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3. CLASSIFICATIONS OF EBD We can therefore divide children with EBD into two groups according to the type of behavior they exhibit, i.e. children with predominantly externalizing behavior and children with predominantly internalizing behavior. Other classifications focus more on the severity of the problematic behavior. For instance Vojtová mentions three groups of children that should be served by special education professionals. - Children without considerable behavioral problems Preventive activities and measures are being used in working with these children – for example prevention of social pathologies and elimination of dangerous conditions in school environment. - Children At-Risk Preventive activities and measures are being used together with assessment and counseling. These children face many risks in their development on personality and social level. The concept of Children (Youth) At-Risk deals with the risk factors a child encounters while growing up. These risks are seen as potential barriers to socialization and educational processes. - Children with behavioral problems and EBD Methods of assessment, counseling, and treatment are being used with these children. For description of children with EBD see the definition of Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders or Eli Bower’s definition above. Still another classification divides children with emotional and behavioral disorders according to the dominant character of behavior into three groups.
Finally the classification proposed by Quay and Peterson describe six dimensions characterized by the following behaviors: 1. Conduct disorders involve such characteristics as overt aggression, both verbal and physical; disruptiveness; negativism; irresponsibility; and defiance of authority – all of which are at variance with the behavioral expectations of the school and other social institutions. 2. Anxiety – withdrawal contrasts sharply with conduct disorder. It involves over anxiety, social withdrawal, seclusiveness, shyness, sensitivity, and other behaviors that imply a retreat from the environment rather than a hostile response to it. 3. Attention problems – immaturity characteristically involves preoccupation, short attention span, passivity, daydreaming, sluggishness, and other behaviors not consistent with developmental expectations. 4. Socialized aggression typically involves gang activities, cooperative stealing, truancy, and other manifestations of participation in a delinquent subculture. 5. Psychotic behavior is characterized by expressing far-fetched ideas, repetitive speech, and all kinds of bizarre behaviors 6. Motor excess, when the child is typically restless, unable to sit still, tense, unable to relax, and over talkative. Individuals may show behaviors characteristic of more than one dimension; that is, the dimensions are not mutually exclusive. Actually, comorbidity – the co-occurrence of two or more conditions in the same individual – is the rule, not the exception. Very rarely is there a single cause of EBD identified. More often we talk about combination of several factors that lead to the development of EBD. The causes of EBD may be connected to the individual and/or to his/her social environment. |