EBD Blog is about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of children and youths. In the US, this area of special education is often referred to as “emotional disturbance,” but we’re using the term EBD, as that one is more clearly descriptive and preferred by many leaders in the field. EBD Blog will also include content about related areas of disability, including Autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD or ADHD), and other similar topics. I (John Wills Lloyd) write most of the posts on EBD Blog; readers have had the good fortune of finding some original posts by guest blogger James M. Kauffman, too.
For fundamental information about EBD, a reader may consult an entry for Encarta that I wrote in the early 1990s. Here’s the lead:
Education of Students with Behavior Disorders, area in the field of special education that focuses on emotional or behavioral problems experienced by some children and adolescents. These problems disrupt relations with peers and adults and interfere with schooling. In the United States, school officials commonly identify students with these problems as having “serious emotional disturbance,” or behavior disorders. Estimates of the number of behavior disorders in the United States vary from 0.5 percent to over 20 percent of the population. Studies indicate that about 7 to 12 percent of U.S. students experience behavior disorders at some time during their school years. However, only about 1 percent of all students receive special education services for their problems. Others may receive services from community mental health agencies or they may receive private psychotherapy.
EBD Blog, which first appeared in January of 2005, originally ran from a server identified as johnl.edschool.virginia.edu, but I moved it to my own server a bit over a year after launching it. To correspond with me, write to John _at_ JohnWillsLloyd.com.
My friend and sometimes collaborator (and poker coach) Doug Cullinan says that I should straighten my tie before I allow folks to take pictures of me. That’s an old photo of me, when I had hair.
Hi,
I am currently writing a thesis paper on students with EBD. I just wanted to let you know that I would like to represent your blog on my web page that I am creating. But I think you should spell “discriptive” as descriptive before I publish your blog address on my web! The word is found on the home page of your blog and understandably, people do not always trust webs with such good information that have typos.
Thanks,
J McGovern
Joanne, thanks for the catch! I’ll fix it as soon as I finish this note.
JohnL
Thank you for such great information! I have been searching for a clearly stated definition of EBD for purposes of thesis research, and your blog has accomplished it beautifully!
My research is effective reading instruction for children with learning disorders, and EBD is one segment that I have been evaluating… I will be back to learn more.
Susan, thanks for taking the time to drop a note and for the kind words.
There is a lot of good information about reading instruction for students with EBD. My colleagues (and friends) at Vanderbilt Joe Wehby and Kathleen Lane (separately and together) have published some valuable studies in this area. If you’ve not already found their work, make sure you search the literature for it. Look, also, for work by Ron Nelson and Greg Benner.
A few of my resources I’m using are articles by Wehby…I know the other name as well…
I’ve shared your blog with a couple of my cohort mates who have special education certification and EBD students…
Peace…