A school-based anger management program for developmentally and emotionally disabled high school students

Using Novaco's cognitive-behavioral conceptualization of anger, several practitioners developed cognitive-behavioral approaches for effectively intervening with aggressive youth. However, little attention has been paid to using these approaches with young people whose cognitive, emotional, and behavioral limitations appear to preclude them from benefiting from these interventions. A group program at a special school has demonstrated that older adolescents and young adults with diagnoses such as pervasive developmental delay, mental retardation, and autism can benefit from such a model if it is modified to meet their special learning needs. Through the use of daily logs, group reinforcement, role playing, skill building and relaxation techniques, normalizing anger, and providing liaison to classrooms, multiply handicapped students were able to learn the physiology, triggers, and consequences of anger as well as to develop coping strategies for managing their anger, while reducing aggressive acting out. Most of these students will enter protective work and residential settings in the future, and possessing these skills will facilitate their successful placement and increase the likelihood that some will succeed in entering some aspect of the adult mainstream.