Daily Archive for January 21st, 2005

Controversial therapies

Published on 21 January 2005 in Bookshelf, Musings, The press and Treatment. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Some of our favored ideas in education are supported by virtually no reliable data. Learning styles and multiple intelligences are among them, and I imagine you’ll find those ideas debunked in special education blogs related to this one.

An edited book, just published, challenges us to think carefully about some popular ideas and interventions. The book is Controversial Therapies for Developmental Disabilities: Fad, Fashion, and Science in Professional Practice, edited by the late John W. Jacobson, Richard M. Foxx, and James A. Mulick (and published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005). I am a great admirer of this book, not merely because I co-authored a chapter in it on the topic of full inclusion but because I believe it offers us a serious challenge to think about why we believe what we do. Along with another excellent volume, Clear Thinking with Psychology: Separating Sense from Nonsense (by John Ruscio, published in 2002 by Wadsworth), it urges us to be skeptics about popular notions in psychology and education.

The Jacobson, Foxx, and Mulick book contains chapters on the following intervention-specific issues:

  • Person-Centered Planning (by J. Grayson Osborne)
  • Sensory Integrative Therapy (by Tristram Smith, Daniel W. Mruzek, & Dennis Mozingo)
  • Auditory Integration Training (by Oliver C. Mudford & Chris Cullen)
  • Facilitated Communication (by John W. Jacobson, Richard M. Foxx, & James A. Mulick)
  • Positive Behavior Support (James A. Mulick & Eric Butter)
  • Nonaversive Treatment (by Crighton Newsom & Kimberly A. Kroeger)
  • Gentle Teaching (by Chris Cullen & Oliver C. Mudford)

I didn’t give you the subtitles of the chapters, some of which you may see as pointedly uncomplimentary, particularly if you are fond of the intervention about which the authors are writing.

One intervention that is particularly popular just now, and one for which we might find even a legislative foundation, is Positive Behavior Support, often known as PBS (and not to be confused with public broadcasting). I’ve got to admit that some of my colleagues in special education–people I like a lot and whose work I admire–are quite taken with the practice of PBS. But is it (a) a new idea or concept and (b) a practice supported by scientific evidence?

PBS is important for all of special education, but particularly for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. I’ll address the “new” and “scientific” issues regarding PBS in a future post by summarizing the points made by Mulick and Butter in their chapter. I’ll also have some things to say about punishment and nonaversive interventions.

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Me, too!

Published on 21 January 2005 in Uncategorized. Closed

Just about anyone would probably feel like a piker when comparing him- or herself to Jim’s academic qualifications, and I’m no exception. Nevertheless, let me add an entry to this Web log recounting my background.

I, too, have taught children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders, having worked for the L.A. County schools and a couple of private schools in the L.A. area in the 1960s and 70s, as well as having spent time asking as a parent for four children from a state hospital whom Pat Lloyd and I had live with us in the early 70s. I share with Jim substantial concern about the quality of education available to students with EBD. To that end, I have taught prospective teachers and researchers about special education since the late 1970s. After a brief affiliation with Northern Illinois University’s special education program, I joined the special education faculty of the University of Virginia Curry School of Education in 1978.

I have written about special education and hope to use this forum to promote provision of helpful services for students with EBD by commenting on what I consider appropriate and inappropriate in the current and evolving situation. Also, see my more-detailed notes on Teach Effectively!

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Jim’s history

Published on 21 January 2005 in Uncategorized. Closed Tags: .

Here’s a little information about me (Jim Kauffman; for more about me, you can visit my Web site). I am now Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia, from which I retired in June, 2003 (although I’m still teaching a doctoral seminar and coordinating the doctoral program, which I will do through the 2005-2006 academic year). At UVA, I have been chair of the Department of Special Education, Associate Dean for Research, the Charles S. Robb Professor of Education, and the William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor of Education.

I received my Ed.D. degree in special education from the University of Kansas in 1969. I am a past president of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children), and among the honors I’ve been given are the 2002 Outstanding Leadership Award from CCBD, the 1994 Research Award of the Council for Exceptional Children, and the 1991 Outstanding Service Award from the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavioral Disorders. I’m also a former teacher in both general elementary and special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

I’ve authored or co-authored numerous publications in special education, including the following recent or forthcoming books: Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (8th edition, 2005), Cases in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (2005), Learning Disabilities: Foundations, Characteristics, and Effective Teaching (3rd edition, 2005, with D. P. Hallahan, J. W. Lloyd, M. P. Weiss, & E. A. Martinez), Special Education: What It Is and Why We Need It (2005, with D. P. Hallahan), The Illusion of Full Inclusion: A Comprehensive Critique of a Current Special Education Bandwagon (2nd ed., 2005, edited with Daniel P. Hallahan), Exceptional Learners: Introduction to Special Education (10th ed., forthcoming about April with a 2006 copyright, with Daniel P. Hallahan), and Children and Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: A History of Their Education (forthcoming about July with a 2006 copyright, with Timothy J. Landrum).

I am a skeptic about nearly everything, as future blogs will no doubt confirm. Probably my skepticism and low level of acceptance of statements about special education (or education more generally) that just don’t add up are best captured in a book I published in 2002, Education Deform: Bright People Sometimes Say Stupid Things About Education.

I do not believe that much of the current reform legislation, including the No Child Left Behind Act or the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, is rational or helpful (usually–actually, in almost every case, I suppose–irrationality doesn’t make good policy, good science, or acceptable practice). Perhaps my thoughts on these matters are best captured in the just published article, “The President’s Commission and the Devaluation of Special Education” (Education and Treatment of Children, 27, 307-324, in which there are quite a few typesetter’s errors, I’m sorry to say) and the forthcoming article in Phi Delta Kappan (the March, 2005, issue), “Waving to Ray Charles: Missing the Meaning of Disabilities.” If you wish the typescript of either article, I’ll be glad to send you an electronic version as an attachment.

James M. Kauffman
jmk9t@virginia.edu
http://www.people.Virginia.EDU/~jmk9t/

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Welcome JMK!

Published on 21 January 2005 in News. 0 Comments

EBDBlog is growing! Jim Kauffman will also be posting to this blog, so keep your news aggregator here. Jim, as many readers know, is a distinguished scholar in special education, in general, and in EBD especially. It will be wonderful to have his contributions here. You can learn more about Jim by browsing his Web site and from the introduction of himself that he’ll post.

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