Therapeutic Education and EBD Students

EBD Student Therapy and Education

Therapeutic education has emerged as a possible in-school intervention for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Children affected by EBD in traditional school setting may not be diagnosed properly, face a range of consequent barriers in the classroom, and ultimately fail to achieve their full academic or social potential due to a lack of support. Therapeutic education has become a subject of empirical research only recently, with an overall dearth of research regarding the use of therapeutic education to address EBD. A potential research question on this topic that could be addressed using human participants is as follows: To what extent does a therapeutic education intervention reduce instances of violent behavior for children with EBD?

Qualitative and quantitative approaches to the aforementioned research question could yield a wide spectrum of data, with qualitative approaches being inductive and quantitative approaches being deductive. A qualitative approach, for example, would be concerned with the experiences of the participants, asking how or why a phenomenon occurs rather than how much or how often a phenomenon occurs. In essence, quantitative approaches yield measurable, numerical data, in this instance potentially measuring the following variables related to the research question: statistical data regarding differences between pre-intervention violence and post-intervention violence; comparisons between EBD students not involved in an intervention, such as a control group of participants, and those involved in an intervention, such as the experimental group; number of emotional outbursts or instances of violent behavior among EBD children. Quantitative data might be garnered from survey, while, in contrast, qualitative data might address the experiences of the students through interviews, observations, or via a case study approach. Qualitative data might address the following variables: student perceptions of why they engage in violent behavior; student or teacher perceptions of weaknesses related to the therapeutic intervention; parental concerns regarding therapeutic education; case study of a single child participating in the intervention; best practices in therapeutic education as perceived by teachers, children, parents, and other stakeholders. In essence, qualitative research frames the researcher as the primary instrument of the study, generally thought to be more subjective in nature than quantitative research.

Three articles related to the research topic of therapeutic education were assessed with particular attention afforded to their methodologies. Gagnon and Leone used quantitative methods to examine therapeutic education delivery for children with EBD. The authors surveyed 480 teachers and principals working in elementary level day-treatment or residential schools, with the authors concluding that the interventions were successful in allowing the students to enter less restrictive settings following completion of the program. Zhang employed a qualitative, systematic review of literature to explore shortages in therapeutic recreation specialists during recent years, highlighting that while there are more students in need of therapeutic recreation, there are fewer qualified specialists because part-time or partially certified specialists are employed in public schools. Finally, Nickerson and Martens used quantitative methods for exploring therapeutic education as a method for violence prevention among principals who completed the National Center for Education Statistics' School Survey. The authors concluded that therapeutic education was one of four other types of interventions which included crisis plans and security initiatives. Therapeutic education was associated with lower incidences of violence than the other measures, however. Questions emerging from critical examination of these studies include the strength of studies in relation to participant pools; for instance, the Gagnon and Leone study did not examine the perspectives of children but those who were not directly participating in the program.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Therapeutic education represents an emerging intervention for students with EBD, though very limited research exists with respect to how effective therapeutic education is in improving outcomes for EBD students. Quantitative research can examine several variables with respect to this topic, including data comparisons between a group of EBD students participating in a therapeutic education intervention as the experimental group and those not participating in the intervention as the control group. This brief inquiry explores a potential instrument that could be used to examine some of the research variables, though no instrument could be located that would quantitatively measure school violence incidences.

The test found that was frequently applied in EBD research with respect to therapeutic interventions was the NEPSY Battery; this test does not easily relate to the variables of school violence or therapeutic education, specifically, but does relate directly to EBD and special education. In revising the research question, it may be necessary to remove school violence from the research focus and instead examine the ability of therapeutic education to improve EBD issues in students. The participants could have a past history of school violence, but a quantitative instrument aside from a custom-designed survey does not seem to exist regarding school violence issues. EBD issues are, however, measurable via the NEPSY Battery.

Mattison, Hooper, and Carlson used the NEPSY to investigate neuropsychological deficits in EBD children, comparing outcomes to the Teacher's Report Form (TRF). The authors highlight that the NEPSY explores four functional domains, including language and attention functions, and should be used for intervention planning for teachers of EBD students: "Screening for neuropsychological deficits with a specific battery like NEPSY could prove valuable for intervention planning by EBD teachers for their students with serious academic dysfunction" (Mattison, Hooper, and Carlson, p. 177).

References

Mattison, R. E., Hooper, S. R., & Carlson, G. A.. Neuropsychological Characteristics ofSpecial Education Students with Serious Emotional/Behavioral Disorders. BehavioralDisorders, 31(2), 176-185.

---

Gagnon, J. C., & Leone, P. E.. Elementary Day and Residential Schools for Children withEmotional and Behavioral Disorders: Characteristics of Educators and Students.Education & Treatment of Children, 29(1), 51-67.

Nickerson, A. B., & Martens, M. P.. School Violence: Associations with Control,Security/enforcement, Educational/therapeutic Approaches, and Demographic Factors.School Psychology Review, 37(2), 228-245.

Zhang, J.. The Shortage of School Recreation and Therapeutic Recreation Specialists inthe United States: A Correlational Study. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport,72(1).