Teaching Students with Emotional Disturbance

A Practical Guide for Every Teacher

Bob Algozzine, Jim Ysseldyke

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781632201485
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Valuable insight and sound intervention strategies for addressing the needs of students with social and emotional problems! When a student is inattentive, extremely anxious, or has an outright tantrum in the classroom, ascertaining the exact cause may be difficult, but it is a critical step in reaching and teaching the students who exhibit these behaviors. In Teaching Students With Emotional Disturbance, Ysseldyke and Algozzine show readers how to recognize the cognitive, academic, physical, communicational, and behavioral characteristics of several forms of emotional disturbance and offer specific strategies for responding to anxiety issues, opposition and noncompliance, tantrums, disruptiveness, inattention, task avoidance, and more.Highlights include: • A pretest and posttest to help readers assess their understanding about the origins of social and emotional difficulties and how they are best addressed
• Effective interventions and instructional adaptations for students who have emotional problems
• Trends and issues currently influencing how students with social and emotional problems are taught
• Key vocabulary termsThe authors offer a wealth of information and resources so that teachers can better identify the needs of students with emotional disturbance and help them succeed in the classroom.

Self-Assessment 1

Before you begin this volume, check your knowledge of the content being covered. Choose the best answer for each of the following questions.

1.     Emotional disturbance includes ________ of the population of students receiving special education.

a.   less than 2 percent

b.   about 8 to 9 percent

c.   between 10 and 20 percent

d.   more than 25 percent

2.     Children who are labeled _________ are currently excluded from services under federal guidelines for providing services for emotional disturbance.

a.   schizophrenic

b.   psychotic

c.   socially maladjusted

d.   disruptive

3.     During the past decade, the prevalence of students with emotional disturbance has

a.   mostly increased

b.   mostly decreased

c.   remained constant

d.   increased then decreased

4.     The wide variation of prevalence for emotional disturbance between states results from

a.   having fewer students with the disability in rural than in urban areas

b.   differences in definition and classification practices

c.   some states having lower referral rates for special education services

d.   variation in student behavior from state to state

5.     In most states, the prevalence of emotional disturbance is related to

a.   gender and age

b.   school discipline policies

c.   general age of parents

d.   intelligence level and social behavior

6.     A condition characterized by loss of contact with reality, bizarre thought processes, and extremely inappropriate behavior is called

a.   social maladjustment

b.   schizophrenia

c.   social problems

d.   temper tantrums

7.     Terms used to describe students with emotional disturbance may be similar to those used to describe students with learning disabilities and mental retardation, and most of the terms are

a.   educational

b.   positive

c.   negative

d.   psychological

8.     Unproductive ways individuals respond in interactions with other people may be called

a.   emotional problems

b.   social problems

c.   psychological problems

d.   communication problems

9.     Most students with emotional disturbance

a.   have physical disabilities

b.   have physical and mental disabilities

c.   have mental disabilities

d.   are physically like their peers

10.   The primary area in which students with emotional disturbance are said to differ from their peers is in the area of

a.   behavior

b.   achievement

c.   communication

d.   learning

REFLECTION

After you answer the multiple-choice questions, think about how you would answer the following questions:

•   What factors might affect the academic success of individuals with emotional disturbance?

•   What factors might cause students to exhibit emotional and social problems?

•   What do effective teachers do to provide support for students with emotional disturbance?

Introduction to Teaching Students with Emotional Disturbance

Mrs. Luanne Jones had been a second-grade teacher for 15 years. She had plenty of experience with students becoming angry when their needs were not met or when they were unable to do something; but teaching Sandy was different. Temper tantrums and sudden outbursts of anger that occurred when Sandy experienced frustration or failed to achieve a desired goal were a serious cause for concern in Mrs. Jones’s class. Shouting obscenities, throwing things, screaming, crying, and trying to disrupt others were just a few of the ways Sandy would “throw a tantrum.” Whatever form the tantrum took, it always interfered with productive interpersonal relationships and instruction.

Terry was a living legend at Magnolia Middle School. Everybody wondered what Terry would do next. Constantly asking questions, teasing other students, telling jokes, and generally disrupting the class were Terry’s trademarks as a student.

Avoiding social interactions or failing to participate in social events was a way of life for Bryce. As is true for other isolated and withdrawn students, sometimes what Bryce did provoked rejection and exclusion by classmates and peers. Social isolation, shyness, or general social withdrawal interfered with productive interpersonal relationships, and Bryce was often depressed and unproductive in school; truancy and failing grades were becoming serious problems.

Students like Sandy, Terry, and Bryce are sometimes tough to teach because their behaviors interfere with productive interpersonal relationships. What they do violates expectations for what is accepted and causes concern for parents, teachers, and peers. For example, temper tantrums are common in very young students; but when they are part of the behavioral repertoire of older students and interfere with productive interpersonal relations, temper tantrums become serious behavior problems.

Disruptions are common during most school days. When one student is responsible for more than an expected or accepted number of disruptions, he or she may be considered to have a behavior problem. Similarly, when social withdrawal is occurring at an age when it is no longer considered appropriate and when it is adversely affecting school performance, it is a problem. Most teachers have at least one student with these kinds of behavior problems in their classrooms.

1

What Is Emotional Disturbance?

When students with behavior problems formally enter the special education system, they generally are labeled with one of several specific terms. The federal government refers to them as “students with emotional disturbance.” This label entitles students to special education services, and the number of students identified has increased by almost 20 percent in recent years (U.S. Department of Education, 2000, 2001, 2002). States use various terms (e.g., students with emotional and behavioral disorders, students with behavior disorders). Although the states refer to this category in many ways, most use federal guidelines for emotional disturbance to formally define and identify it (Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 1997):

The term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree, which adversely affects educational performance:

• An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors;

• An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;

• Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;

• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or

• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

The term includes children who are schizophrenic. The term does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they are emotionally disturbed.

Perhaps more than for any other category of special education, emotional disturbance has a definition that leaves much room for subjectivity and confusion. For example, there are no hard-and-fast rules or simple tests for deciding when problem behaviors constitute emotional disturbance. Consider the case of Susan, a fifteen-year-old who seems unhappy most of the time at school. Her classmates say she’s in a “rotten mood” and avoid her. How do we judge the extent to which Susan’s unhappiness is “general” and “pervasive” or normal? And what about Luis, a third-grader who does not get along well with his classmates or his teachers? Is he showing “an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships,” or is he within the range of so-called normal behavior?

There is much debate over the standards that are used to decide whether students are experiencing emotional disturbance. That debate focuses on the difficulty of measuring characteristics, moods, and abstractions (e.g., unhappiness) as well as on the definition’s lack of specific behaviors that adversely a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About A Practical Approach to Special Education for Every Teacher
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Self-Assessment 1
• Introduction to Teaching Students with Emotional Disturbance
• 1. What Is Emotional Disturbance?
• 2. What Should Every Teacher Know About Teaching Students with Emotional Problems?
• 3. What Should Every Teacher Know About Teaching Students with Social Problems?
• 4. What Trends and Issues Influence How We Teach Students with Emotional Disturbance?
• 5. Emotional Disturbance in Perspective
• 6. What Have We Learned?
• Self-Assessment 2
• Answer Key for Self-Assessments
• On Your Own
• Resources
• References
• Index