TUTORIAL 5 : TEACHER APPROACH IN DEALING WITH EMOTIONAL DISORDERS CHILDREN IN THE CLASSROOMLet’s Get Started…

• In the field of psychology- emotionally disturbed, psychotic, socially maladjusted and emotionally handicapped.

• In education - a disability that is characterized by behavioural or emotional responses in school programmes so different from the appropriate age, cultural, or ethnic norms that the responses adversely affect educational performance, including academic, social, vocational or personal skills

What are Emotional and Behavioural Disorders? (EBD)

Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioural Disorder

• Attitudes which demonstrate violent behaviours to others or retaliation in a similar vein

• Attitudes showing the tendency to want to lord it over others and make them fear you

• Physically abusive of others • Always cursing and wanting to take advantage of

others• Having no regard to other peoples’ property • Not caring about others or caring whether they

suffer hurt• Indifferent to other peoples’ feelings or not

showing any apathy

• An inclination to carry tales about their friends and also to pass off their own blame on others

• Possessed of a learning challenge which cannot be easily explained

• Unable to have friends, social or authority relationships, for more than a short period of time

• Un-natural behavior and attitudes even under normal circumstances

• A tendency to appear generally unhappy or “out of sorts” or

• A tendency for personal school problems to create anxieties and unease quite readily

How to manage ?1. Keep class rules/activities simple and clear

Try to keep your classroom guidelines broad and simple — no more than 3 to 5 main rules. Let students know about them on the first day of class, and post them in the classroom as well.

• Be on Time

• Try Your Best

• Be Polite

• Respect One Another

Use simple and clear teaching activities.

• Responsive cards

• Clickers

• Choral responding (Unison responding)

• Guided notes

By including clear activities in your classroom, your students will be engaging and interacting with the lesson plan, ensuring that they will be learning alongside other students.

2. Reward positive behaviorsA great many Emotional and Behavioral Disorder students tend to take any discipline as a personal attack. Because of this, unfortunately they learn very little from it.Try to celebrate the successes of these students more than you reprimand or punish their mistakes. When these students receive positive feedback and rewards, they start to see that there is a positive benefit to good behavior. They will then start to see you as more of an ally than an adversary, and this will in turn motivate them to want to behave and do well in your classroom.

3. Allow for mini-breaksA lot of EBD kids lack the emotional balance and maturity needed to remain focused and on-task for long periods. Instead of reprimanding these students for their lapses, build in short rest periods or mini-breaks into the school day.Take time to periodically stop teaching and allow students to catch up if need be. Give them time to finish their assignment, and allow those who have finished to stretch, get out of their seats and move around a bit. This will allow them to burn off any excess energy that might have built up from sitting still for a long period of time.

4. Fair treatment for allStudents with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders often do not respond very well to situations that appear unfair to them. This can trigger a cascade of negative emotions and acting-out behavior. If EBD students feel they are not being treated fairly and with the same consideration and respect as their peers, their behavior will be affected.To ensure that you are treating all of your students in a consistently fair manner, don’t bend your established rules for any student. Enforce the expected consequences every time, with every student. Allowing exceptions opens you up to accusations of being unfair.

5. Use motivational strategiesUnfortunately, Emotional and Behavioral Disorder students tend to have had a lot of negative experiences in school. Therefore they often lack the desire or motivation to try to succeed.To avoid disruptive or off-task behaviors, take some extra steps to motivate these students. Offer them incentives for academic successes, large and small. Celebrate their hard work, and praise their good efforts consistently. This can go a long way in giving these students the motivation to excel in your class.

6. Listening to the Children’s Thoughts and Feelings

Talk to these children more often to understand what they think and feel. As they may be unwilling to talk right away, teachers should be patient with them and make repeated attempts.

7. Observing and Describing Their FeelingsObserve the children’s behaviour closely and identify their emotions. Try to describe their feelings. When the children feel that they are being understood, they will be more willing to share their thoughts with you. Teachers may say, “I can tell you are a little upset. Will you tell me what’s happened?” “Are you feeling a little nervous so that you don’t want to tell stories in front of others?”

8. Using Toys or Drawing to Aid

Encourage Children to Participate in Social Activities Children are usually more relaxed and easier for them to express their feelings when playing games or drawing. For those children who are unwilling to express themselves, teachers may change to a more relaxed environment, such as the play room or family corner, and try to start the conversation with the aid of puppets, toys or drawing.

9. Allowing Time with Encouragement

If children do not want to participate in an activity or are not willing to speak, do not push them. Instead, give them more time and be patient with them. Let them join the activity when they feel comfortable to do so.

10. Understanding Their Current SituationPay attention to any events happened in school or at home that would possibly affect the children and lead to their emotional problems.