Lagging Skills

• Difficulty empathizing with others, appreciating another person’s perspective or point of view.
• Difficulty persisting on challenging or tedious tasks.
• Difficulty considering a range of solutions to a problem.
• Difficulty expressing concerns, needs, or thoughts in words.
• Difficulty managing emotional response to frustration so as to think rationally.
• Sensory/motor difficulties.
• Chronic irritability and/or anxiety significantly impede capacity for problem- solving or heighten frustration.
• Difficulty taking into account situational factors that would suggest the need to adjust a plan of action.
• Difficulty attending to or accurately interpreting social cues/ poor perception of social nuances.
• Difficulty appreciating how his/her behavior is affecting others.
• Difficulty starting conversations, entering groups, connecting with people/ lacking other basic social skills.
• Difficulty handling unpredictability, ambiguity, uncertainty, novelty.

Executive Skills

• Difficulty understanding how others may feel when he screams and hits.
• Difficulty being around other kids when he thinks they are making fun of him.
• Difficulty understanding the result of hitting and yelling at others.
• Difficulty talking to others about how he is feeling and difficulty telling others how he doesn’t like being talked about even if he’s not being talked about.
• Difficulty understanding that hitting others and yelling isn’t the appropriate thing to do when he is frustrated.
• Difficulty knowing when others are laughing at him or if they are just laughing in general.
• Anxiety related to being in louder spaces with peers and not knowing if he is being talked about.
• Difficulty realizing that hitting others and screaming isn’t the appropriate thing to do.
• Difficulty appreciating how his behavior hurts his friends feelings.
• Difficulty maintaining relationships with others because they are afraid of him when he yells and hits.
• Difficulty handling the unpredictability of being around others when they are laughing and socializing without him.

Above is an evaluation I did on a study named Cody. I wrote out lagging skills and executive skills that he has difficulty with. I think this is a good example of how I can identify different skills a child may have. As a future teacher or health care professional, it is going to be my job to help identify what may be going on with my students or patients. This is somewhat like a diagnosis tool because it helps plan for the future. It is important to identify these skills so that way you can plan for the future. You need to be able to make sure you are giving your student or patient the best possible way to get better or improve and this is one of the most important steps in identifying and helping these areas.