What is causing the high incidence of behavioral challenges on functionality screenings?

• In Event: The Equity Initiative: Innovations and Challenges in Using Functionality Screenings with Children

Proposal

This presentation will discuss work to address the question “What is causing high incidences of behavioral challenges observed on functionality screenings like the WG tool?” Drawing on critical social constructivist theories of disability, this paper surveys several case studies in the international literature on challenging behaviors related to emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) as well as other disabilities that are often associated with challenging behaviors associated with the identification of disabilities in a global context. The author(s) selected a cross-section of countries to highlight both similarities and differences across both global “North-South” settings as well as across “local-international” settings in order to identify both the common markers, and common challenges in the construction of such markers, in the identification of what constitutes challenging behavior across and between different cultures.
The paper will be a literature survey of the global behavior disability literature to inform the selection of four comparative case studies that capture some of the most salient distinctions between North-South and local-global contexts of behavioral disability thinking and approaches. The work will push forward a more global perspective informed by disability studies in education (DSE) on how to assess the validity of measures on assessment screenings such as the Washington Group tool from a globally culturally relevant perspective and help to identify the challenges associated highly subjective measures of functionality, challenges which may produce not only discrepancies between nations and cultures in the construction of disability identities in school and learning settings, but also result in disparate provision of services in educational settings. This framework for analysis will also lend itself to viewing how social constructions of behavior related disabilities and behavioral challenges may affect reported rates of behavior-related disability identification in different countries.

Author

• Evan Johnston, NYU