Emotional/Behavioral Disorder Article Review

            This week I read an article entitled, "A Corrective Teaching Approach to Replace Undesired Behaviors in Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.  The article first identified a students with EBD is someone who "exhibits significant behavioral excesses or deficits that interfere with their learning and sometimes that of their peers in the classroom" (Cortez & Malin, 2013).  Some behaviors can be noticed that may indicate an EBD but some may go unnoticed, either way the result is the lack of external/internal motivation.  Furthermore, students who are not intervened with may suffer from low grades, school dropout and even going to jail.

             An intervention team is described as a team made of teachers, administration personnel, parents and other student supports that may offer appropriate behavioral and academic interactions.  One strategy that is offered is called "Corrective Teaching".  This is a school-based intervention model used with individuals, with a group, or treatment programs.  Basically, the corrective strategy uses an interaction to address an inappropriate social behavior and teach more appropriate behavior.  Another name for Corrective Teaching is called Remedial Teaching.  In order for this strategy to be successful and changes to be long lasting, in the end, it needs the teacher to be calm and pleasant when speaking.  The teacher must show a true concern for the student and believe that a change can be made.  Still, the teacher must also be able to enforce the rules in his/her classroom and his/her expectations.

            The Corrective Teaching is presented in an eight step procedure:

1. Offer initial praise or empathy,

2. describe the inappropriate behavior,

3. provide a negative consequence, followed by a positive correction statement,

4. Describe an appropriate replacement skill,

5. Give a logical reason they'd understand,

6. Practice, the sooner the better,

7. Provide feedback and a positive consequence and

8. Give general praise.  

           Two examples are provided implementing the eight step procedures: one on a ten year old boy who speaks out of turn and a group of 10 seventh and eighth graders who were getting out of seats and not following directions..  Charts are provided to show how the use of corrective teaching helped decrease the undesired behavior and replaced it with a more appropriate behavior.  In both instances, it was suggested to the students that they need to make eye contact with teacher and stay in a calm manner. 

             I liked the article because it provided a clear definition of what EBD is and direct way to help students.  Although, the implementation might so logical we must remember these are students who have been struggling with an EBD.  The article reminds the reader, that simple redirections don't work with these students because they don't KNOW the appropriate way to behave.  They must be shown step by step the expected behavior, in a way that is not demeaning of themselves and always with praise.  This reminds me of a saying, that says "it's easier to bring a bee closer with honey than with vinegar".  If a desired change is truly expected it must first come from the teacher.  I'm not saying it is easy, because it is not.  It is so easy for a student for an EBD student to get under our skin, to disrupt our class and get us off track.  But we need to be the first to show cautiousness of how we react.  We must be their models.  It reminds me of another saying, "You can't change how others act, you can only change yourself."  A question I also have is how lasting were the changes in the two examples provided.  It would have been nice to know how the students were acting in their classroom months or maybe even year later.  I also wonder, why were the only boys used in the examples, what about the girls?  I wonder if girls with EBD would be positively impacted by Corrective Teaching?

Cortez, E. G., & Malin, I. M. (2013). A corrective teaching approach to replace undesired             behaviors in students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Beyond Behaviors vol. 22 (03), 54-59. http://ezproxy.trnty.edu:3062/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=242bb2f3-3d5f-4638-819d-835d803c8ada%40sessionmgr4005&vid=7&hid=4106

 

article on Intellectual Disabilities Review

The article "Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Intervention Program to Influence Attitudes of Students Towards Peers with Disabilities" reports the results of intervention program provided to kindergarteners and elementary students.  This study was created because how much the idea of inclusive education has been encouraged in the past decade. It says, "In this study[they]explored the possibilities of promoting more positive attitudes of kindergarten and elementary school students towards children with physical, intellectual and severe physical and intellectual disabilities through an intervention based on acquired knowledge" (de Boer, Sip, Minneaert, & Post, 2014). The study focused on what are attitudes like for students with no disabilities towards students with a mental and/or physical disability. It was a 3 weeks education project comprising six lessons about disabilities.  The students in the study were 4-12 years olds.  Students were surveyed about their attitudes before the intervention program, after the intervention program and a year later.  The study focused on three types of disabilities: autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability.

The article mentions the benefits of having an inclusive classroom.  Students without disabilities benefit from this experience academically and socially.  They show much greater progress in reading and mathematics.  Socially, they are more aware and understand people that may have a disability.  Socially students with a disability in an inclusive classroom setting improve their communication and interaction skills.  Still, the problem remained that students with disabilities had a hard time being accepted by their classmates.  And this where this study came about.  If students were prepared and became more knowledgeable about disabilities would their attitudes change?

The results were as follows:  students were found to have the least positive attitudes towards students with ADHD.  Students with autism and other disabilities received more positive attitudes from their classmates with no disabilities.  It was also found that girls have better attitudes towards classmates with disabilities than boys. Also, the study reports that there is a least positive attitude towards an intellectual disability than to a physical disability.  At the bottom of the article, you can find a sample of vignettes read to the students to introduce the discussion about a certain disability.

