There are five development domains that educators look at when determining if a child suffers from a type of learning disability. A child/teen diagnosed with conduct disorder will fall into all five categories. The categories that determine developmental disabilities are: Physical/Mental, Cognitive, Social, Behavioural/Emotional, and Communication.

                        

                                             

 

All cases of CD are described as a Mental Disability. There are varying opinions to what causes the mental aspect of this disability, and this has been researched for over 100 years, (as described on the History portion of this site). One common opinion that has come down through the ages, is that of lack of parental support in a child’s life. As far back as the beginning of the 20th Century, August Aichhorn, a renowned psychologist of his time, first discussed the correlation between neglectful, or abusive parenting being the cause of children being "out of control". (E. Jane Costello. Adrian Angold, August 2009) Each generation of researches since his time, have defiantly seen the same correlation. However, some researches have also found that in certain rare cases, a child may have hereditary issues which causes an under arousal of their autonomic nervous system leading to a deficiency in their capacity to control their impulses. (Martin, N. C., Levy, F., Pieka, J., & Hay, D. A., 2006). This research also goes on to search for how defining neurotransmitters such a serotonin may have a larger impact on children/teens with CD.  Each case of CD is case specific to each individual child/teen, so a plan for teaching these children has to be very individualized. The mental disability creates a very difficult learning environment for not only the educators, but also for the students around them.    

 

 

 

 

This leads to the second developmental domain of Behaviour/Emotions.  A CD child cannot control the everyday impulses that each other student has. For instance, a Child with CD may show signs of aggression towards the teacher during class by throwing things, or showing other types of destructive behaviour. This not only leads to the conduct disordered child not learning the lesson, but it also creates havoc for the other children, not allowing them to learn as well. Many CD children will require learning with a EA in a separate room, away from the other classmates. One important aspect of emotional development is the ability to regulate one's emotions. Children/teens dealing with CD either due to a hereditary condition, or due to an abusive or neglectful family life will all have trouble with the developmental domain dealing with emotion. These children cannot control their emotions, as they have either underdeveloped autonomic nervous systems, or have no strong loving role models in which to learn how to develop positive emotional support. Children from the first stage of their lives learn solely by watching those around them. If their parents are displaying chronic misbehavior patterns, so will the child. By the time the child reaches school, they have not learned important things such as regulation of their emotions when things don`t go their way, or how to handle difficult situations.  They will lash out with angry and aggressive outbursts, (Healthy Children.org. Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Nov 21, 2015). because that is what their emotions are telling them to do, and no one has ever taught them this is not the correct way in which to handle situations. Emotional development is different in girls, than it is in boys.  Girls lacking in social abilities in connecting with girls of their age, tend to have more of the strong emotional out bursts. For example, a female with CD may not have any friends, because she may be manipulative, lies to her peers, belittles them, and uses their own emotions against them. Where as a boy tends to be more physically aggressive, by fighting, and causing destruction of property. These over emotional tendencies makes learning very difficult for these children, as they are not able to distinguish between positive and negative emotions. Which leads us into the third developmental domain. 

 

 

 

 

 

A conduct disordered child's ability to make friends, to “fit in” within a group setting is almost impossible. A child diagnosed as CD, has little to no respect for those around them, having not been previously taught how to have the ability to engage in a positive way with others. This will alienate other children from the CD child, making their school experiences even more difficult. They tend to have no friends, and will be excluded from social gatherings. This in turn creates further frustration for the CD child, and will manifest in other aggressive and anti-social behaviours. (Frick, P. J., 2004). Most people are taught from a very early age how to engage with others socially. For example, most small children are taught early on in life on the importance of "sharing" with others. Children are also told to respect their adults, and told not to act out in stores if they are told no they can't have something. This just isn't so for a child with CD.  They often are neglected early on in life, and most likely have parents who themselves have never been taught these behaviours. This often leads to public outburst, such as: tantrums, throwing things at others to try and hurt them, and quite possibly stealing that which they wanted and were told no. When other children or even other adults see these forms of disruptive behaviors, they tend to alienate themselves from these children. They don't want to be in the cross hairs of an outburst, nor do they understand why they lack these every day social attributes most others have.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cognitive Development in conduct disordered children is also greatly impeded. These children have diluted perceptions of what is right and wrong. In most cases they have not learned through a positive adult role model, the right and wrong way to handle all types of daily situations.  Because they lack trust due to an abscesses of positive guidance, they have not been able to develop the cognitive ability to discern how to act and react when faced with difficult and stressful environments. Parent and family dynamics are fundamentally the key aspect to a  child's behavior. Parental stress, psychopathology, and social isolation, poor parental relations, and related factors are the attributing factor of the onset, escalation, and maintenance of antisocial behavior (Pepler & Rubin, 1991; Robins & Rutter, 1990).  So when a child has lacked the type of guidance, love, support required to teach and maintain healthy relationships with others, they are not capable of exhibiting these behaviors towards others. This in turn further creates difficulty in learning. Most CD children will become overly frustrated with school, and educators too, may find themselves frustrated with these children, therefore leading children with CD to drop out of school in their mid teens.

                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

 

 

The fifth developmental domain is that of Communication. As we have previously discussed, each of the four previous domains also greatly impact that of communication. A child dealing with conduct disorder has most likely never had a parental figure that responds positively to communication. This is present when the child can only use aggression and anger as a form of communication with their peers and educators. They lack the ability to be able to openly and honestly discuss their thoughts, feelings, emotions with those around them. Instead they act out by hurting those trying to help. The use of aggression is the only outlet they have learned as a form of communication, as to how they are hurting inside from the neglect or abuse they find around them. (King, J. H., 2014). For example, a child who does not have conduct disorder may be  having a difficult time reading aloud from a book to the class, therefore they may ask for help from the teacher to sound out a word, or to start over and try again. Where a child with conduct disorder would not have thought of this, so they may tear the page out of the book, or worse yet, throw the book at a teacher or fellow student. They can`t find words to communicate their frustration at not being able to read the page, they only know aggression towards their inability to handle something difficult. Generally this is a learned behavior, however it becomes the only behavior they will ever know. It then becomes the responsibility of the  teachers and educational assistants to try and show a more positive way to communicate with out violence.