Hand’s down one of the most underappreciated and taken for granted skills in life is the ability to effectively communicate with one another. As I put my daughter to bed, I think about the students that I work with that lack the basic skills that she has acquired in the first three years of life.

“Lottie, go put on your pajamas and come read a book with me before bed.”

Lottie looks at me and says, “I am tired mommy, can I go to bed now?”

Simple right? She was tired and she told me. Simple for her, and perhaps you, but trust me, this type of commutation and awareness has proven to be an major underlying behavior antecedent. For some children with Emotional and Behavior Disorders the simple identification of their feelings is impossible. They may feel something is wrong, something doesn’t feel quite right inside, but they do not know that that feeling is. Anger or fear or confusion or tiredness?  To them, it is an uneasy feeling inside. To communicate this unknown beast inside, they act out.

With the growing population of children using cell phones to non-verbally communicate, there is a direct decrease with the number of students being able to accurately express their emotions. Having verbal dialogue is in a sense a mirroring activity for them to see, identify and express emotions. “LOL” does mean that the person is laughing, but to not be able to see and hear that emotion will eventually create emotionless children. Don’t get me wrong, I embrace technology and know that it is imperative for the advancement of the human population, but we have to continue to encourage our children to verbally communicate and mirror and label appropriate emotions.

Now it is our goal to help these children identify that feeling and intervene in a way that will comfort them and allow them to express that feeling. When they are sad, they may never cry, but we can teach them to find a safe place and reflect.

Children with emotional behavioral disorders tend to fall into one stereotypical compartment, and for each of these stereotypes, there are interventions and strategies that encourage them to be able to communication their feelings and emotions in an appropriate manner. It doesn’t matter if they are The Bully, The Passive Aggressor, The Ticking Time Bomb, The Obsessor, The Madman, The Arguer, The Angry Artist, The Nervous Nelly, The Survivor, The Socially Unaware, The Peseverater, The Teacher, or The Kid I Have Yet to Meet; there is a way for them to communicate without exhibiting inappropriate behavior.  After all, you can only shake a champagne bottle for so long before it eventually explodes. Let’s teach our children how to successfully pop the cork and allow the liquid to flow.