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Head: TEACHING ART TO EBD STUDENTS

Teaching Art to Students with Emotional or Behavioral Problems

Katelyn Fritts
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

TEACHING ART TO EBD STUDENTS

Teaching Art to Students with Emotional or Behavioral Problems

How do you effectively teach art to students with behavioral and emotional
problems, and what is the effect that art has on the students? Almost half a million
children and youth have been identified as having an emotional or behavioral disability,
or approximately 6% to 10% of the total population of students with special needs.
However, less than 1% are actually identified as emotionally disturbed (OBrien &
Beattie 2015). So what are the characteristics of children with emotional or behavioral
disorders in schools? Because externalizing behaviors are outwardly visible, students
who exhibit this type of behavior are easier to spot. Being non-compliant to teacher
directions, verbal or physical aggressiveness towards staff and peers, and self-destructive
behaviors are just a few characteristics of externalizing behavior. Internalizing behavior,
however, is characterized by isolation, shyness, sadness, and withdrawal. Avoidance of
group and classroom activities, fear of new situations, anxiety, and self-consciousness are
all examples of internalizing behavior. Students who have EBD, emotional or behavioral
disorder, tend to let their teachers know that they are not happy or comfortable with
themselves by acting out (OBrien & Beattie 2015). 44% of students with EBD drop
out, the highest dropout rate within disability categories (OBrien & Beattie 2015).
However, there is a way to improve that rate. By integrating arts or simply teaching art to
students with EBD, the drop out rate has been proven to lower. Those who work with
students with disabilities have attested to the power of arts education in the lives of
students with disabilities. Observations and research, as well as experience, have linked
the positive impact of arts education to both academic and social/emotional domains
(Malley & Silverstein 39). The arts enable students to engage in problem solving, make

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connections between abstract and concrete concepts, know themselves, and re-create
themselves (Malley & Silverstein 39). Arts integration is defined as emerging the arts
curriculum into other arts and non-arts curricula (Mason, Steedly & Thormann 37).
Integrating the arts enable students with disabilities, who might otherwise lack a means of
fully expressing themselves, provides new opportunities for conveying ideas and
experiencing their work in new ways (Malley & Silverstein 39). Thankfully, there is
evidence based teaching strategies that can be used in the classroom to help modify these
emotional and behavioral outbursts. Not only will these strategies affect EBD students,
but they can create a better learning environment for all of your students. These
techniques are proven to prevent an abundance of distractions for the students, improve
learning and relationships with peers. Some peer-mediated strategies include peer
tutoring, cross-age tutoring, class-wide tutoring, peer assessment, peer modeling, and
peer reinforcement (Ryan, Pierce & Mooney 23). Along with peer strategies, there are
also types of self-mediated interventions that the students can learn for themselves. Some
of these interventions include self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-instruction, goal
setting, and strategy instruction (Ryan, Pierce & Mooney 24). A few of the teachermediated interventions include structured academic tasks, adjusting task difficulty,
mnemonic instruction, personalized system of instruction, and interval duration strategies
(Ryan, Pierce & Mooney 26). These strategies and techniques will not eliminate all of the
distractions, but they have been proven to decrease the amount of outbursts and
distractions. Along with academics, integrating the arts and art itself in education can
create a higher self-belief and self-confidence for a child struggling with an emotional or
behavioral disorder.

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Clinical Experience
I completed my clinical experience at Lincoln Heights Academy. Lincoln Heights
is a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, for students with serious emotional and
behavioral problems. The mission of Lincoln Heights Academy is to assure that its
students learn new behaviors that will enable them to improve their academic ad social
growth, either at Lincoln heights Academy or in a less restrictive placement; Receive
guidance, training, and experience to successfully transition from school to perform
productively in the workplace; Learn the academic and social skills necessary to function
independently in society; Receive coordinated services from the agencies who serve their
needs, and teach them to advocate for themselves; and learn that success is possible. I
volunteered on Tuesday, March 17th from 1:00 to 4:00 and on Tuesday, March 24th from
1:00 to 3:00 as well. During my clinical experience at Lincoln Heights Academy I was
lucky enough to be able to volunteer in Mr. Cohens Art classroom. In my classroom the
amount of children varied from time to time because some students had to be taken out of
class for different reasons, but mainly there was around 6 to 8 students in the class at one
time. The classroom was made up of 6th grade students, ages 11 to 13. There was a
mixture of mainly African American students, and Hispanic students. Because the school
I volunteered at was Lincoln Heights, all of the children in my classroom were struggling
with emotional and behavioral problems and managing those problems in the classroom.
Throughout my experience I was able to observe, learn, and help out with the art project
that the students were currently working on. At the time of my arrival the students had
begun working on a project of paper-macheing a face. Each day they learned the
measurements of the facial features and added each part onto their project. I was able to

