(F) Patterns to Look For – SERR – Special Education Rights and Responsibilities

(F) Patterns to Look For

All children exhibit some of the following behaviors at times. It is important to separate occasional from persistent behavior, and not to worry about an isolated incident which could be totally insignificant for the child as a whole.

In Infancy:

Trouble with nursing or sucking or digesting;
Absence of creeping or crawling;
Resistance to cuddling and body contact;
Delay in sitting, standing or walking;
Lack of response to sounds;
Excessive response to sounds;
Delay in learning to talk; and,
Trouble following movements with his eyes.

In Preschool Years:

Inability to follow directions;
Unusual quietness and inactivity;
Impulsive and uncontrolled behavior;
Excessive craving for sweets;
Excessive crying and undisturbed sleep;
Poor eating habits;
Poor sense of rhythm;
Uneven walk;
Constant interrupting and persistent chatter;
Fear of swings and slides;
Excessive repetition in speaking, questioning, or playing;
Tendency to become more upset with people around than when alone;
Frequent falls and tendency to bump into things;
Language problems as evidenced by delayed talking and garbled speaking;
Purposeless hyperactivity; and,
Tendency to be fearless, climbing counters and roofs with no concern.

In School Years:

Very poor handwriting;
Excessive activity which seems purposeless, restless and undirected;
Difficulty cutting with scissors and coloring inside lines;
Unusual inactivity characterized by daydreaming and inner distraction;
Inability to tie shoelaces, button clothes, or use hands well;
Clumsiness and awkwardness in throwing and catching balls;
Trouble in matching shapes and sizes: squares, circles, triangles;
Difficulty in skipping, hopping and jumping;
Confusion in discriminating between letters, words and numbers: “b” and “d”, “was” and “saw”, 6 and 9;
Trouble with game playing and following group rules;
No understanding of the difference between up and down, in and out, left and right, front and back;
Confused sense of time or distance;
Good verbal ability, but trouble in reading;
Emotional instability – explosions for no apparent reason;
Mechanical reading without comprehension;
Tendency to be extremely literal or humorless;
Difficulty in expressing ideas;
Excessive gullibility;
Erratic school work; and,
Extremely uneven performance in testing with some potential high, and some way below normal.