Emotional Disabilities Programs

   NDSEC utilizes a modified "Boys Town" Education Model throughout its Emotional Disabilities programs.

 

  Social Skills Curricumlum    

  This model is a foundation for a structured educational approach to increasing/improving    the socialization of school age children.  The Boys Town Social Skills Curriculum offers    a manageable and well-defined set of sixteen social behaviors encompassing: Adult    Relations, Peer Relations, School Rules and Classroom Behaviors.  The goal of the    social skills curriculum is to assist teachers in going beyond merely identifying problem    behaviors by attaching specific alternative pro-social behaviors and teaching the    component steps each time a student encounters difficulty in regulating their emotions.

  Motivation System

   The Boys Town motivation system is a term that refers to a three level semi-token    economy.  The motivation system includes the Daily Point System (level I), the Progress    System (level II), and the Merit System (level III).  The motivation system is a flexible,    positive/negative token economy within which students earn points for demonstrating    pro-social behavior and receive point penalties for demonstrating socially ineffective    behaviors.  Points are then exchanged for items/events that students have identified as    reinforcing.  Students are also encouraged to purchase the required bonds in order for    them to advance within the motivational system.

   

  Teaching Interaction

   Teaching interactions are structured procedures used to teach, reinforce, and modify    behavior.  The primary purpose of a teaching interaction is to teach alternative behaviors    and provide consequences for ineffective behaviors in a calm and positive manner.  The    primary emphasis in all teacher-student interaction is building relationships via positive,    caring contact through one of the following types of teaching interactions:  Effective    Praise, Pre-Teaching, Structured Teaching, On-Going Teaching.  

 

 

   Intervention

   Intervention is a series of procedures used in response to students who are no longer    able to regulate their emotions and are not demonstrating instructional control.  The    procedure requires that the student be removed from the setting in which the difficulty    began, away from his/her peers (generally in the office). Staff, most often a counselor or    administrator, work directly with the student in an On-Going Teaching Interaction until    the student is again able to respond to the problem through more effective social    behaviors.  The goal of this procedure is the student's successful return to the classroom.