Resource Toolbox by Jessica Thomas

What is Emotional Disturbance?

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 02:33:05 UTC

Specifically thinking about inclusion based special education programs, this video will give general education teachers, who might not have experience working with students under this eligibility a concise overview of what Emotional Disturbance is and looks like. This video also talks about how a label should not impact the type of services a child receives, which is important for both special and general educators to know.

NAMI

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 02:44:18 UTC

NAMI is an organization that provides resources and services for parents, families, and students who are dealing with and need support with mental health issues. This weblink links directly to NAMI's Los Angeles chapter. On this website, families will have access to resources such as crisis hotlines and parent classes focused on teaching parents how to better support their child in a time of crisis.

What Parents Need to Know About their Rights

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 02:59:07 UTC

This website will provide parents with a quick overview of their rights and what their contribution to the IEP process looks like. Topics discussed include requesting an Initial assessment and what the parent can request before and during an IEP meeting, such as educational records. This website is particularly topical for parents with high school students because it also discusses the transition element of IEPs and what happens if their child with an IEP needs to remain in the school setting for a bit longer.

Westside Regional Center

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 03:07:19 UTC

The Westside Regional Center is located in Los Angeles and provides a plethora of services for families that have children under the emotional disturbance eligibility, but also students with other eligibilities. Services that Westside Regional provides includes advocates, individuals you invite to IEP meetings for extra support and to ensure your child's school is being held accountable. Notably, they also have resources for adults with disabilities, including resources for independent living. Specifically for children under the emotional disturbance eligibility, Westside Regional provides support for understanding mental health resources and documents such as behavioral intervention plans (BIPs).

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 06:31:07 UTC

This website specifically talks more mood disorders, which are common for children under the eligibility of emotional disturbance. This website provides introductory information to a wide range of "disorders," such as bipolar disorder. It also provides trauma resource centers.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 06:49:40 UTC

Students can qualify for the eligibility of Emotional Disturbance for a plethora of reasons. One reason can be related to a traumatic, or series of traumatic events that a child has gone through. This book talks about such thing, and also details how a traumatic event can impact a child's access to the general education curriculum and impact their ability to socially connect with their peers.

Good Will Hunting

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 07:06:24 UTC

Good Will Hunting is a movie about a man named Will, who has the capability to achieve great things, but needs more support accessing the life that he desires. This movie, while certainly needing to be censored with some of its more adult themes, serves as a lesson for students that when you accept the supports given to you, you can succeed and feel fulfilled in multiple aspects of your life.

Full House, "Shape Up"

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-17 07:14:49 UTC

Another reason students might qualify for the eligibility is for their eating disorders. This episode of "Full House" looks into how young girls might fall into the trappings of eating disorders because of the societal expectations surrounding them. This episode further depicts how eating disorders affect all aspects of a child's life.

Project Ideal

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 06:00:54 UTC

This website gives an in-depth overview of what Emotional Disturbance is and how it impacts students academically. This website also provides helpful instructional tips to better support students under the Emotional Disturbance label.

Key Strategies for Building Trust

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 06:27:51 UTC

For students under the eligibility of emotional disturbance, they have a hard time accessing the general education classroom, generally, for social reasons. For this reason, it is important for educators to build trust with students under the emotional disturbance label so they are learning how to build healthy relationships with both their peers and adults. These tips will ultimately help students under the emotional disturbance label succeed academically in the classroom as well.

Power of Positive Praise

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 20:32:14 UTC

For students under the Emotional Disturbance label, you never know how previous interactions with teachers, school staff, or adults in their personal life has shaped their perspective of what they can achieve in the classroom, and in life in general. In order for a student to feel safe and comfortable in the classroom, it is essential that these students are receiving positive praise, whether that be for being on task or engaging in positive social interactions. This ensures that they understand that they have supportive people in their lives that want them to succeed. Moreover, this article also discusses behavior-specific praise which is a good technique for students under the emotional disturbance eligibility.

Common Accommodations for Students with Emotional Disturbance

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 20:39:20 UTC

This article provides an oversight, for both general and special educators, of common and useful accommodations for students with Emotional Disturbance. These accommodations range from structured routines to accommodations more focused on the social aspects of school, like lunch time or nutrition.

Building Self Advocacy

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 20:47:02 UTC

This article discusses the importance of teaching students self advocacy skills. Teaching students with Emotional Disturbance self advocacy is essential when creating a trusting and safe environment for them to learn in. This ensures that they can effectively express their feelings, like when something triggers or upsets them, and build positive relationships with both adults and their peers.

More on Conflict Resolution

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 21:00:36 UTC

This article discusses various conflict resolutions techniques that can be used in the classroom. For students with emotional disturbance, often they have a hard time building positive relationships with the people around them. This can be because they have a hard time regulating their emotions. Thus, this article also provides scenarios that show how to teach an angry student conflict resolution techniques.

Emotional Regulation

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-18 21:38:53 UTC

This article talks about co-regulation, where adults step in to help their child navigate through big and difficult emotions. It is common for students with emotional disturbance to have a difficult time regulating their emotions, and consequently maintaining positive relationships with the people around them. to navigate their emotions, so that they can be successful in all aspects of their lives. Being able to regulate and work through difficult emotions gives students with Emotional Disturbance the tools to have positive social interactions.

Tips for Emotional Regulation

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-19 03:24:56 UTC

This article goes into depth about helping teenagers regulate their emotions. Students with Emotional Disturbance might be prone to outbursts in the classroom that can be triggered for a plethora of reasons. This article provides helpful tips that can be integrated into the classroom to better support students with Emotional Disturbance.

Integrating Social Emotional Learning into the Classroom

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-19 03:36:01 UTC

This video, while not specifically about Emotional Disturbance, models how to interact with a student who is having an emotional outburst in the classroom. This video excels at demonstrating how to deescalate a student with the safety of the other students in mind, while also showing great compassion to the student who had the outburst.

Break Cards

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-19 03:47:36 UTC

For students with Emotional Disturbance, breaks are a typical instructional accommodation. Break cards, while not very common in high school, are useful when students need a break, but because their emotions are heightened, are unable to verbally communicate that. These cards are free, and are a good tool that students can use to better communicate their needs with their teachers.

Holdovers

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-19 04:06:18 UTC

This movie is about a teenage boy who is left at his boarding school over the Christmas break. Similar to other novels, movies, and tv shows featured in this toolbox, this movie details how a student's personal life, relationships, and trauma directly effects their academic and social success. It is important when thinking about students with Emotional Disturbance to remember that a lot of them have real traumas that have led to the classification of Emotional Disturbance. This movie also shows the importance of positive teacher and staff relationships for students.

Beautiful Boy

jthomas20267 — 2025-06-19 04:11:51 UTC

Like other films and novels on this list, this movie does not directly talk about Emotional Disturbance, but depicts some of the hardships students with this eligibility might face in high school or later on in their adult lives. Teenagers with mental health issues are more likely to try drugs and get addicted to them. This movie, while detailing a particular family's struggle with drug addiction, shows the ups and downs of recovery and how drugs can exacerbate mental health issues.