Acronyms Listing
| § | § | This symbol means “Section” as in “§ 300.7 Child with a disability” in the IDEA regulations | |
| 2 + 2 | Two years in HS, two years CC – course articulation | |
| AA-MAS | Alternate Assessment-Modified Achievement Standards | |
| AAC | AAC | Alternative Augmentative Communication | |
| AAD | AAD Adaptive Assistive Devices | |
| AAMD | American Association on Mental Deficiency | |
| AAT | AAT Advanced Academic Training | |
| ABA | ABA | Applied Behavioral Analysis | |
| ABC | ABC | Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence | |
| ABD | antisocial behavior disorders | |
| ABE | Adult Basic Education | |
| ABE | ABE Adult Basic Education | |
| ABES-R | ABES-R Adaptive Behavior Evaluation Scale – Revised | |
| AC | AC Alternative Certification | |
| ACA | American Counseling Association | |
| ACC | ACC Agenesis of the Corpus Colosum | |
| ACEP | Adult Corrections Education Program | |
| ACLD | Association for Children with Learning Disabilities | |
| ACROS | ACROS Automated Cross Refrencing Occupational System | |
| ACT | ACT American College Testing | |
| AD | attachment disorder | |
| ADA | ADA |Americans with Disabilities Act | |
| ADC | ADC Aid to Dependent Children | |
| ADD | ADD/ADHD Attention Deficit/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder | |
| ADHD | Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder | |
| ADL | ADLs | Activities of Daily Living | |
| ADM | Average Daily Membership | |
| ADP | ADP Antisocial personality disorder, | |
| ADP | ADP Auditory Processing Disorder | |
| ADR | ADR | Alternative Dispute Resolution | |
| ADVOC-NET | ADVOC-NET Adult Vocational Network | |
| AEA | AEA Acquired Eleptifrom Aphasia (Landau-Kleffner Syndrome) | |
| AEP | AEP Alternative Education Placement | |
| AER | Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired | |
| AERA | American Educational Research Association | |
| AFDC | AFDC Aid to families with dependent childre | |
| AFS | AFS Adult and family services | |
| AFSD | Adult and Family Services Division | |
| AFT | American Federation of Teachers | |
| AG | AG Annual Goal | |
| AHSD | AHSD Adult High School Diploma | |
| AI | AI Auditorily impaired | |
| AIDS | AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome | |
| AIM | AIM | Accessible Instructional Materials | |
| AIR | American Institute for Research | |
| AIT | AIT Agency for Instructional Technology | |
| ALJ | ALJ Administrative Law Judge | |
| ALO | ALO Alternative Learning Options | |
| ALS | advanced life support | |
| AMD | AMD Alternative Mobility Device | |
| AODA | Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse | |
| AOI | Associated Oregon Industries | |
| AP | AP Advanced Placement | |
| APA | American Psychiatric Association | |
| APD | antisocial personality disorder; auditory processing disorder | |
| APE | APE | Adaptive Physical Education | |
| APPE | APPE Average per pupil expenditure | |
| APR | APR | Annual Performance Report | |
| Arc | Arc of Oregon | |
| ArcO | Previously know as Association for Retarded Citizens and now the initials are the name of the organization | |
| ARD | ARD | Admission, Review, and Dismissal Committee | |
| ARP | ARP Advisory review panel | |
| ARRA | ARRA | American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 | |
| ARS | ARS At Risk Student | |
| ASA | American Association of School Administrators | |
| ASA | Autism Society of America | |
| ASC | ASC Advanced Study Center | |
| ASCD | American Society for Curriculum Development | |
| ASCD | Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development | |
| ASD | ASD | Autism Spectrum Disorders | |
| ASDO | ASDO Alternative Service Delivery Options | |
| ASHA | ASHA American Speech-Language Hearing Association | |
