Signs and Symptoms of NeuroDevelopmental Gaps

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