1. Chapter 6
Students with Emotional of Behavioral
Disorders

2. • Understand how individuals identified as having
emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) have been
treated throughout history.
• Identify and understand the various definitions and
classifications of EBD.
• Identify the causes and characteristics of EBD.
• Understand how students with EBD are identified.
Objectives

3. • All material presented in this slideshow was gathered from
Chapter 6 Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
for the book Exceptional Students written by Ronald L. Taylor,
Lydia R. Smiley, and Stephen B. Richards.
• After viewing the presentation students will be directed to the
blog I have created providing additional resources about
students with emotional or behavioral disorders.
• On the blog there will be an activity for the students to
complete. The goal is that the students will be able to
complete the activity after having viewed all the materials.
*Must view in presentation mode to be redirected to blog
Introduction

4. • Individuals with emotional or behavioral
problems have been present since the beginning
of recorded history.
• Education for students with these
exceptionalities really only began during the
20th Century
• Currently being discussed in the field is how to
identify these students and what is the best way
to define the category.
• There is a concern that students receiving
special education services due to a emotional
or behavioral disorder is below prevalence
estimate.

5. • 1400 BC: Greek philosophers and educators described conditions
consistent with schizophrenia.
• 1600s: individuals were separated from rest of society placed in
hospitals or asylums
• 1700s and 1800s: more humane treatment; also important to note that
in the late 1800s the interest in children with these disorders grew.
Prior to that the focus was on adults.
• 20th Century: appropriate education and treatment of individuals with
emotional or behavioral problems. Professional organizations like
Exceptional Children and the American Orthopsychiatry association
provided strong advocacy.
• Presently: children with emotional or behavioral disorder are given
same rights as any other student.
History of Emotional and
Behavioral Disorders

6. • There is controversy over which term(s) should be used to
describe these students
• Emotional Disturbance is the currently used term in the IDEA 04
definition implies only emotionally disturbed students)
• Behavioral disorders being more descriptive of the students
actually identified in the educational setting
• Emotional or Behavioral disorders endorsed by many
professionals which implies that a student could display either
type of a problem.
• Emotional disturbance is not supported in many states.

7. (1). A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period
of time and to a marker degree that adversely affects a child's education performance.
a. An inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health
factors.
b. An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and
teachers
c. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances
d. A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression
e. A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school
problems
(2).Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who
are socially maladjusted unless it is determined that they have emotional disturbance.
The IDEA 04 Definition

8. • Federal definition has been referred to as “vague and
internally inconsistent” As a result various alternatives
have been proposed.
• Forness and Knitzer (1992) proposed that a new term
emotional or behavioral disorder (EBD) replace the term
serious emotional disturbance used in the IDEA 04.
An Alternative Definition

9. 1. The term emotional or behavioral disorder means a disability that is
characterized by emotional or behavioral responses in school programs so
different from appropriate age, culture or ethic norms that they adversely
affect educational performance, including academic, social, vocational, or
personal skills, and which:
a. Is more than a temporary, expected response to stressful events in the
environment;
b. Is consistently exhibited in two different setting, and least one of which is
school related; and
c. Is unresponsive to direct intervention applied in general education, or the
child's condition is such that a general education interventions would be
insufficient. Emotional and behavioral disorders can coexist with other
disabilities.
2. This category may include children or youth with schizophrenia disorders,
affective disorders, anxiety disorders, or other sustained disorders of conduct or
adjustment when they adversely affect educational performance in accordance
with section 1.

10. • Conduct Disorder: Includes physical
aggression, anger, disobedience, and
oppositionality.
• Socialized Aggression: Involves
behaviors such as stealing or using drugs
around others, lying, school truancy, and
gang membership.
• Attention Problems: Immaturity:
Includes short attention span, problems in
• Internalizing Disorders: Disorders that concentration, distractibility, and
a typically expressed inwardly, including impulsivity. It also includes passitivity
personality problems, anxiety, and and childishness.
depression. • Anxiety Withdrawal: Includes
• Externalizing Disorders: Disorders that internalizing disorders such as
are typically expressed outwardly, generalized fearfulness and anxiety, fear
including aggression, acting out, and of failure, poor self-esteem, and
disobedience. hypersensitivity to criticism.
• Dimensional Classification System: A • Psychotic Behavior: Includes speech
classification system for emotional disturbances, delusions, and impaired
disturbance that includes 6 categories or reality testing.
dimensions. (See right) • Motor Tension Excesses: Involves
behaviors such as over activity,
restlessness, and tension.
Classification of Individuals with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

11. • Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders
• 16 Major Categories Including:
1. Mood disorders
2. Anxiety Disorders
3. Schizophrenia
• Another medical classification is provided by the International
Classification of Diseases
 Includes mental and behavioral disorders

12. • U.S. Department of Education estimates 2% of students for
more than two decades.
• Various other sources estimate 3%-6% of school aged children
exhibit emotional or behavioral problems requiring special
education.
• “Rule of One-Third” Suggests that one third of all students in a
particular school year might display behavior problems that
concern teachers. Of that third about 10% need to have some
type of modification of the educational program. Of that one-
third, one-third approximately 3-4% will require special
education or other services to deal with their problems.
Prevalence

13. Gender and Age Factors: Socioeconomic Status and
• More boys are identified Ethnicity Factors:
than girls • Poverty doubles risk of
• Males are more likely to being identified
have an externalizing • African American males
disorder are were 5.5 times more
• Females are more likely likely to be identified
to have internalizing than white females
disorders • Overrepresentation of
• Older students are more African American
likely to be identified students has been
than younger students recognized for years
1. teachers may be more
hesitant to label a child
2. Aggression displayed
differently with age

14. • There is debate about what causes emotional and
behavioral disorders, although evidence indicates
that both environment and genetic factors play a
role.
• The characteristics can vary as a function of
gender, age, and ethnicity.
• Set of externalizing, internalizing, intellectual,
and academic characteristics is recognized.

