Middle school students identified with emotional and behavioral disorders exhibit problem behaviors and often lack the social and academic skills necessary to be successful students. Moreover, these students display low academic motivation, earn failing grades, and have high rates of suspension due to unsafe and inappropriate behaviors. Using a single-case experimental design, the effects of daily therapeutic morning meetings as a socio-emotional intervention involving three middle school students identified with emotional disturbance (ED) are analyzed. To assess the efficacy of the intervention, students, teachers, and parents completed the Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scale (SSIS) at the beginning and end of the study. In addition, the students completed a School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory (SMALSI) prior to and following the intervention. The independent variable, the therapeutic morning meetings, was delivered 47 minutes a day over a 19-week period, totaling 73 hours of intensive therapeutic intervention. A social and academic skill was either introduced or reinforced every week for the duration of the study. Results indicate students exhibited an increase in social and academic skills, improved school motivation, and higher overall academic achievement. Further analyses revealed a decrease in problem behaviors as indicated by a significant reduction in suspensions. A Socio-Emotional, Behavioral, and Academic Rating Scale (SEBARS) is proposed for middle school students whose behavioral and socio-emotional needs necessitate intensive therapeutic interventions. Implications for the implementation of therapeutic morning meetings for students with emotional disturbance, as well as study limitations and suggestions for further research, are discussed.

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1 online resource (xii, 171 leaves) : illustrations (chiefly color), color graphs / ADHD negatively impacts academic performance, and the traditional classroom setting conflicts with the symptoms of ADHD. This research examined the potential of teaching through play and peer-teaching as alternative teaching methods to improve the mathematical performance of Grade 1 children with symptoms of ADHD; by answering, would adapting teaching methods to include teaching through play and/or peer-teaching, in the South African classroom, improve the mathematical performance of children with symptoms of ADHD? A pre-test-post-test control group design was employed in this comparative experimental study. Participants were purposively selected then randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups. An eight-week intervention was implemented as teaching through play or peer-teaching. Pre-test and post-test scores were analysed using a dependent t-test, a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, and a Kruskal Wallis test. Teaching through play and peer-teaching have the potential to improve the mathematical performance of Grade 1 children with symptoms of ADHD. Special precautions were taken in the process of minor research participants, adhering to the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence, justice, and autonomy. / Psychology / M. Sc. (Psychology (Research Consultation))