National Association of Special Education Teachers

NASET|Characteristic Checklist of Students with Developmental Delays

Characteristic Checklist of Students with Developmental Delays

To determine a student's eligibility for special education programs and/or services, there must be a
significant delay or disability in the student's development. Criteria to consider when determining
whether a student exhibits a delay or disability in one or more of the major areas of development
are as follows:

Delay or Disability in Cognitive Development

A student with a cognitive delay or disability demonstrates deficits in intellectual abilities

beyond normal variations for age and cultural background. This might include difficulties in:

_____the ability to acquire information,

_____problem solving,

_____reasoning skills,

_____the ability to generalize information,

_____rate of learning,

_____processing difficulties,

_____memory delays,

_____attention, and

_____ organization skills.

The Factors, Considerations, and Observable Behaviors that Support or Demonstrate the Presence
of a Cognitive Delay or Disability are the following:

_____The student has significant delays in cognitive abilities, as reflected in intellectual assessment
scores, neuropsychological findings, teacher or parent/guardian rating scales, and/or results of
structured observations in a classroom or other setting.

_____The student shows significant discrepancies beyond what would be normally expected within
or between skill development areas, such as differences between verbal and nonverbal skills,
differences within verbal sub-areas, or within perceptual-motor sub-areas. For example, a student
with good acuity to visual details may show significant deficits in problem-solving spatial skills.
Delay or Disability in Language and Communication

A student with a delay or disability in language and communication demonstrates deficits

beyond normal variation for age and cultural background that adversely affect the ability to learn or
acquire skills in the primary language in one or more of the following areas:

_____receptive language,

_____expressive language,

_____articulation/phonology,

_____pragmatics,

_____fluency,

_____oral-motor skills, or

_____voice (such as sound quality, breath support)

The Factors, Considerations, and Observable Behaviors that Support or Demonstrate the Presence
of a Language and Communication Delay or Disability are as follows:

_____The student does not use communication effectively with peers and/or adults. For example,
the student does not express needs and wants in most situations.

_____The student's speech and language cannot be understood by others in the student's
environment who speaks the same language. This may include family members, playmates or other
students in the student's preschool program.

_____The student exhibits observable severe or frequent frustration because of communication

difficulties.

_____The student exhibits speech sound and/or phonological process errors that impair intelligibility
and are not developmentally appropriate. For example, speech sound production impairs listener's
ability to understand the student.

_____The student has difficulty understanding and using age-appropriate vocabulary, language
concepts, and/or conversation (for example, limited vocabulary, sentence structure, and functional
use of language restrict communication). In dual language acquisition, delays in both languages in
young students are typical.

_____The student demonstrates specific weaknesses in pragmatic language ability. For example,
limited turn-taking, eye contact, asking and responding to questions or knowledge of the
speaker/listener role interfere with communication.

_____The student demonstrates difficulty processing auditory information. For example, following
simple directions or answering simple questions present problems for the student.
_____The student demonstrates oral motor difficulty, such as in swallowing or feeding, and/or
developmental apraxia, the inability to coordinate speech muscle movement to say words. For
example, the student has difficulty combining sounds to say words and/or there is excessive drooling
or weak oral muscle movement.

_____The student demonstrates speech dysfluency (stuttering) that interferes with communication
abilities (for example, word sound repetitions and/or speech productions that interrupt smooth flow
of speech).

Delay or Disability in Adaptive Development

A student with a delay or disability in adaptive development demonstrates difficulty learning or

acquiring skills necessary for daily living and learning through play. These occur over time, in a
variety of situations, and interfere with the effectiveness of the student's ability to meet personal
needs, social responsibility, or participation in developmentally appropriate situations and cultural
group. Adaptive behavior demonstrates the effectiveness with which the individual copes with the
natural and social demands of his/her environment.

