Observing Behaviors to Gather Clues

HANDLE providers gather clues about a person’s function, whether efficient or not, by observing. So how do you gather clues successfully? The bottom line, I think, has to do with what questions you ask yourself while you observe. 

Whether In a classroom, at a family gathering, at a cafe, at a tennis match, wherever you choose to do your people-watching, if you ask yourself "Is this normal?" you likely won't come up with a lot of "Aha!"s. If, however, you ask yourself - How is that individual doing things, would everyone do it the same way, then you're on your way to discovery. 

Let's do a little exercise in detective work. I chose the image below (by Omar Chatriwala) because the dancing girls are all dressed the same, and all seem to be trying to do the same dance move. Now let's find some differences in their behaviors and wonder what we can learn from those differences. Give yourself a moment to just look. What do you notice? Remember this: There’s only so much you can learn from a photo. It takes a cluster of clues to lead to conclusions. But for an exercise, it’ll do.  

Let's number them, 1 through 6, starting on the left. 

• Look at #5. Her unhappy face may have caught your eye. Is that decoration on her head uncomfortable? Likely. Is she more sensitive to touch than the others? Possibly. It would be interesting to learn if she hates to have her hair brushed, or her face washed. 
• How about #2 and #3. Look at that eye contact. What’s notable for me is that they are capable of eye contact, which suggests that both of them have efficient eye teaming. What I don’t know is if their mirroring of one another is a correct dance step. If it is, then perhaps both of them are rather clear about right and left. If not, then likely one of them isn’t. 
• Do you notice something different about #3? Observe her right hand. It’s quite likely a wrong dance move, but at the moment I’m interested in her sensory experience. She's comfortable touching the highly textured belt. A person hypersensitive to touch would likely not have exposed a palm to so much stimulation.  
• Let's take a look at the feet. The dance step seems to call for a heel-to-toes stance, which numbers 4, 5 and 6 seem to be doing (#6 with ease, #4 a little compromised with her balance). #1, #2 and #3 are imprecise with their stance - but not taking chances with their balance. 
• How about #1? What's a bit more obvious, is that she's staring. Does she not trust herself to know the dance? Perhaps it's not in her muscle memory quite yet. Are you picking up the tension around her mouth? Try the hand movements and ask yourself if your mouth tenses up. Perhaps she's not quite capable of differentiating between moving what needs to move, and resting the rest. 

Again, a snapshot can only tell us so much, and it takes more observation to reach conclusions about which body-and-brain systems are functioning efficiently and which are not. I also expect that you may be picking up from this picture additional, or different information from what I did. Perhaps what you see would trigger questions for you. Take this curiosity with you to the classroom, to the family gathering, to the café. Or bring it to a HANDLE evaluation. 

Comments

[Phyllis]

Number three fingers are symmetrical - poor finger awareness (or if the symmetrical position is the desired one then the asymmetrical positions would in error)
Number 5 - only has one finger separated - poor finger awareness or control, stabilizing 3 three fingers to release third in a different position
left. right confusion with which foot in is front/ which arm is up
2 and 3 could be in competition with each other
6 could be trying to guide number 1 - she is the only one noe facing forward or could be sensitive to the light