Teaching academic skills as an answer to behavioural problems of students with emotional or behavioural disorders: a review

Academic learning has always been a serious issue for students with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) and their teachers. However, teaching academic skills could be an important protective and curative factor for the problem behaviour of these students. The current review was conducted to study the effect of interventions developed to teach academic skills, on the behaviour of students with EBD. Thirty studies were included in this analysis, which was undertaken between 2000 and 2012. The studies which varied considerably in terms of design and implementation did not present a conclusive answer, indicating that systematic research on the effect of teaching academic skills on the behaviour of students with EBD is still in its infancy. However, the combination of findings in this review provides some support for the conceptual premise that teachers, confronted with problem behaviour, would do well to reconsider their curriculum instead of focusing only on the behaviour of these students. More systematic research is necessary to verify if teaching academic skills could be a key approach to reducing both behavioural problems as well as increasing the academic progress of students with EBD.