I spent a little time searching through the Wikipedia recently. The Wikipedia is an encyclopedia available for free and that anyone can edit. Because anyone can edit an entry, it is self-correcting. I was surfing the Wikipedia to see how things related to special education had changed there since my last visit.
There is no entry for “emotional or behavioral disorders” nor variations on that set of terms. Neither is there an entry for “serious emotional disturbance” (the U.S. term), but there is an entry for “emotional disturbance.” Here’s that entry, in its entirerty:
An Emotional Disturbance is a catagory of Special Education in the United States of America. It is defined by it’s impact on the child’s ability to function successfully in a mainstream (or regular) classroom.
Looks like it needs some editing. I’ll have to dig up the time.
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I’m using “emotional or behavioral disorders” (EBD) in place of “serious emotional disturbance” in this space. In U.S. law, the latter term was still is use until recently, despite the sensible reasons for using the former term, when the adjective “serious” was dropped. It’s a topic that requires more discussion than I can muster at this moment, but there are plenty of sources for those who would like to examine the topic of what we call those students who have so much difficulty over an extended time relating to adults and peers that their school learning suffers. Steve Forness and Ken Kavale discussed it in a book I co-edited in the 1990s: Forness, S. R., & Kavale, K. A. (1997). Defining emotional or behavioral disorders in school and related services. In J. W. Lloyd, E. J. Kameenui, & D. Chard (Eds.), Issues in educating students with disabilities (pp. 45-61). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Regardless of what we call them, these students need help. In this space, I plan to discuss the
- rationale for serving indivuals with EBD,
- some issues in the nature and causes of EBD, and
- methods for assessing and treating EBD.
[Edited 19 April 2006]
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