Exceptional children: characteristics, education, and support

¶ … Children

Describe some of the interventions shown to be effective in dealing with challenging behaviors for students with emotional or behavior disorders.

Behavioral modification is one possible method of lessening the frequency of students' negative behaviors and increasing positive behaviors. Within such a system, good behaviors are rewarded in a way that is meaningful to the child. These behaviors may include the child raising his or her hand to speak in class or waiting in line quietly. In contrast, bad behaviors are punished. Punishment may involve a 'time out' or, depending on the ability of a child to anticipate a reward, may result in having a 'gold star' taken away on a sheet, which, after ten 'gold stars' are accumulated, would allow a child to receive a desired reward, like a candy bar, no homework for the weekend, or a gift certificate.

Define E/BD and describe the different possible classifications within that disability group.

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders differ in striking ways from their family and peers. They often act in violation of social and cultural norms of etiquette, or may exhibit age-inappropriate behavior, like an adolescent who throws temper tantrums like a toddler. As a result of these behaviors, these children have profound difficulty functioning normally in school, work, and in ordinary social environments, outside and inside the home. Usually a child must exhibit difficulty either socially or in the home as well as within school to be classified as E/BD. Mood disorders like profound depression, as well as childhood schizophrenia, autism, ADH/D, may all qualify a child for this classification, so long as they are not the result of physical health conditions (like blindness making it difficult for a child to adjust to normal social life with his or her school-age peers and sighted family) or intellectual limitations, which may cause a developmentally delayed child to function in age-inappropriate ways, but are not the result of an emotional disturbance disorder.

Discuss several effective ways to identify and assess students with E/BD.