Emotional Disturbance and Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

No other disability opens up a can of worms more effectively than emotional disturbance and behavioral disorders (E/BD). John Johnson (1996) writes that the field is itself disturbed, one that patches together moral, ethical, psychological, legal, sociological beliefs, and theories from conflicting professionals. E/BD might be viewed as a mirror of society on a collision course with urban and community disintegration replete with child abuse, violence, injustice, and racism.

Nobody likes emotionally disturbed children. They are costly and unsightly warts on the clean skin of society. Nevertheless they exist in significant numbers and are tragic reminders to the rest of us that they cannot read and will not be ignored.

—Bower, 1996, p. 31