Red flag symptoms ²,⁶

Signs to watch for and document before your first appointment. The more specifically you can describe when each appeared, the more useful your observations will be.

Behavioral and emotional

• Sudden severe OCD or compulsive rituals: checking, counting, repeating phrases, arranging objects
• Intense new separation anxiety or extreme fear of being alone
• Rage episodes or aggression that are dramatically out of proportion to the situation
• Emotional lability: cycling rapidly between sadness, fear, and anger within minutes
• Personality change that feels like someone else is inhabiting your child

Physical and functional

• New urinary urgency, very frequent bathroom trips, or regression to bedwetting
• Handwriting that has noticeably changed, become smaller, or regressed
• New food restriction, sudden refusal of foods they previously accepted, or severely reduced appetite
• New motor or vocal tics: repetitive movements, blinking, throat clearing, sniffing, or sounds

Cognitive and sensory

• Math ability, reading, or memory that has noticeably declined
• New sensory sensitivities to loud sounds, bright lights, clothing textures, or physical touch
• Difficulty organizing thoughts, completing sentences, or following instructions they previously managed easily

Sleep

• Insomnia or significant difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Nighttime fears or terror that are new or dramatically worse
• Inability to sleep alone after months or years of doing so
• Unusual waking in the night with distress