teaching student with behavioral disorder

Teaching student with behavioral disorder----in group activity and discussion

Behavioral disorders is caused by some sort of mental health issue. The population of students with behavioral disorder is substantial, that is 2-6% in K-12. In the science classroom, we need to be prepared. Some examples of behavioral disorder behaves are: initiating and reacting aggressively towards others, bullying, lack of feeling guilt, destruction. In researching some strategies in teaching science to students with behavioral disorders, I find this website to be very useful. http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/behavior.html#sect1
Group interaction and discussion is a big part of a science class. Managing behavioral disorder individual become a big part effective teaching. Here are some strategies discussed: acknowledge the contributions from emotional disorder students; encourage the student to be a group spokesperson; gradually increase the challenges in the student's participation in group exercises while providing increased positive reinforcement; sometime they may experience social strain adjustment in a group context, it may be necessary to work gradually toward group activities; ensure that the normal students do not dominate the discussion or detract in any way from the successful performance of the behavioral disorder student. This all sounds theoretically reasonable. no doubt the disorder individual will benefit from it, but in reality, how to make balance on both normal disorder student get fair attention might be tricky. It takes practice, I guess.