The "ED" Label - interventions, hope

Post 1 on the label of Emotional Disturbance (ED) focused on the reasons students get labelled, and the sobering statistics and outcomes for students with emotional problems. Even with the sobering statistics and challenges, there are many students who are successful. The following interventions have shown to be affective with students diagnosed with Emotional Disturbance.

Interventions

• Parents - Listen to what others are telling you about your child. You have to be your child’s first and foremost advocate. Remember that the education system today is different than when you were in school, and teachers are facing different pressures. It is unrealistic to believe that one teacher with thirty students is going to be able to spend significant amount of time with every child in the room. Start asking for help if others are commenting that your child seems depressed, out of control, or hyper-active. Don’t take these comments personally. Use this information to ask questions in order to assist your child. If your child continues to struggle request a complete assessment to determine if your child needs additional support. Don’t be too proud to accept help!

• School staff - Take data on students’ whose behaviors appear to be getting in the way of school success. Start tracking the behaviors and be sure to include the times of day, activity, environment, and surrounding staff and peers. Look for possible antecedents of the behavior. Do they stem from the child’s internal state: Do they occur in less structured settings (lunch, playground), or do the behaviors begin every time an academic task is assigned and the task is ultimately avoided?

Teachers can make the classroom environment a friendlier place for students, thereby increasing student willingness to engage or learn. Some simple changes can be for a teacher to modify the instructional setting (moving a student to another area of the room, limiting engagement with other students); modify the course presentation (less problems on a page, limiting number of written responses required, having another student read with the student who is struggling, allowing oral answers rather than written), or modify the expectations of the course (a modified grading rubric, expecting only partial completion, modified textbook).

School staff will also have to accept some general philosophical ideas about students and behaviors:

• Students don’t generally act badly because they want to be bad. Students generally act out when they cannot figure out how to express themselves, when they are struggling with how to predict their environment, or when they are not sure what else to do or how to respond or initiate.

• Students with processing disorders may truly not be processing your directions, the school subjects, your instruction, or the social milieu. It may have nothing to do with the teachers’ abilities to teach, but may have everything to do with what is happening inside the head of that student.

• The majority of inappropriate school behaviors can be resolved by looking at and modifying the academic tasks being assigned. Consider trying some simple accommodations in regards to curricular presentation such as

  • Fewer math problems on a page

  • Larger font or fewer words on a reading assignment

  • Negotiate with the student as to how many problems they think they can do that period and stick to that agreement

  • Allow the student to pick between two academic options

  • Allow the student additional time to complete their assignment (without taking away their recess or lunch)

  • Give directions both verbally and in writing (or using pictures)

  • Allow students to answer verbally instead of putting an answer in writing.

Once you try some of these accommodations, you will have a better sense of whether the student is struggling with the content, or if there are emotional issues impacting the students’ progress.

Finally, conduct Professional Development with your staff on understanding different learning styles and profiles, and implementing some basic modifications and accommodations in the classrooms which will support struggling learners. There is hope for all students, but students, parent/guardians and school staff will all have to work together to support the individual needs of these students.

Works Cited

Data Display: California. (2011). Retrieved 4 29, 2015, from California: US Department of Education: https://www2.ed.gov/fund/data/report/idea/partbspap/2013/ca-acc-stateprofile-11-12.pdf

Eligibility for Services. (2001). Retrieved 4 29, 2015, from US Department of Education: Office of Special Education Programs, Data Analysis System.: http://cecp.air.org/resources/20th/eligchar.asp

Julie Holmquist, S. W. (2013). Students with Disabilities & the Juvenile Justice System: What Parents Need to KNow. Minneapolis: Pacer Center, Inc.

Sec. 300.8 Child with a disability. (n.d.). Retrieved 4 29, 2015, from Ed.gov: http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root,regs,300,A,300%252E8,

Sugai, G. (June 23, 2001). School climate and discipline: School-wide positive behavior support. Keynote presentation to and paper for the National Summit on Shared Implementation of IDEA. Washington, DC.