Programs for Children and Adolescents

Gable is devoted to the important and ever urgent topic of the difficult problems that teachers and other educational professionals encounter during their attempts to find effective ways for a proper inclusion of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) into the educational processes, either in frames of the general educational institutions, or under the auspices of special programs and educational settings specifically designed for those having various forms of E/BD.

The format of the article is such that it includes both general historical and factual information about the discussed field, and sets forth several research questions that are elaborated and partially answered by the authors during the course of the article. Those questions pertain to the influence that factors of the disproportionality and personnel shortages have on the effectiveness of programs for children and adolescents with E/BD. B. It is important to point out, that for a clear and focused discussion of the mentioned complex topics, it is essential to distinguish between various forms of E/BD and related disorders.

The authors of the article do exactly that as they classify the population of children and adolescents who are covered and not covered by their study. For example, they not only discuss statistics related to E/BD, but as well provide comparative tables that show the place that E/BD hold among all disabilities that are served under “Individuals With Disabilities Education Act” (IDEA). Furthermore, in the article the analysis is offered that shows how the population of participants identified in the study is structured according to age and race or ethnicity, which significantly enriches the methodological usefulness of the article.

In general, the authors make it easier for readers to trace throughout the article information about the population of children and adolescents with E/BD of ages 3-21 and of Caucasian/White, African American, American Indian, Hipic, and Asian races and ethnicities. C. The study contained in the article is of a relatively short length, but has quite a concentrated amount of information, and offers a large number of references and an extensive bibliography.

In this way, the study by Bullock and Gable is not limited to a certain location, but rather is a summary of their own more narrowly focused pieces of research combined with relevant contributions of other researchers. D. Due to the chosen approach to the investigation of the research questions, the result that the authors reach is not limited to the confirmation of the urgency of those questions, but as well is reinforced by the authors` ability to place the problems related to the much needed programs for those affected with E/BD into the general social context.

Indeed, the authors manage to convincingly show that the passive stance towards the discussed problems may lead to their significant aggravation already in the near future. E. Considering the mentioned points, the main strength of the article is the ability of the authors to synthesize specific information in such a way as to make it understandable not only to experienced educational professionals, but as well for younger ones to whom the authors appeal in the article as they discuss personnel shortages presumably with the aim to interest new potential specialists on E/BD.

Also, the strength of the article is its successful combination of historical data and forecasts, which gives the sense of the direction of the development of the discussed field. As a weakness of the article may be identified its lack of inclusion of relevant foreign experience which might add useful insights on E/BD treatment.

F. Similarly to the above mentioned strength of the article, I believe that I should use the strategy of integral and coherent presentation of information in my teaching because it helps students correctly appreciate the general context that any given information is almost always placed in. In practice, this way of presentation of information can increase the interest and personal involvement of students in the process of study, and may help them immediately see how even a small contribution of one teacher can have significance for many people.