Challenges of Teaching Students with EBD
Grand Canyon University: SPE 553
Rorie Ross
February 6, 2013
Fifty years ago, students with emotional behavioral disabilities could be housed in an institution with no hope of education. Twenty years ago, it was acceptable for schools to isolate these same students in the school away from the general population. Today, students with emotional behavioral disabilities have increased interaction with general education students in a more normalized environment.
But with all that change the challenge of teaching students with emotional behavioral disorders remains with the ambiguous, confusing and conflicting definition of what emotional behavioral disabilities are. IDEA recognized Emotional Behavioral Disorder as an Emotional Disturbance. The American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) are classified under the umbrella of emotional disorders. In this classification disorders such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Selective Mutism, Adjustment Disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety Disorders, Attention Deficit/Hyper activity Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Bulimia Nervosa, Major Depressive Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder Autistic Disorder, Schizophrenia and Anorexia Nervosa are also included. But, Seriously Emotionally Disturbed (SED) is referenced but is not considered a medical diagnosis, SED is however used synonymously with Emotional Behavioral Disorder as a label for schools to provide special education services. In other words, the Psychiatrists recognize it as a disorder, but have not yet defined it as a medical condition. Even today, doctors are treating it and do not even have a medical diagnosis code to align it with. According to Dr. Feldman a major revision will be released in 2013 which may provide a definition
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