Although, there were some attitude changed at the end of the study, some questions remained.  One question, asking if this attitude change has been long term or forgotten as time passed.  I liked the study, because it sets up a predictor for future attitudes of students with no disabilities.  It gives an idea how a teacher or an entire school can be better prepare themselves and provide information to their students and provide a better academic and social experience for students with the disabilities.  They deserve the chance for everyone around them to be informed about their disability and this way, I think, can see past that and get to know who they are, even beyond that disability.

I also liked the study because it was very well planned out.  I like that it had a before and after survey and that it followed students after one year. Wouldn't it be cool to have educational programs come out to schools and provide knowledge to students regardless if they are inclusive or not.  I remember one of my first teaching years there was this girl, Amy, who had some sort of facial deformation and intellectual disability.  She was in a self-contained class but she was still had contact with her peers in the building, in the hallway, in the unified arts classes, in gym, and lunch.  It broke my heart one afternoon a group of 6th graders running down the hallway and hearing one of them say, "run, here comes the monster".  I didn't know who they were talking about until I saw Amy turn the corner saying, "wait, wait for me."  I brought it up to my team and I'm not sure what was done about the situation I don't remember.  But what I do remember is talking to my students that year and telling them, I can't control what the others in this school do or react to her, but I expect at least my students, not to be rude and respect her, be kind to her.  Various occasions I witness them doing that and felt proud of them.  But yeah, I still think school as a whole should prepare, inform students with no disabilities and TEACHERS it takes a village after all, right?

de Boer, A., Sip Pijl, S.J.,  Minnaert, A., & Post W. (2014, March 1) Evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention program to influence attitudes of students towards peers with disabilities. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, volume 44 (3), 572-583.
http://ezproxy.trnty.edu:3062/ehost/detail/detail?sid=85cef7c2-50dd-4a86-9b0f-5a18180c8dc2%40sessionmgr4005&vid=19&hid=4109&bdata=#AN=EJ1038290&db=eric

Article on Learning Disabilities Review

The article that I read is entitled "State Policy and Guidance for Identifying Learning Disabilities in Culturally Learning Disabilities in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students".  The article mentions the importance of using the response to intervention (RTI) approach in identifying a specific learning disability.  It is a practice that works with cultural and linguistically diverse (CLD) students (racial and ethnic diverse students that speak another language besides English).  Still the underlying issue that CLD students often get misidentified as having a learning disability.  Although the federal special education legislation provides guidelines and procedures to follow when identifying a student with a specific learning disability, each state has different manner of assessing and ways of following procedures.

The article identifies four factors that affect the difficult process of identifying a CLD student with a specific learning disability.  First, the assessments provided for a CLD students are limited.  In order for an assessment to valid, it must be used overtime, where it could have set a norm of outcomes about said population and really reflect a true identifier of a specific learning disability.  The problem most of the time there is no consistency.

Another factor is the personnel working with CLD students.  the article emphasizes the importance of providing professional development in implementing the RTI and tools that can help CLD students.  The frustration begins when the PD's are not given and the teachers and other professionals are left with the responsibility to assess these students.

The last factor mentioned is systematic integration.  The question here is how is the first language affecting the students in being able to acquire a second language in this case English.  In order to assess a student correctly there must be assessments given in both languages, reliable tools should be used, give credit if answers are given correctly in either language, take into account the student's progress in school, and his/her natural strengths and weaknesses.

The article focused their research in all fifty states to find what kind of procedures and support each state is providing.  Illinois is mentioned a few in the article.  Illinois is one of three states that require a assessments done in native language of the student. Illinois also requires its personnel to be involved in the evaluation and identification process of a specific learning disability.  Illinois also requires an interpreter to be present to assist non-English speakers.  They found that few states have "regulated specific practices for the identification of a specific learning disability in CLD students, more states have provide guidance documents in one or ore areas related to the specific learning disability process, RTI process or English instruction and supports." (Scott, 2014).

Personnel still feel they are limited in ways to assist CLD students.  More professional developments consistent assessments, consistent process of RTI, and a consensus in state policies concerning school level system integration are ways to move in the direction in improving the academic experience for CLD students.

This was a lengthy article to read, it was difficult to provide a much shorter summary.  The article is informative and also a big slap of reality.  There is so much need of improvements in support for students as well as teachers.  One of the difficulties the article mentioned is limited assessments available to use on CDL student.  The students that I've suspected of having a learning disability have all had different issues.  I am proud to have been able to advocate for two students and find a better placement for them, they truly did have a learning disability.  They both spoke a bit of English which made the assessment easier.  But I think, how many, did I get by, that I let go without helping.  And if I helped I felt like it wasn't enough.  For example, we have a student now, comes and goes from Mexico, obviously he speaks more Spanish than English.  He writes his d's and b's backwards.  When he reads in Spanish he only looks at the first few letters and guesses at time what the word is.  In math class, he needs constant one-on one support.  Does he need to be evaluated?  Could it be his inconsistent access to education that is failing him?  If we do start an RTI process with him will he even be here long enough for us to do process correctly?  The list of questions continue.

 

 

Reference

Scott, A.N., Hauerwas, L.B., Brown, R.D. (2014). State Policy and Guidance for Identifying Learning Disabilities in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Learning Disability Quarterly, Vol. 37(3), 172-185. http://ezproxy.trnty.edu:3062/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=31dbc5d7-3aec-47c7-8a2f-c21759674593%40sessionmgr4004&vid=7&hid=4209.