girls playing on treeSocial Development

Includes: Relationships, Separations, Involvement, Focusing, Self-image, Anxiety Level, Impulse Control, Transitions
Red Flags: Be alert to a child who, compared with other children the same age or 6 months older or younger, exhibits these behaviors:

  • Is anxious, tense, restless, compulsive, cannot get dirty or messy, has many fears, engages in excessive self-stimulation.
  • Seems preoccupied with own inner world; conversations do not make sense.
  • Shows little or no impulse control; hits or bites as first response; cannot follow a classroom routine.
  • Expresses emotions inappropriately (laughs when sad, denies feelings); facial expressions do not match emotions.
  • Cannot focus on activities (short attention span, cannot complete anything, flits from toy to toy).
  • Consistently withdraws from people, prefers to be alone; no depth to relationships; does not seek or accept affection or touching.
  • Treats people as objects; has no empathy for to other children; cannot play on another child’s terms .
  • Is consistently aggressive, frequently hurts others deliberately; shows no remorse or is deceitful in hurting others.

Motor Development (Fine Motor, Gross Motor, and Perceptual )

Includes: Quality of movement, Level of Development, Sensory Integration
Red Flags: Pay extra attention to children with these behaviors:

  •  The child who is particularly uncoordinated and who:
  1. Has a lot of accidents,
  2. Trips, bumps into things
  3. Is awkward getting down/up, climbing, jumping, getting around toys and people
  4. Stands out from the group in structured motor tasks — walking, climbing stairs, jumping, standing on one foot
  • The child who relies heavily on watching their own or other peoples’ movements in order to do them and who:
  1. May frequently misjudge distances
  2. May become particularly uncoordinated or off balance with eyes closed
  • The child with extraneous and involuntary movements who:
  1. While painting with one hand, holds the other hand in the air or waves
  2. Does chronic toe walking
  3. Shakes hands or taps fingers
  • The child who involuntarily finds touching uncomfortable and who:
  1. Flinches or tenses when touched or hugged
  2. May be uncomfortable lying down, particularly on the back
  3. Reacts as if attacked when unexpectedly bumped
  • The child who compulsively craves being touched or hugged, or the older child who almost involuntarily has to feel things to understand them, who both may:
  1. Cling to, or highly brush, the teacher a lot
  2. Always sit close to or touch children in a circle
  3. Be strongly attracted to sensory experiences such as blankets, soft toys, water, dirt, sand, paste, hands in food
  • The child who has exceptional difficulty with new but simple puzzles, coloring, structured art projects, and drawing a person, and who, for example, may:
  1. Take much longer to do the task, even when trying hard and produce a final result that is still not as sophisticated compared to those of peers
  2. Mix up top/bottom, left/right, front/back, on simple projects where a model is to be copied
  3. Still does a lot of scribbling (older child)

How to Screen:

  • Observe child. Note when, where, how frequently and with whom problem occurs.
  • Check developmental history – both heredity and environment play an important part in speech development.
  • Look at motor development, which is closely associated with speech.
  • Look at social- emotional status, which can affect speech and language.
  • Write down or record speech samples.
  • Check hearing status.
  • Note number of speech sounds or uses of language