Behind the "Yellow Door" - The Student's Experience

• In Event: The School Environment, Crime, and Juvenile Delinquency

Abstract

Research conducted to date on the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a residential treatment school for children with emotional and behavioral factors, has been focused on predictors of emotional and behavioral problems, recidivism rates, performance rates, use of electronic language, and staff training. It’s therapeutic and rehabilitative success has been linked solely with its director and controversial creator, Dr. Bruno Bettelheim. At this time, research has failed to include the student experience as a component in the overall therapeutic treatment success of the Orthogenic School. The objective of this research is to provide the missing component to a fully comprehensive treatment model; the student’s perspective of their experience. The student’s perspective can be used as a tool to improve treatment methods and models used in residential treatment schools such as the Orthogenic School in an effort to improve therapeutic efficacy. Examination of the student’s perspective of effectiveness will allow for a better understanding of what treatment methods may need to be reevaluated. Through the inclusion of the student’s perspective, more effective treatment methods and models can be developed for this special population of children.

Author

• Adrienne M. Koller, Texas State University