Emotionally Disturbed Students Essay -- essays research papers fc

Emotionally Disturbed Students Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) frequently exhibit academic deficits alongside their behavioral deficits, particularly in the area of reading; however, there are very few studies examining ways to address the reading problems of this population of students at the middle and high school level. The academic deficits exhibited by students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) are well documented in research literature. As outlined in the federal definition of emotional disturbance, students with this disorder demonstrate an inability to learn and, as a result, pose instructional challenges alongside the behavioral problems that they exhibit in the school environment. Many of these students require intensive instruction to maintain the academic skills they have been taught and to improve their academic deficits. For many students with E/BD, achievement problems are particularly troublesome in the area of reading (Maughan, Pickles, Hagell, Rutter, & Yule, 1996). Unfortunately, there has been very little published research in the area of reading instruction with this population of students. In their review of reading interventions in the area of E/BD, Coleman and Vaughn (2000) identified only eight published studies that reported the results of reading interventions for students with E/BD. The majority of these studies were conducted with students younger than 12 years of age. The need for additional research in the area of reading instruction is particularly true for adolescents with E/BD. The reading failure of secondary students with behavioral problems has been consistently documented and, as reported in the findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study (Malmgren, Edgar, & Neel, 1998), these reading deficits likely contribute to the dismal outcomes for these students such as high dropout rates, grade retention, and overall poor achievement. In addition, the absence of empirically derived reading practices for older students with E/BD is particularly problematic given the current emphasis on achieving state curriculum standards and participating in content-area learning (Deshler et al., 2001). As noted earlier, students identified with E/BD typically show significant deficits in the area of reading. This is particularly true for secondary-age students with this condition. In a... ...eiman (Eds.), Reading acquisition (pp. 145-174). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Popkin, J., & Skinner, C. H. (2003). Enhancing academic performance in a classroom serving students with serious emotional disturbance: Interdependent group contingencies with randomly selected components. School Psychology Review, 32, 282-295. Scott, T. M., & Shearer-Lingo, A. (2002). The effects of reading fluency instruction on the academic and behavioral success of middle school students in a self-contained E/BD classroom. Preventing School Failure, 46, 167-173. Skinner, C. H., Smith, E. S., & McLean, J. E. (1994). The effects of intertrial interval duration on sight-word learning rates in children with behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 19, 98-107. Wehby, J. H. (2003, February). Promoting academic success as an incompatible behavior. Paper presented at the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders International Forum, Las Vegas, NV. Wehby, J. H., Lunsford, L. B., & Phy, E. (2004). Comparing the reading profiles of students with concomitant behavior and reading problems to a normally achieving, reading-matched sample. Manuscript in preparation.