Monday, February 11, 2008

•      The article “Behaviour Problems in Children with Genetic Disorder Causing Intellectual Disability” might not strike one as an article having to do with classroom management.  Upon reading it, however, it is surprisingly full of information on how to manage a regular education classroom that includes students with a mental and/or behavioral disability.  The author focuses on 3 specific disorders: Fragile X syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and Williams syndrome.  Causes and symptoms are given for each syndrome to help teachers better understand the behaviors displayed by students with these exceptionalities.  The article ends with a section entitled “Implications for Behaviour Management” in which tips and ideas are briefly outlined for the classroom management of students with various syndromes that lead to a behavioral disorder.

      
        The first understanding that I gained from this article should be an obvious one – I learned about these three syndromes, some of which I never knew existed.  I now know the causes of each syndrome along with the characteristics – physical, mental, and behavioral – of each.  Furthermore, since it is difficult for me to understand how certain people can be incapable of controlling their behaviors, this was a good article for me to read because it very explicitly listed the behaviors that people affected by these syndromes can’t control, and more importantly, it explained WHY they are unable to do so.  

      
       If I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the author of this article, I would like to further discuss the chart included on the 4^th page of the article.  It includes five syndromes, and their “behavior problem score”.  I don’t know what this score is or how it is measured, and that would be the first question(s) I would bring up.  My second question would be if the author had done research into any other syndromes.  He did such a fine job explaining each of these three in an easy to read way that I would like to read anything else he wrote regarding some other exceptionalities.

      
       I believe that the information in this article corresponds directly to INTASC standards 2 and 3 in which the teacher understands development and understands differences, respectively.  These standards apply both to teachers and their regular education students as well as teachers and their special education teachers.  After reading this article, I feel that I better understand the development, differences, and behaviors of and management strategies for students with Fragile X, Prader-Willi, and Williams syndromes.

   

  Einfeld, Stewart L. (2005). Behaviour Problems in Children with Genetic Disorders Causing Intellectual Disability.  Educational Psychology, 25.  April – June 2005. Retrieved 1 February 2008 from https://web.ebscohost.com

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