The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Approach

The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Approach

Kim A. Lingle

Grand Canyon University: SPE 357

November 30, 2013

The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Approach

Students with EBD will often lack certain social skills, appropriate behaviors, and the healthy emotions which are necessary for dealing with these issues. It is then that the teachers, parents, administrators, and other professionals will need to seek an intervention method, such as cognitive behavioral interventions to build and restore a student’s social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and academic skill sets.

Part I

When teaching social skills to students with EBD, there are certain things that need to be taken into consideration. Among these are the behaviors and disorders of each student, the assessments to be conducted before, during, and after the ongoing lessons, which approach or approaches will be taken, and the skills that need to be taught prior to the targeted social skills. Then too, are the decisions that need to be carefully made concerning the curriculum to be used and modified if necessary. “To be most effective, social skills instruction must include skills that students feel meet their needs and therefore produce socially valid outcomes, be taught in relevant contexts, and be an integral part of students’ total curriculum” (Yell, Meadows, Drasgow, & Shriner, 2009, p.156).

In order to make sense of the above factors, and to determine exactly which approach to take, it will most likely be necessary to conduct a functional behavior assessment. A “functional behavior assessment (FBA) is a systematic set of strategies that is used to determine the underlying function or purpose of a behavior, so that an effective intervention plan can be developed” (National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders, n.d., p.1). An FBA can be either formal or informal. However, the more formal written FBA is easier for keeping records and for using in collaborative efforts....