Mattison, R. E. (2015). Comparison of Students with Emotional And/or Behavioral Disorders as Classified by Their School Districts. Behavioral Disorders, 40(3), 196
The author of the article outlines that there has been an emphasis on the importance of classifying students with emotional and behavioral disorders. This is a first critical step that would help educators in planning initial interventions for them. According to the article, the authors emphasize that, if the classification is inaccurate, it would result in incorrect or inadequate treatment planning which has high chances of jeopardizing educational outcomes of these students. The article also suggests that, improper classification of students classified with emotional and behavioral disorder could be a major factor, which accounts for the poor outcomes in schools among these students. There could be additionally several challenges affecting the ways school districts classify students having emotional and behavioral disorders especially those who have high level of school dysfunction qualifying them for Special education services (Mattison, 2015).
The article has disclosed the differences that arise in comparing students with emotional disorder (ED), learning disability (LD), other health impairments (OHI), and multiple disabilities (MD). These classifications of students in schools with emotional and behavioral disorders also are accompanied with different challenges to arrive at appropriate category to classify students. For instance, when classifying a student to either ED or OHI taking into considerations that language disabilities are common to these students suffering from ADHD. This could results to grouping of students wrongly, which will be reflected on their poor performance in schools. Additionally, the challenge could arise when students experiencing ADHD could also appear to have language or speech impairments (LD) making it difficult to classify them well. As a result of these challenges, the article concludes that treatment planning for students suffering from these disorders ought to start with considering full picture of both non-primary and primary disabilities. All categories indicate no difference in classifying behavioral disorders in terms of emotional and behavioral problems with significance difference in academic testing that is IQ test and achievements. This classification helps schools to analyze poor performance among students hence coming up with appropriate ways of treating them towards improving on their academic achievements (Nelson, Benner, Lane & Smith, 2004).
It is appropriate for schools to classify students with emotional and behavioral disorders so that the institution can analyze academic dysfunction among them. This would enable schools to separately determine unique academic needs and hence determining how to treat them uniquely and help them improve on their academic achievement and IQ level.
References
Mattison, R. E. (2015). Comparison of Students with Emotional And/or Behavioral Disorders as Classified by Their School Districts. Behavioral Disorders, 40(3), 196.
Nelson, J. R., Benner, G. J., Lane, K., & Smith, B. W. (2004). Academic achievement of K-12 students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children, 71(1), 59-73.