PART 2

Chapter 5

Possible Causes
Introduction
-

Question about the attribution of cause and personal responsibility are

pervasive and critical issues in the field of EBD.

In common parlance, school authorities are to determine whether to conclude
that the student could have chosen to behave differently and that the

disability is no excuse.
In an era concern for individual responsibility and self-actualization, special
educators must weight carefully the evidence that individual students are
able to exercise self-control, as well as the evidence that they are victims of
circumstances and have little or no personal, moral responsibility for their
behavior.

BIOLOGY

A biological cause doesnt always lead to prescription for treatment.

Furthermore, because biological and environmental are interactive.
Sometimes, the best treatment is an alteration of the environment

Genetics

arrangement of the social environment

to ameliorate the effect the

biologically based disorder.

Example: Tourettes disorder.

Temperament

Factors that
contribute to
the
developement
of disordered
emotions or
behavior

Malnurati
on and
allergies

Brain Injury or
disfunction

1. Genetic
Genes linked to some specific diseases or vulnerabilities
The genetic transmission recognized is schizophrenia.
The symptoms of schizophrenia :
delusions
hallucinations
disorganized speech
thought disorder
The fact that a disorder has a genetic cause doesnt mean that
disorder is untreatable.

2. Brain Damage or Dysfunction

Hyperactivi
The brain can be traumatized
in several different ways before, during,

ty

ty
or after birth.
It may contribute substantially to antisocial behavior.
Tissue damage from traumatic injury may cause dysfunction.

EBD
Inattention

Impulsivity

 Traumatic brain injury (TBI) related to special education.

The terms of TBI :
o There is injury to the brain caused by an external force
o The injury isnt caused by a degenerative or congenital condition
o Theres a diminished or altered state of consciousness
o Neurological or neurobehavioral dysfunction results from the injury

TBI focuse on
impairments in one or
more areas that are
important for learning
such as :

cognition

speech

language

memory

information
processing

attention

reasoning
.

problem solving

The effects of TBI :

3

o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Inappropriate manners or manner isms

Failure to understand humor or read social situations
Becoming easily tired, frustrated, or angered
Unreasonable fear or anxiety
Irritability
Sudden, exaggerated mood swings
Depression
Perseveration

3. Malnutrition , Allergies and Other Health Issues

EBD is often caused by diet or allergies hasnt been supported by a
consistent body of research.
Teachers should be aware of possible dietary problems and allergies of
student.

4. Temperament :
A consistent behavioral style or predisposition to respond in certain ways
to ones environment
Skillful management by parents and teachers.
Nine categories of temperamental characteristics , Thomas, Chess, and
Birch (1968):
1. Activity level
2. Rhythmicity
3. Approach or
withdraw
4. Adaptability

5. Intensity
6. Threshold of
responsiveness
7. Quality of mood

8. Distractibility

9. Attention span

how much the child moves about during activities

such as feeding, bathing, sleeping and playing.
the regularity or predictability with which the child
eats, sleeps, eliminates and so on.
how the child responds initially to new events such
as people, places, toys and foods.
how quickly the child becomes accustomed to or
modifies and initial reaction to new situations or
stimuli
The amount of energy expended in reacting
(positively or negatively) to situations or stimuli.
the amount or intensity of stimulation required to
elicit a response from the child.
the amount of pleasant, joyful, and friendly behavior
compared with unpleasant, crying, and unfriendly
behavior exhibited by the child.
the frequency with which extraneous or irrelevant
stimuli interfere with the ongoing behavior of the
child in a given situation.
the length of time a child will spend on a given
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and persistence

activity and the tendency to maintain an activity in

the face obstacles to performance.

Personal Reflection :
1. Why is important for teacher to understand the challenging behaviors?
- Working with students with challenging behaviors, methodology has focused
more on controlling behavior than on addressing the needs underlying
behavior and instruction toward more appropriate ways of getting those
needs met.

2. What

are

the

effective

interventions

are

based

on

thorough

understanding of the challenging behavior?

- Effective interventions results in long-term behavior al change. To produce
long-term results, effective interventions must directly address the function
and contextual influences of the challenging behavior. The goal is to replace
challenging behaviors with socially acceptable alternatives that will help the
student to achieve the same outcome

PART 2
Chapter 6

FAMILY
Appeal of Family Factors as causal Explanations
-

Family

characteristics

appear

to

predict

emotional

and

behavioral

development only in complex interaction with other factors, such as:

i.
economic status
ii.
support from somebody outside the family,
iii.
the childs age
iv.
sex
v.
temperament
-

The factors of increase childrens risk for developing EBD :

i.
features of family relationship
ii.
parental deviance and discord
iii.
harsh and unpredictable parental discipline
iv.
lack of emotional support

The structure and interaction patterns in families clearly influence childrens

success failure at school and, ultimately in life.

