The controversy over the use labels for students who receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has been raging for decades. Do labels really serve an educational purpose? Do they stigmatize students? Do disabilities really exist? Are they just part of the normal distribution of human characteristics,…

Students in general and special education experience bullying. However, few empirical investigations have examined involvement in bullying along the bully/victim continuum (i.e., as a bully, victim, or bully-victim) among students with disabilities. A total of 816 students, ages 9 to 16, participated in the present study. From this total sample…

Bullying in schools has received both media and scholarly attention for the past 20 years. A large body of research has identified variables associated with bullies, victims, and bully-victims in terms of predictive and preventative factors. However, less attention has been given to the role federal legislation and litigation has played in schools…

The main tenant of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization was improving student outcomes through the use of evidence-based interventions. A particularly interesting aspect that found its way into the legislation was the eligibility process. Current methods of eligibility identification for students with learning…

Teaching social skills to students with emotional and behavioral disorders and learning disabilities has become an accepted practice. Social skills training (SST), however, has often resulted in only modest and sometimes no changes in students' social competence. One of the main reasons is that acknowledged problems have been largely ignored. The…

The interaction effects among three components of self-management training (self-monitoring, self-evaluation/self-reinforcement, and self-instruction) upon verbal behavior of three junior high students with behavior disorders were evaluated. A combination of all three components was most effective. Self-instruction was the most effective treatment…

The literature on the use of moral discussion groups to promote moral development in young people with behavior disorders is reviewed, and the use of the intervention is analyzed. Limitations and recommendations for applying the approach are discussed. (MSE)

This article presents three foundational precises and techniques for managing resistance that merge context, function, and adaptation. Techniques described include scrambling the routine, making resistance inconvenient, using paradoxical directives, embedding instructions, building behavioral momentum by making high-probability requests before…

This study investigated the efficacy of sound-field amplification (SFA) for improving the speed with which students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) follow teacher directions. We used a multiple baseline design across six students in general education classrooms. Latency data were collected under nonamplified and amplified conditions…

Recent information on the incidence and types of language and communication problems experienced by female delinquents and the relation they have to emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) indicate a contribution to the problems these girls have encountered in social and academic situations. Pragmatics (i.e., use of language in interpersonal…

Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) specifies that a behavioral intervention plan (BIP) must be developed for students with disabilities under certain disciplinary exclusions. IDEA, however, does not provide details as to what should be included in BIPs, and this lack of specific guidance often results in…

A survey of 101 directors of teacher training programs for working with students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) found encouraging practices such as offering E/BD programming at the graduate level; however, there were some areas such as special education law and multicultural issues that received little attention. (Author/CR)

This comment on EC 600 431 addresses the debate about whether public schools are obligated to serve socially maladjusted children/youth. The paper conceptualizes the debate from a "system restructuring" perspective, which takes into account cultural and social forces and organizational structures, and concludes that antisocial individuals should…

This article delineates the reasons why educators find punishment a more acceptable approach for managing students' challenging behaviors than positive reinforcement. The article argues that educators should plan the occurrence of positive reinforcement to increase appropriate behaviors rather than running the risk of it haphazardly promoting…

Teaching social skills to students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) has become an accepted practice. Literally hundreds of social skills training (SST) efficacy studies for students with EBD appear in the literature. As a result, many authors have published both narrative and meta-analytic reviews of the literature. Reviews have…