The impact of educators' responses to emotionally disturbed students

Emotional Disturbance

The Impact of Educators on Emotionally Disturbed Students

The inclusion of disabled individuals in the general social, educational and occupational contexts which are welcoming to mainstream populations is a goal which appears to parallel the progressive orientation of our culture. Modern education shows evidence of the trend toward change, facilitating the increasing integration of individuals who are physically, emotionally or learning disabled into public and private schools. This trend has been a decidedly positive one, with legal, economic and educational strategies coming together to present an effective and productive change in the way that we contend with disabilities. Inclusive practice, which submits that educational institutions should be considered responsible for helping to create accommodations for assimilating disabled students into mainstream population classroom settings and for providing them with the supportive differential instruction to succeed therein, presents a number of challenges and chances to educators with respect to special education needs. Among them, one of the greatest challenges to educators is that concerning the combination of learning disability and behavioral abnormality. Those students who can be categorized as emotionally disturbed will carry with them specific obstacles to the reach of educators, typically manifested in disruptive, inappropriate, unstable or even sometimes violent and dangerous behavior. As this research investigation proceeds, the emphasis will be on the role of the teacher and the ability of the teacher to appeal to methods and practices that will function to impact the student positively. The discussion which follows investigates the role of the educator in establishing control over negative behaviors, elaborates the strategies which can aid the educator in intervening with such behaviors and generally considers the impact on the classroom of the presence of an emotionally disturbed student. The intent will be to highlight the best response mechanisms for educators attempting to positively impact emotionally disturbed students.

Literature Review:

The reality of special education is that those with learning disabilities and those with behavioral problems are frequently categorized similarly. The latter group often will possess distinct learning or cognitive disabilities which may be related to the behaviors which suggest an individual to be emotionally disturbed. Where this is not the case, it still remains often the case that emotionally disturbed students are lumped in with special learning needs students or even general populations. As the article by Ogonosky (2009) argues, this places a pressing impetus upon the instructor to achieve control over the classroom as a way both to enhance the emotionally disturbed student's opportunities for learning and to diminish the threat of disruption for the other students in the classroom. Ogonosky warns that such disruption can take myriad forms and that a special education or inclusion classroom teacher must be prepared to confront this disruption appropriately in all of its forms. While there is never a condition in which disruptive or inappropriate behavior is to be accepted or tolerated, it is anticipated that an educator working with an emotionally disturbed student will nonetheless encounter these behaviors and perhaps with some regularity. As the article indicates, "tantrums, defiance, aggression, poor academic progress, poor social skills and passive noncompliance of requests (such as putting heads down on desks) can present a challenge. But educators can have success with children who have emotional disturbances if they get support from co-workers and consistently implement behavioral strategies and classroom management techniques." (Ogonosky, 1)

It is thus that Ogonosky continues with a discussion on the subject by providing educators with a number of suggestions concerning how best to manage and cope with these inevitable behavioral disruptions. First and foremost in Ogonosky's perception is the demand placed upon the teacher to understand the unique qualities of an individual's emotional status and behavioral needs. This means achieving a fully recognition of the patterns of behavior which have tended to be exhibited by the student, an awareness of the intervention strategies which have been proven successful with the student in the past and an awareness and effective avoidance of those events and interactions which are considered "triggers" to inappropriate behaviors. (Ogonosky, 1)

Ogonosky highlights the demand placed upon the teacher by practicality and by law to acknowledge and adhere to the strategies for intervention and preemptive avoidance of triggers which are described and discussed in the student's IEP or in what Ogonosky refers to as Emotional Disturbance eligibility reports, typically intended to provide an overview of the special exceptions and diagnoses characterizing a student's behavioral abnormalities. Therefore, plans for education and intervention which have been establish therein are essential to the educator's familiarity with the student and ability to establish a positive rapport. Ogonosky further advises to educators contending with emotionally disturbed students that "when reviewing information on the student, ask questions regarding implementation of written behavioral plans. If you are unsure of the proper implementation, ask for clarification or training from the staff who developed the plan." (Ogonosky, 1)

Ogonosky abets this preemptive approach to dealing with emotional disturbance by elaborating a few approaches or strategic measures which can help on a day-to-day basis in the classroom. Among them, the author suggests the posting of a clear set of behavioral and social rules applying to all members of the class. By emphasizing the importance of these rules, by explaining them in a positive way and by listing them in a visible context that can be observed always by members of the classroom, the instructor can establish a continually present awareness of that which is expected of all students. For the emotionally disturbed student, it will be appropriate to spend additional time evaluating the consequences of inappropriate behavior as well as focusing on the rewards for good behavior. This latter strategy is important as the emotionally disturbed student will generally require a different approach in terms of penalty and reward. Invoking an overly punitive response to behaviors which may in one way or another be inherent and instinctual in the student can provoke fear, resentment and a disconnect in the necessary relationship between student and educator.

