What are cognitive
skills, adaptive behavior, and receptive language? To be honest, they are
skills and behaviors that most people take for granted. However, a lack in these skills can be a
signal or warning sign to a bigger problem, like a specific learning disability. Really everyone should take a minute to learn
what each means. If you know of someone
that has a delayed child, please be careful as to how you approach the subject
with them. It is extremely hard to hear
that there could be something wrong or a delay in your child. (Trust me, I know.) You might just want to kindly suggest they
read the blog or visit the Birth-to-3 Program website to get a free evaluation
for their child. I mean everyone likes
FREE, right?
Cognitive
skills are the more
well known of the 3 areas that I will be writing about in this post.
“Cognition is
a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory,
producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions.”
Cognitive skills for toddlers
include:
·
Ability to explore and interact with toys
·
Perceptual Development (to notice a difference
in objects)
·
Memory (to retrieve information)
·
Problem solving (to understand features of
objects and their relationships)
The difficulty with this is that testing for cognitive ability is based on one's ability to communicate. So if your child has delayed verbal speech then the current cognitive tests may fail to represent your child's cognitive ability.
Adaptive Behavior
Adaptive behavior refers to the independent
skills that people need to execute everyday tasks.
For toddlers (ages 1 -3) and young children
this includes:
·
Attention span (can they sit still
on your lap)
·
Eating (do they eat well)
·
Sleeping (do they sleep
through the night)
·
Dressing (do they help stick
their arms through the shirt hole, etc.)
·
Safety (are they aware of
dangers)
·
Toileting Skills (do they lie still to
be changed; is potty training not going well)
For teens and adults this includes:
·
Communication
and social skills (interacting
and communicating with other people)
·
Independent
living skills (shopping,
budgeting, and cleaning)
·
Personal
care skills (eating,
dressing, and grooming)
·
Work skills (following directions, completing tasks,
and getting to work on time)
·
Practical
academics (reading,
computation, and telling time)
Receptive
Language/ Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)/ Aphasia
Receptive Language is the ability to interpret and
process spoken language. It is also
known as Auditory Processing Disorder, Central Auditory Processing Disorder
(CAPD), Aphasia, or Comprehension Deficit.
For toddlers - teens this includes:
·
Looking at a person or object when you say
the word
o
(ie. Where’s mommy? Where’s the baba? And
looks at it.)
·
Difficulty understanding and following
directions
·
Struggles with longer complex sentences
·
Has trouble understanding figurative and
literal language
·
Often Avoids answering questions –
o
Says,
“I don’t know” or “I forget”
o
Ignores the question all together
o
Shakes head yes or no
o
Repeats the last couple words of the question
but doesn’t answer
For a more in depth explanation of receptive and
expressive language I recommend reading this article:
Works Cited:
CT
Birth to Three Program
Battelle
Developmental Inventory -2
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