Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (7th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Great book for EBD teachers
Review: I had this book as one of my college textbooks. It is very user friendly and has a lot of great qualities. The book describes all of the possible factors associated with emotional and behavioral disorders, as well as prevalance, history, models of thinking, screening and classification. The book dexcribes many different disorders by giving definitions, types, prevalance, causes and prevention, and intervention strategies. One of the best things about the book is the abundance of ongoing case studies in the chapters. These are especially great for discussion with others about causes and stratagies for prevention. Every chapter has questions at the beginning to think about as you read, and a summary at the end. There are also personal reflections by different teachers and professionals at the end of every chapter, which relate to experiences these people have had with the various disorders. Overall, this would be a great college textbook, or a great reference book for someone seeking information about emotional and behavioral disorders.

Rating:
Summary: Emotional and behavioral disorders of children and youth
Review: This is an impressive book in its seventh edition since 1977 and used as an introductory text in special education on the subject of children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders. It is also impressive, because the publisher has developed a companion website accompanying the book with resources for the professor and the student (www.prenhall.com/kauffman). The website is divided according to the chapters of the book with focus questions, multiple choice questions and web resources. The user will also find a message board and a chat room for communication with other students and professors. For the professor there is a syllabus manager in order to create and modify an online syllabus for their courses. The book has 18 chapters arranged with the text arranged around basic concepts like the nature, extent and history of the problem and conceptual approaches to it, assessment of the problem, major causal factors, the many facets of disordered emotions and behavior and each chapter ending with personal statement or reflections by someone else that the author, about teaching pupils with these disorders. I especially liked the history chapter of special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, because history is so important for how we deal with problems today. Before 1800 most of the children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders were looked upon as possessed, wicked or idiotic. In the 19th century teaching went from lunatic asylums and institutions for idiots to houses of refuge, detention centers and later to public school classes for truants, troublemakers and backward pupils. In the 20th century the mental hygiene and child study movements led efforts to deal more effectively with the youth at home and in school. In the 1940s psychoanalytic oriented educational programs began, 1960s and 70s saw periods of rapid growth in educational interventions and the 1980s saw new legislation. All in all a recommended book for persons working with emotional and behavioral disorders both in children and youth.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD, DMSc Medical Director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: [e-mail]