Early Childhood - Connecticut State Department of Education

Assessment Chapter 4
DESCRIPTIVE WORDS FOR RECORDING OBSERVABLE BEHAVIORS
FACIAL EXPRESSION
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE
Frown, smile, yawning, sleepy, surprised, pout, puzzled,
startled, drowsy, angry, sad, questioning, teasing, playful,
timid, silly, excited, determined, hesitant, anxious, bewildered,
blank, wrinkled brow, teary-eyed, jaw-clenched, open-mouthed.
Smiling, frowning, fearful, perplexed, puzzled, quizzical,
surprised, tearful, whispering, yelling, hunched, hopping,
skipping, leaping, galloping, staggering, slowly, rapidly, creeping,
roaming, screaming, softly, stuttering, stammering, crawling,
fidgety, twitching, wiggling, bolted, affectionately, grimaced,
amble, stroll, clomp, march, strut, calm, expressionless, waddle,
sluggish, squinting, wide-eyed.
LANGUAGE
MOVEMENT/LOCOMOTION
Shouts, loudly, whispers, softly, calmly, hollering, humming,
whimpering, quietly, seriously, faltering, mimic, scream,
screech, excited, affectionately, roughly, pleading, murmur,
bellowed, blurted, hurriedly, squeaked, barked.
Stomping, staggering, stiffly, slithering, skipping, slowly,
squirming, sliding, gently, running, bouncing, hopping,
jumping, crawling, creeping, tip-toe, boldly, prancing, sliding,
softly, scuffing, dancing, marching, shuffling, creeping, tripping,
swinging, quickly, haltingly, chugging.
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CAUTION: Observations should be objective. Be sure to use value-neutral terms to convey vivid, but objective descriptions. For example: “The
children ran and shouted to line up for music class;” rather than, “The children enthusiastically lined up for music class.”