Blind and Partial Sight Deaf and Hard of Hearing Autistic Spectrum Disorder Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Mental Health Dyslexia

Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties

What is SEBD?

Social, Emotional or Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) refers to a condition in which behavioural or emotional responses of an individual differ from what is generally accepted as, age appropriate, ethnic or cultural norms. These can adversely affect performance in areas such as self care, social relationships, academic progress, classroom behaviour or work adjustment.

Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties can provide significant barriers to learning and development, they interfere with the acquisition of academic, vocational, and social skills and negatively affect adult adjustment. Our services to learners with SEBD are sensitive to the need for the involvement and perspectives of persons from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.

SEBD can be persistent although are not necessarily permanent but generally in themselves constitute learning difficulties.

SEBD take different forms, such as acting out, phobic and withdrawn behaviour, they may become apparent through passive, depressive, aggressive or self-injurious tendencies. They can also result in crime, substance abuse, depression, suicide and self-harm.

Children and young people with SEBD frequently disrupt classrooms and playgrounds. They are at particular risk of being excluded. Attitudes to them are often very negative.

Conduct and emotional disorders are the most common difficulties associated with this age group and boys are generally more likely to suffer a mental disorder than girls. Indeed, during 2004 a third of children with conduct disorders had been excluded from school at some point and nearly a quarter had been excluded more than once (Office for National Statistics).

Similarly, for those who find employment around 75% are at risk of losing their jobs through inappropriate behaviours and lack of support in the work place or during training. There are many causes of SEBD, but social factors almost always play a crucial role in their development. The prevalence of problems generally reaches its peak in the adolescent years.

However, SEBD exists within a continuum, from less to more severe and although the issues relating to SEBDs can in some individuals be persistent, through intervention with appropriate support, they should never be viewed as permanent.