15. • Exposure to television violence has been suggested as a direct cause
• More consensus about the effect of family, school, and community factors
• Family factors could include:
1. Parental discord
2. Inconsistent or extreme punishment
3. Lack of Emotional Support
• Absence of these characteristics increases the child's risk of developing
problems:
1. A legitimate source of authority, established and supported over time
2. A consistently enforced rule system
3. Stable and consistent nurturing behavior
4. Effective child-rearing practices
5. Common family goals
6. Flexibility to adapt
• School Factors Include:
1. Negative school experiences
2. Unrealistic teacher expectations
• Community Factors , such as gang involvement can also play a role
Environmental Causes

16. Genetic Causes Combined Causes:
• Any dispassionate review • An emotional or
of evidence indicates that behavioral problem may
there are substantial be due to environmental
genetic effects on factors, to genetic factors,
psychopathology, or perhaps a combination
including emotional and of the two.
behavioral disturbance.
• Mental illness occurring
in families suggests that
schizophrenia, in
particular has a genetic
basis.
Genetic and Combined Causes

17. Internalizing Disorders:
• Directly affect the individual with
Externalizing Characteristics: the emotional or behavioral
• Directly affect others and are easy problem.
to observe • Not as easy to identify because
• More difficult to identify the cause their behaviors do not directly
of their aggression affect others.
• Conduct Disorders: a disorder that • Social withdrawal and anxiety are
involves a repetitive and persistent often seen
pattern that violates age- • Mood Disorders: a class of
appropriate societal norms or the disorders that includes manic
basic rights of others disorders, depressive disorders,
and bipolar disorders.
• Most individuals with
schizophrenia (a condition
characterized by delusions,
hallucinations, and disorganized
speech and behavior) are
considered to have an emotional
disorder.
Characteristics of EBD

18. • As a group students typically score in the low-average range of
intelligence
• Behavioral and Emotional disorders are shown to influence a
students IQ
• More likely to have language deficits. (Approximately 3 out of 4
students with emotional and behavioral disorders)
• It is important that general education teachers look for signs of
emotional and behavioral problems that tend to go unnoticed
(withdrawal and depression)
• As a teacher be prepared to address wide range of academic,
emotional, and behavioral needs.
Intellectual and Academic Characteristics

19. How are students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders Identified?
• Professionals from a number of disciplines could be
involved: education, psychology, and psychiatry.
• Decisions should only be made based on multiple
sources of information
• Include:
1. Interviews with parents and teachers
2. Use of academic testing in addition to techniques
such as observation and the use of behavioral rating
scales, behavioral assessment systems, personality
inventories, and projective tests.

20. • Widely used by teachers, and excellent screening method for
students with emotional or behavioral problems
• Usually the first way a student is identified
• Objective, precise,, but still requires subjective decision
making
• Teacher with often compare a suspected student with a
controlled student
• Should not be used exclusively
• Inexpensive, easy to do, and can be done in a natural setting
Observations

21. • Document the presence and degree of a certain behavior
• Composed of a list, formatted like “Shows signs of depression”
• Each item is rated using a rating scale
• Show to reliably differentiate students with and without behavior problems
• Example The DBRS-SF which has 2 forms one for ages 5-12, another for ages
13-18
• Used by either the general or the special education teacher
• Includes 40 items grouped into 4 categories:
1. Interpersonal problems
2. Inappropriate behaviors/feelings
3. Depression
4. Physical symptoms/fears
Behavioral Rating Scales

22. Personality Inventories:
• Characteristics
Behavior Assessment Systems:
1. They are designed
• Multiple components primarily for use with
including behavior adolescents and adults
rating scales. 2. Use true/false format
Teacher, parent, and 3. Measure a large number of
peer personality characteristic
factors such as paranoia,
• Provide ratings from reality distortion, and
multiple informants in psychological discomfort
multiple settings • Questions regarding
„truthfulness‟ individual
provides
• Primarily used for medical
rather than educational
terminology

23. • Based on psychoanalytical theory, assume that a student will “project” his or her
feelings, emotions, and personality characteristics when a relativity abstract
stimulus is presented
• Ink Blot Test-present pictures or photographs to elicit certain dynamics
• Draw-a-Person Screening-examiner interprets drawings made by a student
• Projective tests are one of the more frequently used techniques to evaluate students
with emotional disturbances
• Teachers should NOT use projective tests and techniques but should be aware of
their uses and limitations
• Although some of the identification procedures are administered by
psychologists/psychiatrists teachers still play important role
• Teachers are frequently asked to provide data, complete a behavior rating scale, or
contribute information for the appropriate component of behavioral assessment
system
Projective Tests

24. Wrap-Up
I hope that with this information you are now able to understand how individuals
identified as having emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) have been treated
throughout history, identify and understand the various definitions and classifications of
EBD, identify the causes and characteristics of EBD, and understand how students with
EBD are identified. For your activity I would like for you to visit the mini-blog I have
created for this chapter. (link below) From there you will find more information
regarding students with emotional and behavioral disorders. You will also see your
assignment. Just a few questions to make sure you understand the material. I will post
the answers Wednesday afternoon.
*Must be in presentation mode in order to be directed to the blog
Chapter 6 Blog