Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) can be hard to manage inside a classroom. Anything can set a student off and send them into a fit. To keep order in a classroom, there are methods a teacher must use to keep the environment controlled at all times.
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1 Develop A Routine
Having a routine in place inside the classroom helps to keep the environment calm and controlled. Students need to know what's going to happen each day at school, so there are no surprises. Go over the daily schedule on the first day of school, and implement it each day. If there is going to be a change to the schedule, give students plenty of notice.
2 Small Groups
Teachers don't always have a choice in the size of their classroom. When possible, though, teachers that work with EBD students should have small classrooms. Small classes leave less of a chance of students distracting each other or eliciting bad behavior from other students.
3 Time-Out Chair
Bad behavior will occur, so it's important to teach EBD students that there are consequences for their actions. Designate an area of the classroom to send students who have misbehaved or need to calm down.
4 Work to Change Behaviors
Identify what behaviors need to change in each student. When the student performs one of these behaviors, tell the student that the behavior is not acceptable. For example, if a student hits another student, it's important to correct it right away. Ask the student why they did what they did, and ask them what they could have done instead. Offer suggestions if they are not able to come up with one. Also, remember to talk to the student after they have calmed down. If they are in the middle of a tantrum, they will not be able to focus on what you are saying.
About the Author
Megan Richardson began her career as a freelance writer and editor in 2009. She has experience in public relations and event planning, and she worked as a writer's assistant to a published author for more than a year. Her work has also appeared in "The Daily Sentinel." Richardson holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication and journalism from Stephen F. Austin State University
Students with EBD place a tremendous amount of stress on educators to meet their unique needs and simultaneously maintain a safe and orderly school environment that is conducive to learning. School administrators and staff are constantly searching for strategies and options to address the challenges these students present (Walker et al., 2004). Students with EBD are often the first to be considered by school administrators for placement in costly restrictive settings as a way of dealing with their problems and restoring order to the general education setting. This article will help educators understand the importance of structuring educational settings so that they best support evidence based interventions that serve the needs of students with EBD and provide a safe learning environment for all involved.
Students who suffer from Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, or EBD, often find it very difficult to control their behavior and focus on their work in the classroom. EBD students also commonly lack the impulse control and the emotional balance that is necessary to handle social interactions with other students effectively.
This can be challenging for you as their teacher, especially in an inclusive classroom where only a portion of the students have EBD—but there are ways to help all students in your classroom feel welcomed and ready to learn. EBD students’ behavior can be moderated by implementing a classroom management plan that is specially tailored to meet the specific needs of these students.
Here are five effective strategies you can use to help EBD kids work well in an inclusive classroom.
1. Keep class rules/activities simple and clear
Your EBD students (as well as some of your more focused students) will most likely struggle if you impose a long list of complicated rules and demands. 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. An example list might be:
- Be on time
- Try your best
- Be polite
- Respect one another
Along with simple and clear rules, there should be simple and clear teaching activities. Using activities that don’t have complicated directions allow students with EBD to follow along and interact with the rest of the class. Some activity examples are:
- Responsive cards
- Clickers
- Choral responding (Unison responding)
- Guided notes
By including clear activities in your classroom, your students will engage and interact with the lesson plan, ensuring that they learn alongside other students.
2. Reward positive behaviors
While you will, at times, have to discipline children for improper behavior, remember that rewarding positive behavior is ultimately far more effective in the long run. Many students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorder tend to take any discipline as a personal attack, and because of this, they often learn very little from it.
Try to celebrate the successes of these students more than you reprimand or punish their mistakes. When they 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-breaks
A 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. (And it’s good time for you to stretch, too!)
4. Fair treatment for all
Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders also often don’t respond very well to situations that appear unfair to them. This can trigger a cascade of negative emotions and acting-out behavior.
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 strategies
Unfortunately, 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.
While having EBD kids in your classroom can at first seem daunting, these are proven ways to help cultivate and keep a harmonious spirit of learning. More good news: many of these strategies for success can help your non-EBD students as well.
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Tags: Bullying and Bully Prevention, Special Education