This is why Ogonosky places an emphasis on the demand to maintain a positive framing of the learning experience for the emotionally disturbed student. A particular attention to responding affirmatively when good behavior or academic performance is exhibited can have an invaluable impact. As Ogonosky indicates, "when a teacher gives positive feedback and reinforcement to the ED student it breaks the chain of negative behaviors. Classroom management strategies that focus on negative forms of attention such as reprimanding and excessive prompting can help maintain inappropriate behaviors." (Ogonosky, 1) This means that the effective teacher will instead attempt to motivate the student to act positive rather than using the threat of punishment for acting negatively. This is not to suggest that no punishment or reprimand should be induced. Rather, the focus where disciplinary strategy is concerned must balance the necessity to define limitations and demonstrate consequences for exceeding these with a steady focus on the manner in which proper behavior will be correlated to positive outcomes. This is, of course, a lesson which will transcend the classroom and become a valuable life skill.

The Ogonosky article also notes that there are myriad resources available to the educator working with an emotionally disturbed child. Among them, the most important is the actual team which comprised the student's support system. This includes staff, therapists, parents or guardians and other faculty with relationship to the special needs field. This helps to establish a recurring theme in the research. Namely, the research points to the reality that educators working with students who possess symptoms of emotional disturbance will experience greater levels of workplace stress, higher workloads and significant pressures based on the curricular intricacies concerning special education. The article by Rush (2005) points to the conditions which are unique to this area of education, focusing particularly on the experience of teachers working in self-contained classrooms. Rush defines "self-contained" as those classrooms designed to isolate students with emotional disturbances as a way to focus more attentively on their specific needs while also preventing both disruption of regular classrooms and the greater likelihood there within of confronting some individual triggers that might invoke unwanted behavioral patterns. (Rush, 1)

The self-contained classroom offers a host of problems both practical and political for the teacher. To the former point, there is a highly individualized demand placed upon the special education instructor, underscored by the strategic importance of the IEP, which denotes separate learning and behavioral approaches for all special needs students. As the article by Rush indicates, "teacher preparation time increases enormously as individualized lesson plans are required for each student, often on several grade levels. Teachers cannot keep up with the time demands of so many academic preparations and so the curriculum becomes one of behavior control rather than academic learning. Students are often bored and behavioral problems are exacerbated. Teacher turnover in self-contained classrooms is much higher than turnover in other areas." (Rush, 1)

Politically speaking, this situation is frustrated by the frequency with which special needs instructors are forced to approach learning disabled and emotionally disturbed students with little curricular differentiation. The results of this failure to distinguish can be extremely problematic to the effectiveness with which emotional disturbance is addressed and can have broad sociological consequences. Rush reports some stunning figures, particularly that among emotionally disturbed students, "Fifty-five percent leave school before graduating. Of those students with severe emotional disturbance who drop out of school, 73% are arrested within five years of leaving school." (Rush, 1)

In spite of these facts, schools often fail to address the needs of the emotionally disturbed, blunting the impact which quality educators can have on their education and their development of positive patterns of behaviors. As the article by Greshem (2005) contends, there is an absence of proper identification and service to students with emotional disturbance, owing to a lack of resource and intuition on the part of administrators. As a result, Greshem reports that "historically, the U.S. Department of Education estimated the prevalence rate for children and youth serves as (ED) at 2%. However, recent prevalence estimates of children served as ED continues to be less than 1% nationwide." (Greshem, 328) This means that even as we gain greater understanding of the importance of addressing emotional disturbance in the academic context, we are actually decline in our recognition of the problem and our allotment of the resources to address it.

Teachers who do not specialize in special education but who are working with unidentified students with symptoms of emotional disturbance are benefited by the research conducted in a study by Harris-Murri et al. (2006), which describes the need to intervene with students in need and which projects manners in which to approach the student's response to said intervention. Harris-Murri et al. denote that "broadly defined. Response to Intervention is based on systematic procedures involving general education interventions attempting to resolve students' present difficulties accompanied by a form of progress monitoring. "A response-to-intervention model necessitates using decision making methods that use graduated increases or decreases in the initial and ongoing need for special services." (Harris-Murri et al., 782) to this effect, Harris-Murri et al. offer a strategic opportunity for educators to impact the progress of the student exhibiting symptoms of emotional disturbance. In addition to the clear impact of placing a student on a corrective path toward individualized education, the graduating evaluation of intervention effectiveness recommended also produces a methodology for remaining dynamic and flexible in the face of the student's evolving needs.