The Factors, Considerations, and Observable Behaviors that Support or Demonstrate the Presence of
an Adaptive Delay or Disability are as follows:

Adaptive behavior areas would include activities of daily living such as toileting, eating, dressing, and
personal hygiene, as well as development of play skills including the acquisition of developmentally
appropriate pretend or exploratory play and engagement in peer and adult social play.
Consideration should be given to the following factors:

_____family history, cultural factors, family expectations, and opportunities to develop self-help
skills;

_____motor contributions to functional skills, such as fine motor skills necessary for managing,
fastening, or engaging in object exploration, oral motor components to eating or the gross motor
abilities that support environmental exploration;

_____the student's ability to accomplish activities of daily living adequately and as efficiently as the
student's typically developing peers;

_____the necessity for extensive task adaptations needed to support adaptive skills that are unusual
for typically developing peers (for example, while the use of a covered cup or diaper is common for
two-year-olds, it is not expected of a four year-old);

_____an inflexibility or rigidity in play behavior (for example, ritualistic self-stimulating behavior or
engaging in spinning or rigid horizontal alignment of objects during free play rather than exploratory
manipulation that is based on object properties);

_____an avoidance of peer social interaction during play, with a preference for interaction
exclusively with adults or observation of peers rather than active engagement with them during free
play opportunities; and
_____limitations in the initiation of play activities in either independent or free play (for example,
some students will seem passive during free play either unaware of the play potential of a situation
or afraid to engage in activities unless invited).

Delay or Disability in Social-Emotional Development

A student with a delay or disability in social-emotional development demonstrates deviations in

affect or relational skills beyond normal variation for age and cultural background. These problems
are exhibited over time, in various circumstances, and adversely affect the student's development of
age-appropriate skills.

The Factors, Considerations, and Observable Behaviors that Support or Demonstrate the Presence of
a Social-Emotional Delay or Disability are as follows:

_____The student shows significant observable behaviors such as perseveration, inability to

transition, overdependence on structure and routine, and/or rigidity.

_____The student exhibits significant patterns of difficulty in the following relational areas: trust
building, aggressiveness, compliance, lack of age-appropriate self-control, oppositional/defiant
behavior, destructive behavior, poor awareness of self and others, or inappropriate play skills for
age.

_____The student has significant affect difficulties such as depression/withdrawal, limited range of
emotions for a given situation, low frustration tolerance, excessive fear/anxiety, radical mood
swings, and/or inappropriate fears (for example, a student who often misinterprets the approach of
other students or adults as hostile in intent).

Delay or Disability in Motor Development

A student with a delay or disability in motor development demonstrates a deficit beyond normal
variability for age and experience in either coordination, movement patterns, quality, or range of
motion or strength and endurance of gross (large muscle), fine (small muscle), or perceptual motor
(integration of sensory and motor) abilities that adversely affects the student’s ability to learn or
acquire skills relative to one or more of the following:

_____ maintaining or controlling posture,

_____ functional mobility (for example, walking or running),

_____ sensory awareness of the body or movement,

_____ sensory-integration,

_____ reach and/or grasp of objects,

_____ tool use,

_____ perceptual motor abilities (for example, eye-hand coordination for tracing),

_____ sequencing motor components to achieve a functional goal.

The Factors, Considerations, and Observable Behaviors that Support or Demonstrate the Presence
of a Delay or Disability in Motor Development are as follows:

_____ The student is unable to maintain a stable posture or transition between positions (for
example, to go from standing to floor sitting) to support learning or interactive tasks.

_____ The student is unable to move about the environment in an efficient way that is not disruptive
to others. Efficient mobility refers to both the time required for moving from one place to another
and the amount of energy the student must expend to move.

_____ The student uses an inefficient or abnormal grasp or reach pattern that limits the ability to
either explore or use objects. An inefficient grasp or reach is one which does not enable flexible
manipulation, limits use of tools such as writing implements or silverware in functional tasks, leads
to fatigue, or limits the student's ability to obtain or use learning materials.

_____ The student has problems with learning new gross and/or fine motor abilities or in using
motor skills in a flexible functional way. The student does not seem to accomplish motor tasks
automatically after practice and attends to the motor aspects rather than cognitive or exploratory
components of play or pre-academic programming.

_____ The student may achieve developmentally appropriate skills as measured on formal testing
but has significant asymmetry that interferes with bilateral manipulation or tool use (for example,
student is unable to transfer objects from hand to hand or stabilize paper when writing or cutting).

_____ The student is unable to sequence one or more motor actions in order to accomplish a goal.
This includes the student with clumsiness that consistently interferes with goal-directed social or
object interaction.

_____ The student has difficulty participating in gross motor activities, is unable to complete many of
the tasks performed by typically developing peers, or may refuse to participate in activities rather
than seem uncoordinated.

_____ The student has problems in the neurological processing of information from any of the
senses and organizing it for