Exploring Educational and Behavioral Outcomes for Children with Emotional Behavioral Disorders (EBD)

By Alexis Ahumada

This issue of NASET’s Classroom Management Series was written by Alexis Ahumada. Research has shown that students with emotional-behavioral disorder (EBD) are at risk for having more long-term negative outcomes than their peers. The purpose of this review was to examine how to mitigate the negative outcomes of students with EBD. The criteria for the papers included in this review were: (a) studies published within the past ten years; (b) studies investigating the short- and long-term outcomes of students with EBD; and (c) studies exploring interventions to aid students with EBD to improve academic and behavioral outcomes. The results of this review showed that there were protective strategies which could mitigate against short- and long-term negative outcomes: (a) improving executive functioning skills; (b) creating positive classroom environments; (c) teaching social-emotional learning skills; (d) goal setting; and (e) self- regulation techniques. The implications of this review are that implementing protective strategies can be effective at improving the outcomes of students with EBD.