Below is a long, but not comprehensive list of some of the challenges you may have with your child or that you, as an adult wanting to recover from a developmental trauma, might find in yourself. If you have a group of issues that appear on this list you may want to write to us at developmentalmovement@gmail.com, or refer to some of the articles on this website for a discussion of how we treat these challenges.
If your child had a difficult pregnancy or a traumatic birth, or is adopted; if your child was limited in their motor activities in the first two years of life; if your child did not crawl or creep; if your child had a high fever, head injury, or surgery; if your child was separated from you before their brains were ready; if your child suffered malnutrition; if your child suffered exposure to drugs or alcohol in utero; if your child experienced any of these events that could damage or interrupt normal neurological development they may be dealing with some of many of the symptoms listed below:
1.) Learning issues, including:
SHORT ATTENTION SPAN
DIFFICULTY READING:
difficulty recognizing symbols
seeing double
covering one eye while reading
getting headaches when reading
letter reversals
using his/her finger to track words on the page
skipping words; reading the first letter and guessing the word
difficulty with comprehension (may have been said to have ‘high fluency but low comprehension)
Inability to remember what was read
DIFFICULTY WITH MATH:
inability to understand one to one correlation in counting
difficulty tracking a vertical row of numbers
number reversals
inability to create a math problem out of a story problem
ATTENTION AND MEMORY
poor memory generally
cannot remember and execute more than one or at most two commands without being reminded
cannot sequence numbers, letters, days of the week, etc.
constantly loses place while reading due to distraction
constantly gets up from desk at school
interjects topics unrelated to the subject being discussed at school
difficulty accessing words
has to be frequently reminded about what happens next
forgets homework; forgets backpack; forgets coat or gloves at school or at home
constantly has to be brought back to the topic or task
PHYSICAL CHALLENGES:
clumsiness
poor posture
feet and/or knees turn in or out
arms do not swing when walking and running
can’t catch themselves when they fall
frequently tripping over ‘nothing’
inability to know when they are in pain; frequently injures themselves; sometimes self-abuses, such as picking at scabs or damaging cuticles
difficulty maintaining balance
overly tight or overly loose muscle tone; double jointed
difficulty walking, running, skipping or hopping past the age when these skills are usually achieved.
poor fine motor skills
SENSORY:
is diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder
startles at or hears every sound
is annoyed or distracted by particular sounds
cannot read, study, think with any background noise in the room
cannot hear one voice against a background of other voices, such as at a restaurant or party
is diagnosed with auditory processing issues
inappropriate perception of risks; high risk taking; cutting; anorexia
low response to their own pain such as earaches; gets cuts and bruises without reporting pain
must wear ‘ear muffs’ in movies, church, or in public in general
shuns sunlight; complains about light; has to wear sunglasses
talks of seeing blurry, double or seeing words move on the page
can’t tolerate certain patterns or colors
can’t tolerate wearing certain textures; can’t tolerate certain kinds of usually appropriate touch
has strange aversions to specific tactile experiences, such as the feel of velvet, metal; wet surfaces or wet skin; touching gritty things or stuffed animals
SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL
cannot read social cues; may be constantly inappropriate with others in body language or speech
cannot infer a speaker’s meaning from their tone of voice; often becomes the butt of jokes; misses many verbal cues; interrupts conversations
overly dramatic and attention seeking
fears intimacy; has difficulty with eye contact
depressed or over-compensatingly and unrealistically optimistic
inappropriate with strangers, either overly affectionate or overly fearful
rages inappropriately in response to stimuli that would not usually cause a problem; inappropriate fight/flight response in response to negatively perceived stimuli
anxious, clingy, ‘anxiously attached’, fear of the dark, night terrors
manipulative, lies, steals, takes all the attention all the time; may be superficially charming
lacks empathy; may be cruel to siblings, younger children or animals
poor bowel or bladder control past the normal age of potty training
HYPOTHALAMIC AND IMMUNE ISSUES
autoimmune disorders and allergies
waking/sleeping cycles are difficult
bed wetting past the appropriate age
constant hunger despite being well fed