Emilie Colwell

November 28, 2015

SPED 442
Reflection: Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities
Throughout Block II, we have learned many things that will be beneficial to us as future
educators. We have learned about conducting formal and informal assessment techniques, how
to promote individualism in our students, and much more. We will encounter students with
emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) very often in the education field. However, I feel
that I have learned many things from this course that can be carried outside of the classroom as
well.
One of the things that made a huge impact on me in this course is that many children with
EBD are never diagnosed. These students are often just written off by adults as being bad or
defiant. I find this to be extremely sad because these students are often in need of the most
help. They need to be taught coping mechanisms and healthy ways to communicate their
feelings. Another thing that was disturbing to me is that students with EBD have the highest
suspension/expulsion rates in school. While they may act out negatively in class, it often causes
for more negativity to remove the child from the school completely. This is why I believe that
what we have learned in this course is so important.
To be honest, I did not have many assumptions about students with emotional and
behavioral disorders because I had very little knowledge of the subject before entering this class.
I think that this was a good thing because I was able to come into the class with an open mind.
This allowed me to learn so much! I also encountered a child with an EBD during my placement
this semester, so it was interesting to be able to apply the knowledge that I learned in class to a
real life situation.

Emilie Colwell
November 28, 2015
SPED 442
One of the things that I would like to apply the most from this course to my future
classroom is peer tutoring. Not only will students with EBD benefit from it, but other students
will as well because they are getting to reapply the knowledge by telling it to another person.
This helps solidify concepts for the child. The students can also learn new ideas from one
another. Another thing that I can apply from this course is how to carry out behavioral screenings
for students who may have an EBD. I believe that many children go undiagnosed because the
teachers do not have a very good understanding of emotional and behavioral disabilities. If some
of us can do these screenings effectively, then we can be bigger advocates for these children who
need our help.