I’m asking readers of EBD Blog to help me identify important research questions about interventions for students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. As I noted in a parallel post on LD Blog, these need to be BIG IDEA questions. What do teachers and parents need to know about how to help students with EBD?
Examples (just for provoking discussion):
- Do consultation teams have greater benefits than school-wide behavior plans in reducing problem behavior?
- Do students with EBD benefit differentially from highly structured classroom arrangements?
- What procedures produce the best outcomes for students with EBD when they are 25 years old?
- How can teachers monitor progress in student behavior across time, a la CBM for academic performance?
- What specific competencies make teachers more or less successful in promoting learning by students with EBD?
Please think about issues that are balanced between general and explicitly testable. This is just a little crowd sourcing inquiry.
I hope your suggestions will illustrate ideas that actually can be investigated using rigorous scientific methods. Finding the fundamental causes of EBD, although an important concept, is off base for this thread. I’m hoping to talk about the fundamental actions that educators can undertake.
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I’m going to guess there is a correlation between constructive parent/ school engagement, and positive outcomes for students with this kind of disability. Id like to see a study on that. The trick would be, as I suspect it is in so many of these studies, balancing the quantitative with the qualitative. So if little Johnny has a constant steam of notes, calls and visits between his parents and his teachers that could suggest a good outcome because of all the open communication. On the other hand if the content of all these exchanges is negative (blame, threats of law suits, etc.) than I’d imagine things won’t turn out as well for Johnny as he ages. Any ideas on how a study like this might be done?
Carol Greenburg
http://www.bklynsnc.com
Boy, the behavior & cognition issues wrapped up in “emotional and behavioral disabilities and disorders” are (at least in my mind) so disparate that it’s difficult to come up with questions.
A couple of thoughts though:
Research on anxiety and anxiety-reducing (or managing) strategies — can they be taught?
Big picture ideas on improving executive function.
Is the outcome better at age 25 for the kids who are taught coping skills in the early classroom years for managing their impulses, moods, and anxieties? How about those taught coping skills vs. those on meds? How about both meds and taught coping skills? I could see a control group with three test groups here.
In a broader issue– what I would like educators to know about kids with emotional and behavioral disorders– is that they are not doing it on purpose. I mean, sure, there is an element of button-pushing once they get into the moods and start spiraling, but if they knew how to stop themselves, they totally would! My son had a teacher, supposedly versed in the ways of ASD kids, who treated him as if his outbursts of impulsiveness were malicious. Not helpful!
Some ideas and references are included in a recent blog post of mine:
http://www.therextras.com/therextras/2010/07/school-responsibility-for-child-mental-health.html
I dont know what it is about this blog that turns me off so much, but you just dont seem to get me excited. I dont know if its the lack of content or just the way you wrote it. But you really dont seem to understand that your readers may not agree with you. Youre really just too out there for me.
- Does placing children who are labeled EBD/ED/SED in more restrictive, self-contained alternative school settings have therapeutic or deleterious effects?
- What are the components of high-quality training & support for teachers and staff who work with EBD?
- How can administrators/leaders ensure effective implementation of a program or approach specifically designed to meet the needs of students with these challenges? How can they be maintained with integrity?
- How can education, social services, mental health, and criminal justice/’corrections’ systems collaborate more together to strengthen prevention and treatment efforts to improve the outcomes of troubled members of our society?
- Would watching/studying real-life videos of more typical/healthy children navigate stressful or difficult situations help our kids with EBD improve their coping behaviors?
- What are specific methods, materials, curricula, and practices designed for students with ASD that would be particularly beneficial for students with EBD?
(i.e. social stories, all modes of visual/non-verbal communication, ABA, learning social skills, norms, and appropriate behavior, increasing awareness of cause/effect, promoting care of one’s effect on others, basic functional/self-care/life-skills, repetition, predictability, etc etc—and HOW should schools promote adoption of these practices?)
What is the value added of a good learning skills specialist or learning team?
How can we determine the value added of a learning specialist and/or learn skills team?
(To be really dramatic about it:) How do we know that a learning specialist (in or out of school) actually makes a difference? or what difference do they make?
Hi John I just ran across this
http://edupln.ning.com/group/autism
A group to review best practices in autism education in public/private school settings. An open exchange of ideas intended to help students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Exploring how to infuse technolgy with this diverse group of learners.
Thanks for dropping these ideas, folks. I welcome second and even third thoughts, too.
I came here from a tweet by Liz Ditz (who is a prolific tweeter of useful information!) Today she tweeted this article: http://claudiamgoldmd.blogspot.com/2010/08/mess-of-adhd-evaluation-and-treatment.html
While not posing a research question exactly as you requested, John, the above post may appeal to the audience here.
Thanks, Liz, and thanks, John, for the conversation. The topics are important.
I would like to see research that compares self-contained vs mainstream at the high school level.
I would like to see research on programs that get Students with an EBD into Vocational/Technical programs after 10th grade.
1. Research on why students are not getting identified and eligible under IDEA. How can we get these children designated special needs more quickly. Why aren’t the full number of functionally impaired children who need special ed in the EBD category being identified and served? (Bazelon Center has a good article on this.)
2. Research on separating primarily internalizing from primarily externalizing students. They have in many cases diametrically opposite needs and interfere with one another’s access to a free and appropriate education. Also, mixing the two is a perfect setup for bullying.
Continued –
3. Is in-school family psychoeducation used anywhere? That is, teaching the child and family about the brain disorder (e.g. ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, etc.), and supporting them in learning as much as possible to optimally manage the disorder. National Institutes of Mental Health and National Alliance on Mental Illness both have excellent resources in this area.
4. Along the same lines, has peer support been attempted where, say, two students with ADHD are paired and trained with the skills and information they need to support one another at school? Is there any research in this area?
Pardon me, I just joined, and keep thinking of things . . .
5. Has research been done on the effectiveness of providing training to teachers on the symptomology, course, and frequent school challenges of students with high-incidence disorders? These would be programs where the teachers are educated about how the processing of educational content and classroom situations is different for these students, so that teachers can be more nonjudgmental and can be more supportive? (This, of course, would be much easier if the student was identified in the first place, which isn’t happening in my school district.)
I have been doing ebd/sed for 10 years. The problem I am facing is at what point does it become criminal? The threats of killing me or hurting me is getting out hand.
Can we have a taperecorder (for educational purposes)I would have no problem if my room was videotaped.
This is the first site I have found. Any ideas? I run a highly structured room.
* Do school systems with smaller-sized school options in middle and high school have fewer students with serious EBD? (charter or true alternative schools that students/parents opt in)
* A comparison of post-graduate outcomes for students with serious EBD placed in therapeutic, nonpublic settings vs. inclusive public school settings?
* As more students with serious EBD attend college, what accommodations and services are key to maintain their enrollment?
Aly,
I would be in favor of a tape recorder/video camera in classrooms as well! Could you tell me if you are teaching a self-contained classroom for EBD/SED? If so, which state and what qualifies a student to be placed in that kind of educational setting?