Parental influence childrens behavioral development by :

modelling

reinforceme
nt

punishment
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Family Definition and Structure

-

The essential functions of families are to :

i.
Provide care and protect children
ii.
Regulate and control childrens behavior
iii.
Convey knowledge and skills important for understanding and coping
iv.
v.

with the physical and social worlds

Give effective meaning to interactions and relationships
Facilitate childrens self-understanding

1. Single-Parent Families
Its usually because of divorce but also often because of out-of-wedlock births
or military assignment.
The lasting psychological pain and fear felt by many children whose parents
divorce have been well known for a long time (Bolgar, Zweig-Frank, & Paris,
1995; Wallerstein, 1987)
The childs cognitive and effective to coping with stress.
2. Substitute Care
Children in foster care and those living with relatives who are not their
parents appear to be at high risk EBD and school-related problems.
Abuse children are known to have more behavioral problems than those who
are not maltreated.

the lack of
stability
unskilled foster
parents

Family Interaction
-

What are
likely to
promote EBD
to childrens in
foster care?

continuity

nurturing that goes

The undesirable
parenting
with
fosterbehavior and negative family interactions are in

attachment

part a reaction
of family members to a deviant youngster.
placement
Reciprocity of influence can be observed from the earliest parent-child
interaction, strengthening and manifesting in all subsequent interactions.

1. Child Management
The role of family interactions in causing the disorder people usually first in
discussion of family factors :

impulsive

aggressi
ve

Condu
ct
Disor
der

acting
-out
behavior

Three types of mistakes typically made by mothers of two-to four-year-old

children, OLeary (1995) :
i.
laxness
ii.
overractivity
iii.
verbosity

Two primary dimension of discipline :

responsiven
ess

demandingn
ess

involving warmth,
reciprocity and attachment

involving monitoring, firm

control, and positive and
negative consequences for
behavior

 Demanding and responsive referred to as authoritative (as opposed to

authoritarian discipline, which is demandingness without responsiveness)
Negative reinforcement involves escape from or avoidance of an
unpleasant condition.
Negative reinforcement traps (Patterson) set the stage for greater
conflict and coercion; each person in the trap tends to reciprocate the others
aversive behavior.
Coercive exchanges between aggressive children and their parents appear to
teach siblings to be coercive with each other.
The pattern of coercive can be identified early.
2. Child Abuse
Child abuse and neglect be defined in term of degree to which a parent uses
aversive or inappropriate control strategies with his or her child and/or fails to
provide minimal standards of caregiving and nurturance.
The interactional-transactional model be consider abused childrens influence
on their parents.
The negative reinforcement trap can escalate behavior to the level of abuse.
The childs behavior is always a reciprocal causal in an abuse relationship
with a parent is not warranted.

Family Influences On School Success and Failure

-

Family structure affects children's school outcomes. Parental discipline,

parent-school relations, and parent child relationship play importance roles.

Unprepared for the demands of school, these students are virtually certain to

r
P
iv
o
C
y
t
n
le
m
c
u
p
U
h
s
d

fail to meet reasonable expectations for academics performance and social

interaction.

External Pressure Affecting Families

Implications For Educators

-

Familial factors in behavioral problem are multiple, complex, and interactive.

Teacher must realize that the parents of a youngster with EBD.
Teacher must enlist the help and support of other professionals to do the
following :
1.

Provide critical positive interactions with students and demonstrate

these for parents.

2.

Find and support the strengths of individual families.

3.

Help families find and use informal sources of support from friends,
neighbors, coworkers, or other in the community.

4.

Become competent in understanding and valuing cultural differences in

families.

5.

Provide a broad spectrum of coordinated services so that families

receive comprehensive, flexible, and usable services that address their
needs.

Personal Reflection :
1. How would you talk with parents whom you suspect are abusive toward
their child?
-

Teacher plays a role in creating, accepting and perpetuating abusive

behavior. As a teacher what we can do is be a good listener. Recognizing
honorable intentions, especially in forced relationship such as those at IEP
planning meetings can greatly facilitate open communication between
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parents and teachers. Be non-judgmental and respect confidentiality. Be

aware of community resources that will provide support to the parents.
Talking with a mental health professional who specializes in child sexual
abuse as soon as problems arise can help parents determine if their
childrens behavior is cause for concern. Specialists can also provide parents
with guidance in responding to their childrens difficulties and offer
suggestions for how to talk with their children

Conclusion

Biological factors have special appeal because all behavior involves biochemical,
neurological activity. Among the many biological factors that may contribute to the
origins of EBD are genetic, brain damage or dysfunction, malnuration or ellergies,
and temperament.
When biological factors contribute to EBD, they dont operate in isolation
from or independently of environmental (psychological)forces. The most tenable
view at this time is that biological and environmental factors interact with one
another to cause disorders.
Although many look to the family as a likely source of deviant behavior, the
factor that account for childrens disordered behavior are multiple and complex,
Some family factor, notably conflict and coercion, are known to increase a youngers
risk for developing EBD.
An interactional-transactional model of family influences suggest that
children and parents exert reciprocal effects; children effect their parents

11

behavior as surely as parents affect their childrens. Parental discipline is a

significant factor in behavioral development.
Parental behavior affect childrens school performance and conduct. External
factors such as poverty and employement may have substantia effects on family
functioning. Many children grow up in poverty, even if their parents work, and their
living conditions put them at risk for EBD.

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