Mild, Moderate and Severe EH: An Empty Distinction?

Abstract

While it is common for a distinction to be made between mild, moderate, and severe levels of emotional disturbance, little empirical evidence exists to support such a distinction. This investigation obtained teachers' opinions as to the extent to which certain characteristics of emotionally disturbed children should be considered within mild, moderate, or severe subcategories. Five characteristics were thought to be descriptive of mildly disturbed children, and five were thought most descriptive of severely disturbed children; no consensus was obtained with regard to the moderately disturbed subgroup.

Classroom context and teachers' perceptions of problem behaviors.

“…The instrument consisted of a statement of purpose, demographic items, a training procedure section, five questions (identification of behavior, levels of severity, tolerance, manageability, and contagion) for each of the five behavior clusters, and an item rating overall classroom context. The training section defined mild and severe through linkage with behavioral characteristics teachers most often associated with them (Olson, et al, 1980). Manageability was defined as referring to “how easily the behavior responds to management efforts” (Gropper et al, 1968, p. 480) and Contagion as that which disrupts the activity of others or which others tend to copy.…”

“…Several of these studies indicate that teachers believe emotionally disturbed (ED) students' behaviors, while within the “normal range,” are exhibited to more severe degrees than by their peers (McCarthy & Paraskevopoulos, 1969; Mooney & Algozzine, 1978). And despite disagreement about specific behaviors corresponding to levels of severity, teachers of behavior-disordered (BD) students could identify several at the mild and severe extremes (Olson, Algozzine, & Schmid, 1980). This conceptualization has produced a Type I and Type II dichotomy of ED students, whereby the former is more likely to display situationally specific and less acute behavior problems more acceptable in regular classes (Algozzine, Schmid, & Conners, 1978) and is mainstreamed more than the severely disturbed Type II peer (Peterson, Zabel, Smith, & White, 1983).…”