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walk around the classroom and see each childs project, as they got to explain to me what
they were working on. Mr. Cohen presented the lesson in a productive manner. Because
of the small size of the class he was able to use a mixture of individual instruction, smallgroup instruction, and whole-class instruction to keep the students on task and busy. The
students were able to talk freely as long as their conversation did not stir up trouble or
disrupt their peers. Mr. Cohen used behavioral management techniques throughout his
class to guide the students. One example of a behavioral management technique is that he
never raised his voice or yelled at a student. If a student tried to start an argument or
create trouble, which many did, Mr. Cohen remained calm and did not show his emotions
to the students. He started off the beginning of each class by instructing the students what
they planned to do that day. He drew and wrote out steps on the board, as well as
explained them before the students began working. He then worked hands on with the
students and their art. He worked student to student, with the goal of keeping each
student busy and on task. This worked, mainly because the class size was so small. If a
problem would erupt, which many did, Mr. Cohen would follow the procedure of the
school calmly and as quickly as possible to reduce distraction for the other students.
When I asked Mr. Cohen if he saw an effect that art had on the students behavior, he told
me that he had. He said that when his students had a positive way to express themselves
and what they were feeling, he saw a dramatic, positive change in behavior. He said on
top of their behavior, their artwork was ecstatic. There were still behavioral and
emotional problems in the classroom, but the improvement made these issues
manageable. He showed me multiple pieces of artwork, some from his behavior

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challenged students, and some from past students, you could not tell which art work was
from which child.
Reflection
Mr. Cohens classroom differed from my middle school art classroom in many
ways. My classes were much larger, my school was not a separate school, and I was in a
general education classroom. My middle school teacher did not use behavioral
management techniques in our classroom, or instructional accommodations. While
volunteering at Lincoln Heights Academy, I found that the services of the teacher were
effective to meeting the needs of the students, however I do not believe the services of
the school were effective for the students. Throughout my experience, I noticed the
teacher doing the best he could to meet the needs of the students, however, I felt that the
behaviors of the other teachers and staff were not effective. I noticed that some
techniques used by the school or other teachers, were not consistent and I felt that the
students fed off of each other; when one disruptive behavior began, that impacted the
behaviors of the other students. In my opinion, having only students with behavioral or
emotional problems in one school has a negative impact on the child and his or her
learning environment, instead of a positive one. As a future teacher I want to implement
some of the techniques that I saw used in the classroom. I love the idea of my students
being able to positively express their emotions in a creative way. These observations did
not align with my previous knowledge of effective practices for students with behavioral
and emotional problems. Before volunteering at Lincoln Heights I expected to see more
positive instruction from the school than I saw, as well as staff that was committed to
meeting the needs of the students.

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7
References

Malley, S. M., & Silverstein, L. B. (2014). Examining the intersection of arts

education and special education. Arts education policy review, 115(2), 39-43.

Mason, C. Y., Steedly, K. M., & Thormann, M. S. (2008). Impact of arts integration on
voice, choice, and access. Teacher education and special education, 31(1), 3646.

Ryan, J. B., Pierce, C. D., & Mooney, P. (2008). Evidence-based teaching strategies for
students with EBD. Beyond behavior, 17(3), 22-29.

Beattie, J., & O'Brien, C. (2015). Teaching children with emotional and behavioral
disorders. In teaching students with special needs: a guide for future
educators. (Chapter 9). NC: Kendall Hunt.