Blog 5: EBD Considerations

This creative blog post focuses on the chapter 6 content, emotional behavioral disorders (EBD), and my visit to the Vista School.  To help students with EBD, the teacher needs to continuously collect direct data (observations of student) and indirect data (interviews with parents and other teachers).    An FBA may also be part of the data collection.  The collected data will help the teacher to determine if certain skills need to be taught to the student, develop a BIP, and plan reinforcement strategies.  It is important to immediately recognize when the student performs a desired skill and to provide the student with specific praise soon afterwards.  Most importantly, this chapter on EBD made me realize that a teacher needs to teach both academic content and behavioral skills to all students.  Teachers who teach students both academic and behavioral skills provide students with a meaningful education and skills need to become contributory and productive citizens. 

When I visited the Vista School, I observed a high school class.  Some of the students in the class had an EBD.  The teacher and teacher aides were providing the students with specific verbal praise when they performed a task.  For example, the teacher explained to me that one student struggles to follow directions from authority figures. The teacher did not specifically say, so I am guessing that the student has oppositional defiant disorder.  The student has two aides; one aide provides the student with specific directions and the other aide records data of the student’s performance.  This student was given written directions to perform specific tasks, such as to put the glue in the correct place.  When the student completed the tasks, the student was allowed free time on an iPad.  This observation showed me the need to record data, tailor instruction to meet the needs of each student, and provide students with specific feedback.  All of these important components help teachers to instruct students who have an EBD in a meaningful and appropriate way.  (I decided not to write about my placement because based on my observations and conversations with my cooperating teacher, no students appear to have an EBD.)