Teaching Kids with Mental Health and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom
Publication Type:
Web ArticleYear of Publication:
2007ISBN:
978-1575422428Abstract:
This helpful book, subtitled How to Recognize, Understand, and Help Challenged (And Challenging) Students Succeed, is an important resource for every teacher with students like these in their classrooms. Reviewer Carol Patterson says "this book will reduce teachers’ anxieties as an increasing number of students with special needs are being mainstreamed."
Full Text:
Teaching Kids with Mental Health and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom
By Myles L. Cooley
2007 (211 pp/paperback)
Free Spirit Publishing
ISBN: 978-1575422428
$34.99
Reviewed by Carol Patterson, NBCT
Second Grade Teacher
Coordinator for NBCT Support
Union County (NC) Public Schools
One week after the beginning of this school year, I already had one small seven year old student suspended for banging a child’s head into the whiteboard during a game of seven-up, and threatening another child -- each incident without any provocation. This book came to me at a good time, as I searched for information to guide me and help me understand this troubled second-grader.
In this helpful book, subtitled How to Recognize, Understand, and Help Challenged (And Challenging) Students Succeed, author Myles Cooley offers an important resource for every teacher with students like these in their classrooms. And that is most of us.
The book is divided into two main areas. Part One is “The Role of Schools in Addressing Mental Health and Learning Disorders” and includes sections entitled: The Changing Nature of Special Education; Assessing Student Needs; Effective Classroom Policies and Procedures; Effective Teaching Strategies for Meeting Diverse Student Needs; and Building Social Skills in Students.
Part Two, Mental Health and Learning Disorders, includes an overview of various disorders and “terminology used by different professionals to describe these problems,” including Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders, Communication Disorders, Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Asperger’s Syndrome, Tic Disorders, Eating Disorders, and Self-Injury.
An example of why I value this book is found in the section on disruptive behavior disorders, which Cooley says are present among about 10 percent of children and adolescents. He not only helps us understand the mindset of the bully but offers strategies to build a classroom community where students treat each other with respect. No longer will I have to “invent” ways to help students with disruptive behavior disorders.
Each challenge area examined by Cooley follows this same pattern: a description of the particular challenge, behaviors and symptoms to look for and, most importantly, strategies and interventions that can help regular teachers manage their inclusion classrooms. The book also includes references to the new Response to Intervention model.
During my teaching career, I have taken part in many meetings with a site based team to address a student’s learning and/or behavior disabilities. The team typically included teachers, an administrator and the school counselor. Oftentimes, I have left such a meeting with input too weak to actually make a difference in the student’s learning and/or behavior. My time would have been better spent considering Cooley’s research-based strategies and interventions that are presented with greater depth but are also practical and easily put into play in the classroom.
Myles Cooley says his purpose in writing this book is “to provide practical strategies that teachers can best use to teach and support all students--especially those with mental health and learning disorders”. Personally, I believe this book will reduce teachers’ anxieties as an increasing number of students with special needs are being mainstreamed. This book can be a “bible” for all of us, a handbook that will never collect dust.
My first duty, which is the same for every teacher, is to provide a safe environment for my students. To help me accomplish this awesome task I am reaching out to my new partner, Myles Cooley.
