EBD

    Emotional behavioral disturbance, better known as EBD is exactly what it sounds like, however, just like learning disabilities there is no exact definition. There are many terms for students who have and EBD, included disturbed, disordered, maladjusted, conflicted and even impaired. Emotional and Behavioral Disturbance is what the Special Education Coalition adopted as the term they used to describe students. EBD does not have a singular definitions for many reasons, one being that a lot of factors go into students who have EBD. One definition used by the Special Education Coalition is a disability characterized by behavioral or emotional responses in school programs, they adversely affect educational performance and personal skills (1980).
         As mentioned before there are a lot of factors that go into why students have EBD. One of these factors is family relationships. If parents are not actively involved with children, not just in school, but in every aspect of their growth and development, students are more likely to develop an EBD. Along with parent involvement, if the child is growing up in a single parent home or constantly in substitute care, then the child is also more likely to develop an EBD because of trauma. The worst kind of family life that can directly correlate to EBD's are child abuse. Children who have been abused are more at risk for the full range of disabilities for internal and external problems. This is a lot to handle for teachers, and so teachers need to know that there is boundaries. As educators we cannot be too tangled into the family problems the student has access too, meaning we cannot show the student our emotions as teacher over the issues the child is having at home. We want to help the student with support not empathy. Another factor that can cause EBD is conceptual models, meaning biological models, psychoeducational models, ecological model and behavioral models. The biological model is the fastest growing model and one that can affect EBD with physiological flaws and medications. A behavioral model is the most popular model because it is behavior that teachers can see and control, this does not mean it is most common, just most commonly found. The ecological model has to do with environment and the psychoeducational model is based on why children engage in behavior that they do.
   There are many factors and influences to children with emotional behavioral disturbance which is why there is not one definition for all people affected by this disorder. Depending on the student or child will depend on how severe the EBD is and this will show how constrained the student needs to be in a school setting. Like many other disabilities or disturbances, students are individuals and these factors may all influence a child differently. It's our job as teachers to figure out in school how to handle a child with an EBD and what special modifications or classrooms each student needs, but we cannot generalize students with EBD.