The professional will analyze areas of cognitive strength and weakness, note the various tasks which are relatively easy and which are difficult for the child, and look for patterns of behavior in the child s responses. It is necessary to look at the child s potential, that which he is capable of doing, learning, comprehending, expressing, abstracting, and generalizing. By asking the child to show me this or bring me that, the parent can check the child s vocabulary, remembering that children learn nouns first, then verbs. The child has not uttered a vocalization, and yet a sample of language comprehension has easily been obtained. At age four children have a receptive vocabulary of thousands of words.
Expressive language is a key to successful socialization as children progress through school.
Many learning-disabled children exhibit poor gross motor ability. They appear to be clumsy, awkward, and have difficulty with coordinated movement. The child s emotional and social growth is an important determiner in the maturation process. Rather, the child needs to exhibit a cluster of behavior symptoms that appear outside the range of what is considered normal developmental limits. This training, according to Penfield, should be started early, while the cortex retains plasticity and before areas become committed to other tasks.