Classroom Management Strategies for Severely Emotionally Disturbed Students

Here are more effective classroom management strategies for severely emotionally disturbed students with conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depression, bipolar, and more.

"In the past 2 years, I''ve had 4-5 students who are diagnosed
with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Tourette''s Syndrome,
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Asperger''s, in addition to students
who have suffered sexual, mental and physical abuses."

From an email sent by a teacher
noting her lack of mental health training

Most teachers and counselors agree that today''s youngsters
are more troubled, challenging and difficult than ever
before. There is even data to back it up that assessment.
USA Today reported in June, 2005 on a study conducted by
Harvard Medical School. That study found that half of all
mental illness begins by age 14, and that three-fourths
of mental illness begins by age 24. Counselors and mental
health workers are trained to manage the emotional
concerns, but teachers and other non-mental health
workers are not. This issue is especially for those of you
who work with today''s troubled and disturbed children
but have not been provided the training that you need to
safely and successfully do your job.

If you accept the premise that today''s students are more
trying than ever before, then you know why you are so
discouraged and burned out at the end of the day. If you
have ever felt that "nothing works" with some students,
this is your explanation why. Factor in the reality that
most teacher training devotes little attention to troubled
and problem youngsters, and you have the perfect storm.
Kids are more impaired, but most conventional college
training doesn''t prepare teachers for the significant
management problems posed by this type of child.
Ideally, if you are not a mental health professional,
you would fully update your skills. To help in that
effort, here are a few key pointers from our workshop
and elsewhere, to help you start the process of
upgrading your skills working with troubled and
difficult students.

There''s No Substitute for Mental Health Basics

Remember your last car?-- the one that limped along,
leaving you to wonder if you''d get where you needed to
go. The car needed fixing but you put it off, making
your life much harder than it needed to be. Well,
attempting to teach or work with today''s students
without basic mental health information is like driving
that old car well beyond what is safe and smart. For
example, here is a quick test of your basic mental
health knowledge If you can''t immediately state the
difference between a conduct disordered child and
a thought-disordered one then you will not
understand what is happening right in front of you.

Develop an Arsenal of Methods

Years ago, you could use "one-size-fits-all" methods
with students, and teach or counsel successfully. That''s
not true today. For example, if you use conventional
methods with the two populations mentioned above, you
will find those strategies almost always fail. To function
successfully today, you have to be armed with a
dynamic array of methods. While generic approaches
may still work with some kids, you may need humor to
defuse an oppositional youngster or to delicately reach
an abused, worn-out student. For example, here''s a simple,
but useful idea from Marjan Glavac, a veteran
teacher who is the author of "How to Make a Difference:
Inspiring Students to Do Their Best." (Here''s his web
site http://youthchg.howtomake.hop.clickbank.net/)

TO UPDATE NOW
Marjan routinely surveys students to find out
their likes and dislikes in the classroom. This is
such an important preventative measure with
several types of challenged students, including
conduct disorders, oppositional-defiant and
abused youngsters. For example, if a child has
problems with rage, surveying his preferences
can keep outbursts from ever happening. At
the start of the school year, Marjan even surveys
parents to learn about their children. Marjan
has devised some wonderful terms to describe
what he does. My favorite is his "sunshine phone
calls" where he calls the parent when a child has
done something well. This is a terrific approach
to use with anxious and vulnerable kids, as well
as others.

Learn a Variety of Styles

Any mental health professional will tell you that you
need a variety of styles, with modes to fit each type
of child you work with. The classic example is the
rock solid firmness needed with conduct disordered
students vs. the delicate touch necessary with abused
youngsters. If you just use generic, uncustomized
methods, you can end up steam rolling over an abused
student or fragile work refuser, for example.

TO UPDATE NOW
Marjan Glavac gave me this humorous, gentle
intervention that is so perfect for work
refusers who are overwhelmed by the enormity
of the work they have to do in school. It is a
joke. He asks the students "How do you eat
an elephant?" Answer "One bite at a time."
See how that silly, gentle technique could
help alleviate some of the anxiety, and even
begin to move the child slightly forward?

As you can probably tell, I just finished reading
Marjan''s e-book. I am chock full of fresh ideas
for a variety of styles. The book actually ends
with a terribly sweet, heart-warming activity. I
won''t ruin the book''s ending by telling you it. All
I will say is that it is such a sweet, inspiring book
in addition to being practical. I only wish I had
written it. In the book, Marjan says
that these methods helped him to stop being so
exhausted all the time from constantly disciplining
students. He says that now he feels that he has
the control and power again in the classroom.
Unless you are retiring soon, it''s worth the
one click to head over to his site to check out his
inventive strategies. Marjan''s delightful, varied
methods are a good reminder that there are so
many potential strategies in existence that there
is really no excuse for using the same strategies
with very different types of kids.

Get much more information on this topic by clicking here
, or
here. or here.
Trainer/author Ruth
Herman Wells MS is the director of Youth Change (click here),

Sign up for her free Problem-Kid Problem-Solver magazine at the site and
see hundreds more of her innovative methods. Ruth