Key Emotional & Behavioral Indicators

Wary of Adult Contact:

• Flinches when gently touched
• Avoids adult contact
• Pulls away when approached
• Acts belligerent toward adults
• Threatens adults physically or verbally (i.e. used to violence being used for power and control)
• Seeks affection indiscriminately
• Clings to adults they do not know well
• Exhibits poor eye contact with adults, especially people in authority

Becomes Apprehensive Easily:

• When other children cry
• When other children get hurt
• When other children misbehave
• When adults raise their voices
• Startles at sudden or loud noises
• Hyper-alert to the environment – very cautious in new surroundings, anxious about changes in routine
• Constantly asks what is going to happen next, even though the daily routine is unbroken
• Easily fearful or anxious
• Fearful of failure

Behavior Extremes:

• Aggressiveness (biting, hitting, kicking, etc., especially of adults)
• Extreme withdrawal (refusal to become involved or participate; refusal to talk in class or to adults)
• Vacant or frozen stare or extreme daydreaming
• Sudden changes in behavior
• Self-destructive behaviors or self-mutilation
• Extreme attention-getting behaviors (setting fires, injuring animals, bullying, etc.)
• Parentified and overly mature behavior for their age – display inappropriate care-taking behaviors toward their parents
• Feels deserving of punishment – asks to be punished
• Behaves manipulatively to get attention
• Has extremely poor self-concept and low self-esteem
• Self-deprecates (verbally puts self down, believes he or she cannot do anything right)
• Cries hopelessly and shows no expectation of being comforted, or subdued crying in an infant or toddler
• Head-banging in an infant

Social Clues:

•  Exhibits anti-social behaviors (theft, destruction of property, bullying, etc.)
•  Exhibits inappropriate or precocious maturity
•  Is capable of only superficial relationships with adults and peers (few friends, uses obnoxious behavior to get attention from peers and adults, doesn’t try to make friends)
•  Is unable to relate to peers
•  Identifies with the “tough guy” or gang image
•  Afraid of parents
•  Afraid to go home
•  Runs away from home
•  Exhibits excessive or complete absence of anxiety about being away from parents
•  Expresses fear of parent, verbally or behaviorally
•  Reports injuries by parents
•  Does not look to parents for reassurance

Personal Clues:

• Dresses inappropriately for the weather
• Wears extra clothing to conceal injuries
• Frequently tardy or absent from school
• Gives unbelievable explanations for an injury or refuses to talk about an injury
• Accident prone
• Exhibits extreme or minimal and inappropriate reactions to pain

Evidence of a Variety of Developmental Delays:

• Language delays or disorders such as stuttering
• Fine or gross motor delays
• Social and emotional delays
• Cognitive delays – difficulties learning

Note: Remember that developmental delays occur for a wide variety of reasons, child abuse or neglect being just a small possibility.