REFRAMING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR AND/OR FEELINGS DISORDERS: WHAT EDUCATIONAL THERAPISTS, SPECIAL EDUCATORS AND COUNSELORS SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND

Abstract

In this paper, the authors have chosen to take a closer look at a socio-emotional behavioral condition known as Inappropriate Behavior or Feelings Disorder (IBFD) which is listed in the Educator’s Diagnostic Manual of Disabilities and Disorders (EDM; Pierangelo & Guiliani, 2007). The term (or IBFD for short) used in this diagnostic manual is not found anywhere in the current literature including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). According to the EDM, under the IDEA 2004 enactment, it is one of the criteria for the classification of Emotional Disturbance (ED): “ inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances” (p.163), and it covers social, emotional, physical and psychological aspects of behavior or feelings. Hence, the term Inappropriate Behavior or Feelings Disorder is coined from this particular IDEA statement of criterion and, in turn, it is used only in the EDM multi-level coding system. The authors argued the need for educational therapists, special educators and counselors to reframe their current understanding of the IBFD, whose symptoms are similar to disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), within the context of the cognition-conation-affect-sensation (CCAS) framework as they continue to observe, record and evaluate the condition in terms of its core symptoms seen, measured and/or profiled before the diagnostic term IBFD is applied under the EDM code ED3.00. Article visualizations: