This digest describes the challenges of social skills instruction and provides three strategies for improving the social competence of all students, including children with disabilities. It begins by emphasizing the importance of teaching individual social skills within the context of establishing a school-wide culture of social competence. To…

This Digest discusses provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that require functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavioral intervention plans (BIPs) to be conducted prior to a change in placement or suspension for more than 10 days, based on inappropriate behaviors for students with disabilities. It presents…

This digest discusses the need for troubled students to receive habilitative services instead of haphazard punishment, then outlines sources of frustration for aggressive students and stages of frustration (anxiety, stress, defensiveness, physical aggression, and tension reduction), and appropriate responses. Teachers are advised to prevent…

Students exhibiting failure syndrome approach assignments with low expectations of success and tend to give up at early signs of difficulty. This Digest delineates the nature of failure syndrome, suggests strategies for coping with failure syndrome students, and discusses how teachers can help. Some students, especially in the early grades, show…

This ERIC digest focuses on students who are commonly described as shy (inhibited, lacking in confidence, socially anxious) or withdrawn (unresponsive, uncommunicative, or daydreaming). Symptoms of shyness or withdrawal may appear as part of the student's overall personality or as a situation-specific response to a particular stress factor.…