Emotional Behavior Disorder The learning environment has been characterized by the presence of students with emotional problems and behavior disorders. This trend contributes to considerable challenges in the educational system and for teachers. Consequently, there are various strategies and programs that have been developed and implemented in the education system to help students with disabilities. Some of these measures include the development of educational programs for students with emotional problems and behavior disorders. One of the most commonly used ways in these educational programs is the establishment of an IEP goal, which guides the delivery of instructions and ways of evaluating student's progress.

Case Study for a Student with Emotional Behavioral Disorder

Franklin was seemingly reserved and quite shy when he entered the second-grade classroom. He would not initiate any interactions with teachers and his fellow students and was usually passive only responding to things when directly prompted. As the year progressed, Franklin was seemingly less engaged rather than being more comfortable in the class as compared to other students. After asking around, the teacher found out that Franklin was living in the shadow of his older sister who was admitted in a special education school for students with serious disabilities. Despite several efforts to reach out to him and encourage him, Franklin became more timid and did not interact with his colleagues.

Franklin started having difficulties in the learning environment and did not carry out class activities or assignments as required. Actually, he stopped presenting his homework and did not finish classroom assignments and would even resist giving responses to teachers when required. Franklin's actions generated concerns and contributed to beliefs that he was suffering from a probable depression. As a result, the teacher contacted the school-based support to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Franklin's situation and help in developing effective ways of enhancing his learning experiences. The comprehensive assessment of Franklin's situation showed that he had considerable memory problems and had emotional problems when required to act independently. For instance, Franklin demonstrated emotional problems when required to remember directions for completing a task. He had a collection of uncompleted assignments, which he did not remember to complete and submit as required by the teacher.

These actions contributed to Franklin's poor performance in class and behaviors, which was seemingly difficult for him to cope with. The feelings of depression and emotional problems were brought by Franklin's potentially difficult home environment and memory difficulties. These two factors played a crucial role in his development of emotional behavior disorder that had considerable impacts in his learning experience. Franklin's basic method of dealing with the situation or condition was to withdraw and become less passive both in the home and classroom environments. The withdrawal symptoms was influenced by an assumption that fading into the background would make not create more requirements.

The initial efforts by the teacher to address Franklin's situation was basically focused on providing support and comfort. The teacher sought to provide comfort and support to help improve Franklin's performance and behavior. However, these efforts proved futile since they were not based on a comprehensive assessment of the situation. Since his situation was constantly deteriorating and affecting his class performance, Franklin required a comprehensive assessment of his condition and the development of specific interventions to improve his learning experiences and performance. In essence, looking for the underlying causes of Franklin's emotional behavior disorder was crucial towards the creation of specific interventions and learning objectives and goals. Franklin's situation is an example of students with learning problems brought by emotional behavior disorder. These students require a comprehensive assessment of their condition in order to develop specific interventions, learning objectives, and ways to assess progress.

IEP's Goals and Assessment of Student's Progress

As previously mentioned, one of the major ways to help a student with emotional behavior disorder towards improved learning outcomes and experiences is through establishing an IEP goal for various aspects of learning such as math, writing, life or social skills, and reading. An IEP goal for a second grade level for social skills is to develop social understanding skills that are evaluated through several benchmarks. The reason for choosing this goal is so that the student with emotional behavior disorder develops increased understanding of social situations and develops appropriate ways in responding to the situations. In this case, the student will learn how to develop social communication skills, interact with other students, and participate in group work activities. Following direct instruction, visual supports,...

The student's social skills will be examined and determined every quarter by the IEP group or team. The ability of the student to develop these social skills will be evaluated based on his/her ability to ask questions regarding various issues initiated by self or other students to maintain the conversation. The assessment will involve testing the student ability to introduce communicative interactions, to seek for help or additional information instantly, to effectively use verbal and non-verbal communication techniques, and demonstrate increased social awareness and understanding of the classroom environment.
The IEP goal for Mathematics for a second grade level student with emotional behavior disorder is to understand numbers, number systems, and number theory. The reason for choosing this IEP goal is because numbers, number theory, and number systems are the basis for mathematical communication and processes. In this case, the teacher seeks to ensure that the student understands numbers as symbols of quantity. This IEP goal will also focus on ensuring the student understands the pictorial, symbolic, and concrete representation of numbers. Therefore, by the end of the learning process, the student should be able to demonstrate knowledge regarding basic skills in numbers and arithmetic. In order to achieve this, several activities will be utilized including practicing to share math solutions, utilizing extended math vocabulary to explain mathematical problems, and using words, diagrams, or physical materials to explain mathematical problems ("Special Education Mathematics," n.d.).

The IEP goal for math will be assessed through subjecting the student to a daily roll call in counting students who are present or absent. Secondly, the student will be required to count the number of days in a month on a normal calendar. The third assessment activity of the student's progress in this IEP goal is counting various items in the class and classifying them into various categories. The fourth assessment measure will entail playing computer math games, tracing numbers, looking for numbers in the environment, and singing number songs. These activities will be geared towards ensuring the student demonstrates conceptual understanding of number and arithmetic.

The IEP goal for writing for a student with emotional behavior disorder is enhancing the individual's content including creation and development of ideas. The process will involve ensuring the student maintains focus so that he/she does not go off topic or present conflicting information. The selection of this IEP goal is for the student to develop capability to utilize conventions of language appropriately such as punctuation, spelling, grammar, and usage of words. It is important for the student to develop writing skills because writing or language convention is an important component of communication or teaching. Through developing writing skills, a student with emotional behavior disorder will develop skills and means to express his/her emotions or behavioral problems. The development of this skill will be crucial towards improving communication and social skills of the student.

Despite the significance of this skill to a student with emotional behavior disorder, it is one of the difficult things to teach and evaluate. However, the teacher will utilize various activities that are geared towards the development of better writing skills (Laden & Gromisch, 2014). One of the ways that will be utilized to evaluate a student's progress in this learning area is giving him/her a written assignment with descriptive words and varying sentence structures. Secondly, the student will be given a topic to compose a sentence or paragraph through insertion of appropriate words that are relevant to the issue. The other measure of assessing student's progress in writing is using a graphic organizer that will help in creating a paragraph essay.

Reading is also another important learning segment for a student with emotional behavior disorder. An IEP goal for reading for such a student is strengthening the student's reading progress in order for him/her to read fluently. In this case, the student needs to understand vocabulary, read fluently, demonstrate phonemic awareness, identify words, and reading comprehension. The measurable IEP goal for reading for such a student is ensuring the child can read second grade level word and phrases at a fluency rate of 30 unfamiliar words per minute within a 2-week period. In order to develop these skills, the teacher will utilize information acquired from curriculum-based tests and reading probes.

The assessment of the student's reading fluency and comprehension entails giving the student an impromptu reading query at…