ED 242 Week 8: Activity 1 — Connections to Articles and Movies

1. How does having EBD affect not only the child/adult, but also their family, friends, work
colleagues etc…?
EBD is something that not only affects the child/adult with the disorder, but it also affects
their friends, family, work, and more. Children with EBD generally tend to have
problems with anxiety, depression, changes in mood, risky behavior, hyperactivity,
withdrawal, immaturity, and learning difficulties. Families must learn how to cope with
the disorder and understand what support the child might need. The child will often
misbehave without even meaning to, so it is important for the families to understand why
the child is acting the way he/she is. The people close to a person with EBD must learn to
understand the signs and symptoms of this disorder, so they can continue to build a
relationship. Another way that having an EBD may affect one’s family and friends would
be the cost of behavioral therapy. Medications and therapy can be expensive, which
would influence the people around him/her. One example is in Silver Linings Playbook.
The main character, Pat, has just been released from a psychiatric hospital after he beat
up his wife’s lover. He moves in with his parents and is obsessed with reuniting with his
wife, but she has a restraining order against him. Pat suffers from bipolar disorder. In the
movie, we see that his behaviors and decisions have affected his life dramatically, but
they have also affected his wife’s life and his parents’ lives. Silver Linings Playbook is a
great example from a Hollywood movie that shows how EBD can affect the lives of a
person with the disorder and the people that are close to that person.
2. What are some challenges in helping/supporting those with EBD?
Many challenges come along with helping/supporting those with EBD. One challenge is
dealing with the disruptive behavior, especially in classrooms. Many times, children with
EBDs will have issues with focus, attention span, fighting, and immaturity on top of the
learning difficulties they have. In a classroom, this can be hard to handle while also
trying to control and teach a whole class of students. The aggressive behaviors would be
one of the most challenging behaviors to handle in a child with EBD because you must
ensure that every other child in the classroom is safe. Another challenge that might occur
when helping/supporting those with EBD is in diagnosing a child. Often, the behaviors
and actions will gain the child a label as “a problem child,” but for some children this is a
false statement. The child might seem like he/she is misbehaving on purpose when he/she
needs intervention to help with an EBD. One example from my experience was with a
friend I went to grade school with. He was very intelligent, but he struggled with focus.
Often, he would get in trouble for not focusing at school. In second grade, he was
diagnosed with an EBD, and started to take medication. This change allowed him to
focus more clearly, and teachers started to see that he was trying all along. These
misdiagnoses can hurt children worse because it reinforces the characteristics of EBD
such as anxiety, depression, and low self-worth.
3. Why do children/youth/adults with EBD end up in the legal system/prison
system/juvenile justice system more often than those without?
Children/youth/adults with EBD end up in the legal system/prison system/juvenile justice
system more often than those without for many reasons. First, individuals with EBDs
engage more often in risky behaviors and use illegal drugs/alcohol more often than those
without EBDs. Another reason this may be the case is that children with EBDs
experience parenting difficulties more often than those without EBDs. A few examples of
parenting difficulties that are seen more often in families with children with EBDs are
over-reactivity, lax or inconsistent discipline, physical punishment, and lower levels of
parental warmth and sensitivity. One connection I made was between this fact and the
idea about “Pipeline to Prison.” Students with disabilities are much more likely to be
arrested than the general population. Children with emotional disabilities are three times
more likely, to be more exact! One story I read about was Cody Beck, a twelve-year-old
boy with bipolar disorder. He lost his temper when he was in an argument with another
student and hit several teachers who were trying to intervene. He was put in handcuffs
and sent to a mental health facility two hours away from home. Stories like this one are
way too familiar because students with disabilities are treated like this every day, all
around the country. The “pipeline to prison” is a real issue because students who might
need help to cope with their disabilities are instead treated like criminals which scars the
child forever.
https://hechingerreport.org/pipeline-prison-special-education-often-leads-jail-thousands-
american-children/
4. Why is there a disproportionality of minority students identified as having EBD?
Currently, there is a disproportionality of minority students identified as having an EBD,
and one of the causes may be the child’s state of living and environment. Homelessness,
low socio-economic status, overcrowding and social isolation, and exposure to toxic air,
lead, and/or pesticides often lead to poor mental health development. Chronic stressors
can lead to abnormal behavior patterns of reactive responding in children. Facts have
shown that minority students are more likely to suffer from these chronic stressors and
lower socio-economic status, which would explain why there is a disproportionality of
minority students identified as having EBD. One connection I made was to how students
of minority groups are treated in schools. Often, teachers will punish minority groups
when they make one mistake or act out once, but when other students act out, teachers
will just say, “He/she is just having a bad day.” I have heard stories about this in many
instances, and it relates to this question because students in minority groups can be
judged more harshly by teachers compared to students of other groups. As a society, we
need to continue to work on our biases, so all of our students are seen as equals.