Addressing Stigmas in Special Education

I was immediately drawn to this article because I have a great interest in constructing positive methods to address an individual that has emotional or behavioral disabilities or works with an individual that has emotional or behavioral disabilities. Special educators need to think carefully about being designated as a student having EBD and needing special education. A student with EBD is defined as a disability characterized by behavioral or emotional responses so different from appropriate age, cultural, or ethnic norms that they adversely affect educational performance. The article discusses that there are many controversies on the definition of EBD but the author did not wish to elaborate on these controversies.

The article suggested positive strategies to address or eliminate stigmas in special education which include the following: talking about differences in plain language, accepting the reality of what EBD means for education, emphasizing benefits and skills needed to provide them, and trying to make special education for students with EBD what it should be. To further elaborate, it is inevitable that stigma attaches itself to not only the condition but also the person receiving services for it. A special educator should be direct and should characterize the language used to described the characteristics of the students they serve and what is taught to them. We should try to change the understanding of what EBD means rather than trying to change the words or labels to designate EBD.

Also, to reduce the stigma of EBD we should accept what our student's differences mean to their education. Accepting that the student is not typical, and ordinary instruction is not going to be successful in making the student's life better. Nothing is gained by tiptoeing around a student's problematic behaviors. We need to explain what a student's problematic behavior means for his or her education and why it is inferring with their learning. Furthermore, we need to celebrate our student's positive differences. Recognizing improvements in their behavior and things they are able to accomplish and previously could not is extremely important. Our focus should be on the skills our students learn to improve academic learning and social behavior. Focusing on improving special education instruction would go a long way in realizing better and less stigmatizing special education.

To conclude, I would like to share a personal story that relates to this article. Often times, I have witnessed paraprofessionals in my program trying to avoid problematic behaviors by offering highly preferred items or not following through on a command. By allowing this to happen, the paraprofessionals are not promoting the student to work on controlling their emotions and reinforcing the behavior to happen again in the future. One of my students chose to work for candy on his token board. He earned candy for following his schedule with safe hands and by completing all of his work. However, I noticed that he was no longer making different reward choices on his token board and became overstimulated on the candy, so much so that he was yelling "candy" during instruction and becoming behaviorally aggressive when not offered tokens frequently. I wrote a social narrative for this student that candy would no longer be an option on his token board and listed other highly preferred items such as bubbles or theraputty. The student became very upset when he did not see the icon available on his token board and had behavioral issues but we worked through it together and he was able to successfully follow his schedule with minimal behavioral issues. This was a huge success for my student because he was able to self regulate his feelings although he was extremely upset with the support of a social narrative. Every success in my classroom may seem small in a typical classroom but we often celebrate and recognize them because they are gigantic improvements for our students in the classroom environment. This article was useful to me as an educator but could potentially be impractical based on the fact that stigmas exist in all cultures and stigma does not only follow special education but also sexual orientation, religion, and beyond. Improving instruction in special education may reduce stigmas but I don't believe they will ever be eliminated due to societal norms and learned behavior from family or peers.

Kaufman, J. (2013). How We Might Make Special Education for Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders Less Stigmatizing.  Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders. Pg. 16-27.