Information on Emotional/Behavioral Disorders
IDEA Definition:
The term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following charectaristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child's educational performance:
- An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
- An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
- Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
- A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms related to fears associated with personal or school problems.
This term includes children who are schizophrenic. The term does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have emotional disturbance. ( U.S. Department of Education, 1999, p. 12422)
Mental Health and Special Education Coalition (MHSEC) Definition:
The term emotional or behavioral disorder means a disability characterized by behavioral or emotional responses in school so different from appropriate age, cultural, or ethnic norms that they adversely affect educational performance. Educational performance includes academic, social, and personal skills. Such a disability:
- is more than a temporary,expected response to stressful events in the environment;
- is consistently exhibited in two different settings, at least one of which is school-related; and
- is unresponsive to direct intervention in general education, or the child's condition is such that general education interventions would be insufficient.
Emotional and behavioral disorders can coexist with other disabilities.
This category may include children or youths with schizophrennic disorders, affective disorders, anxiety disorder, or other sustained disorders of conduct or adjustment when they adversely affect educational performance in accordance with the opening part of the definition. (p. 13)
Note: These definitions taken from text: Introduction to Special Education: Teaching in an Age of Opportunity 5th edition by Deborah Deutsch Smith. (p.260-261)
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