multiple answers as to why educators should consider how schools might be conducive to disordered behavior. Teacher reactions to student behavior and classroom conditions can be identified as explanations for externalized emotional and behavioral difficulties. However, Kauffman and Landrum (2013) the school might contribute to disordered behavior in one or more of the following ways:
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Schools are in great need of systems, processes, and personnel who are able to support the needs of students with problem behavior. Research indicates, however, that (while I am a big, fat cheater) information has not been made available to teachers and other professionals in a format that allows these strategies to become common practice. Many teachers choose isolated behavioral strategies that are not applied immediately after the problem behavior has occurred.
Schwartz, W. (1996, October). An overview of strategies to reduce school violence. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education. Retrieved October 21, 2001.
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I interviewed a teacher from the Philadelphia School District and here is the result from my interview. I am a teacher in the head start program of Philadelphia .I have been with the head start program for 10yrs. I see children younger than kindergarteners with special needs. I see this problem not only with education but behavioral. Children with special problems can learn. You have to know how to deal with children period. Regular children and special educational children all learn. Special educational children know exactly what they’re doing just as well as regular children.
Students with emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD) exhibit various characteristics relevant to their identified diagnosis. The primary characteristic of students with EBD is problem behaviors are displayed at school, home, community, and other social settings. These problem behaviors are described professionally as externalizing and internalizing behaviors that students with EBD often engage in regularly. Externalizing behaviors are described as acting-out behaviors that are aggressive and/or disruptive that is observable as behaviors directed towards others. Internalizing behaviors are behaviors that are construed as acting-in behaviors such as anxiety, fearfulness, withdrawal, and other indications of an individual's mood or internal condition. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the characteristics associated with internalized and externalized behaviors.
...nd aggressive behavior. In M. H. Bornstein and M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Social, emotional, and personality development. Part III of Developmental Psychology: An Advanced Textbook (2nd Edn.), pp. 461 – 495. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Students suffering emotional and behavioral disorders can benefit from a variety of classroom accommodations that may help lessen the severity of their behaviors and/or reactions to external stimuli. Stress reduction is also extremely important for children suffering emotional and behavioral disorders as it could help them relax, which would contribute to diminishing such...
As a teacher managing problem behavior in your classroom can be one of the most challenging tasks. Behavior problems can range from disruption of lessons to acts of violence against fellow students and teachers. Children’s emotional setbacks and life challenges can also contribute to behavior issues at school. A study done by the Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute found that six out of ten students suffered from an “emotional disturbance” and were expelled or suspended between seventh and twelfth grade (Firke, 2011). This same study showed that discipline varied greatly between schools. This report also revealed the urgent need for a more thoughtful technique in school discipline policies. In many cases teachers have exhausted their classroom management strategies without success. Behavior Modification is aimed at improving school and classroom behavior, and can give teachers additional tools to help them to deal proactively and effectively with behaviors that are disruptive to students and teachers in the classroom. When children are disruptive in the classroom it can cause a lot of problems for their classmates and their teacher. Yet, in the long run, it's the disruptive child themselves who is most impacted, on both a social and educational level (Epstein, Atkins, Cullinan, Kutash, & Weaver, 2008). Behavior modification techniques should be used in school, to change the negative behaviors, and increase the positive behaviors seen in these children.
I was working at a camp and got into a conversation with a friend who has Asperger Syndrome about his experience with special education. He told me how long it took him to get into a program and how much those teachers had helped him to become the person that he was. The teachers were able to help him understand what he was learning as well as life lessons. He and other children with special needs at the camp I have worked at for the past few summers have instilled in me a stronger need to reach out to those in both special and general education classes. This was again enforced in the class “Intro to Special Education.” I was taught even more that school is not just about learning the information, but learning about yourself and how to grow in yourself. Each student is different and therefore each student must be seen as
It was observed a 5th grade elementary student, that for privacy we will name him J during this case study. He arrived to the school in the second semester of Fourth grade and he has being diagnose under the umbrella of the Autism spectrum from the previous school documentation. J was served by the Especial Education content Mastery (“as known Especial Ed. Classroom”) in period of times during the day, but he was place in a regular education classroom. He immediately presented behavioral issues due to the transition of a new environment and his learning disabilities. After a couple incidences, the administrator called the ARD committee to meet and review his IEP and place new behavioral strategies to follow. J made it through the year with continue incidences where he spend most of the time in the Content Mastery classroom. At the beginning of the 5th grade year they continue with the strategies that were in place from previous year; those were making a changed, not a constant issue, but once in a while his outburst were severe to the point that he got so angry that he broke a glass door, others where he just run away from the classroom crying and went into a bathrooms or outside to the playground stating that he had problems with his sugar levels; “sometimes it has difficult to identify if the cause of his outburst was cause by the diabetes or the autism” as the teacher aide stated.