Handling difficulties in social, emotional and behaviour development

This chapter focuses on difficulties experienced by children who demonstrate features of social, emotional and behavioural problems in schools, and ways to minimise the incidence of problematic behaviour. Schools play a critical part in shaping a young child’s identity as a learner (Bruner, 1996). Use of the terms ‘emotional and behavioural difficulties’ (EBD) (Warnock, 1978), or ‘social, emotional and behavioural difficulties’ (SEBD), as a label for some students who behave inappropriately is not always helpful. Poulou and Norwich (2002: 112) conclude, from a review of international studies, that the more teachers think student behaviour stems from problems within those students, such the ‘child’s innate personality’, ‘the more [teachers] may experience feelings of “stress” and even “helplessness” ’, and the less they may feel able to cope with difficult behaviour. The new Teachers’ Standards for Qualified Teacher Status, introduced in England from September 2012 (DfE, 2013), require teachers to take responsibility for promoting good behaviour in classrooms and elsewhere, have high expectations and maintain good relationships with pupils. Teachers can minimise the possibility of poor behaviour in classrooms if they recognise that appropriate behaviour can be taught (Rogers, 2013). Children can learn to make conscious choices about behaviour, even where it is associated with a genetic or neurological condition (Wearmouth, Glynn and Berryman, 2005). The chapter aims to familiarise teachers-in-training with * frames of reference commonly used in schools to research and understand social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and form the basis for effective responses; * a range of effective responses in relation to these frames of reference; * an understanding that learning environments that are designed to support children to engage with their learning will reduce the possibility of undesirable behaviour in the first place.