Most classroom behavior we label as off-task, unfocused, or disruptive has nothing to do with attitude. It is a sensory system trying to do something and not having a better tool to use.
I have spent 23 plus years walking into classrooms, watching for these patterns, and helping teachers see them for what they are. This checklist is the short version of what I look for. Print it. The next time a kid puzzles you, run them through these 12 items.
This is not a diagnostic tool. A diagnosis comes from a licensed evaluator. But this is the screen that tells you whether to make the referral.
The 12 items
Movement and body awareness
1. Cannot stay seated for age-appropriate periods. A first grader should sit for 10-15 minutes with brief shifts. A fifth grader 25-30.
2. Crashes into people, walls, or furniture. The kid who routinely runs into things, sits on classmates, or falls out of their chair is seeking proprioceptive input.
3. Avoids playground equipment, swings, or merry-go-rounds. Vestibular avoidance. Some seek the opposite, only want to spin.
Touch and texture
4. Reacts strongly to clothing, tags, or seams. Pulling at collars all morning, refusing socks, cutting tags off everything.
5. Avoids messy activities. Will not paint with fingers, refuses glue, hides hands during sensory bin lesson.
6. Seeks excessive touch. Hugging classmates without consent, rubbing fabrics, touching everyone and everything.
Sound
7. Covers ears at predictable volumes. Fire drills, hand dryers, the cafeteria, recess.
8. Talks loudly and constantly. The auditory feedback loop the kid uses to monitor their own voice is muffled.
Visual
9. Squints, rubs eyes, or covers them in bright light. Fluorescent lights especially.
10. Loses place when reading or copying from the board. Visual tracking and figure-ground discrimination concerns.
Oral and food
11. Eats only a narrow range of foods. Below 20 accepted foods. Refuses entire texture categories.
Self-regulation
12. Meltdowns at transitions. End of recess, switching subjects, dismissal.
Scoring
0-2 items often or daily: typical sensory variation. Continue to monitor. 3-5 items often or daily: worth a conversation with parents and the school OT. Begin tracking patterns. 6+ items often or daily: recommend an OT evaluation through the family pediatrician or via school-based referral.
What to do while you wait for an evaluation
Do not punish the behavior. The behavior is the symptom. Add a 5-minute heavy-work break before any task that requires sitting still. Offer a fidget tool. Reduce visual clutter at the workspace. Allow noise-canceling headphones. Build in a movement minute between every transition.
Keriann Wilmot, OTR/L. Author of Wired Differently. Free for classroom and clinical use. Not for resale.