Inclusion of Students With Learning, Emotional, and Behavioral Disabilities Through Strength-Based Approaches

As more and more students with learning disabilities (LD) and emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD) find themselves in an inclusive, general education setting, there is a need to find ways to maximize their educational performance. One promising approach is to use growth mindset training to help students move away from deficit thinking and instead use strengths-based thinking. This column explains the meaning of growth mindset theory and includes a rationale that explains why this approach may be particularly beneficial for students with LD and EBD. A brief review of past studies investigating the use of growth mindset that highlights the positive potential of this inexpensive, easy-to-implement approach is presented. Finally, a nine-step process for incorporating a growth mindset into the inclusive classroom setting is provided and tools to be used by teachers working with students with LD and EBD are included.