| ASL | ASL | American Sign Language | |
| ASO | Autism Society of Oregon | |
| ASOHI | Association for Severely Other Health Impaired | |
| ASW | ASW Autism Society of Washington | |
| AT | AT | Assistive Technology | |
| ATC | area technical centeR | |
| ATC | ATC Alternative Teacher Certification | |
| ATCP | ATCP Alternative Teacher Certification Program | |
| ATSR | ATSR Assessment Team Summary Report | |
| AU | AU Administrative Unit | |
| AU | AU Autistic | |
| AUT | AUT Autism | |
| AVA | American Vocational Association | |
| AVEA | Adult Vocational Education Association | |
| AVEPDA | American Vocational Education Personnel Development Association | |
| AVERA | American Vocational Education Research Association | |
| AVTI | AVTI Area Vocational Technical Institute | |
| AYP | AYP| Adequate Yearly Progress | |
| BA | Bachelor of Arts | |
| BAC | BAC Behavior Adjustment Class | |
| BASC2 | basc2 Behavior Assessment System for Children- 2nd Edition | |
| BASIS | BASIS Basic Adult Skill Inventory System | |
| BD | Behavior Disorder | |
| BD | BD | Behavioral Disorder | |
| BD | BD Brain Damage | |
| BEP | BEP Behavioral Education Plan | |
| BEST | BEST Basic Education Study Team | |
| BETAC | BETAC Bilingual education technical assistance centers | |
| BI | brain injury | |
| BIA | Brain Injury Association | |
| BIA | Bureau of Indian Affairs | |
| BIA | BIA Brain Injury Association | |
| BIAO | Brain Injury Association of Oregon | |
| BIAW | BIAW Brain Injury Association of Washington | |
| BICM | BICM Behavior Intervention Case Manager | |
| BIE | BIE | Bureau of Indian Education | |
| BIL | Business, Industry, and Labor | |
| BIL | bilingual | |
| BIP | BIP | Behavioral Intervention Plan | |
| BLS | BLS Basic Life Support | |
| BMP | BMP Behavior Management Plan | |
| BOCES | BOCES Board of Comprehensive Education Services (New York State) | |
| BOE | BOE | Board of Education | |
| BRT | Business Round Table | |
| BS | Bachelor of Science | |
| BVI | Blind/Vision Impaired | |
| CA | CA Chronological Age | |
| CAC | CAC Community Advisory Committee | |
| CADRE | Coalition for Alternative Dispute Resolution | |
| CAI | CAI Computer-assisted Instruction | |
| CalStat | CalSTAT California Sevices for Technical Assistance and Training | |
| CAM | CAM Cerfificate of advanced Mastery | |
| CAP | CAP | Corrective Action Plan | |
| CAP | CAP Central Auditory Processing | |
| CAPA | CAPA California Alternate Performance Based Assessment | |
| CAPD | CAPD | Central Auditory Processing Disorder | |
| CAPTA | CAPTA | Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act | |
| CARS | CARS Childhood Autism Rating Scale | |
| CAS | CAS Cognitive Assessment System | |
| CASA | Court Appointed Special Advocate | |
| CASE | CASE Council for Administrators of Special Education | |
| CASEMIS | CASEMIS California Special Education Management Information System | |
| CASL | CASL Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language | |
| CASS | Council of Administrators of Special ServicesFormerly CAPS & CASE; A professional organization for Special Education and Pupil Services Personnel | |
| CAT | CAT Committee on accessible transportation | |
| CBA | CBA | Curriculum Based Assessment | |
| CBCL | CBCL Child Behavior Checklist | |
| CBEDS | CBEDS California Special Education Management Information System | |
| CBM | CBM Curriculum based measurement | |
| CC | CC Closed Captioning | |
| CC | CC cross categorical | |
| CCDEB | County Children with Disabilities Education BoardFormerly known as CHCEB-County Handicapped Children’s Education Board | |
| CCR | Coordinated Compliance Review; CCR California Code of Regulations | |
| CCS | CCS California Children Services | |
| CD | CD Conduct Disorder | |
| CD | CD Cognitive Disability | |
| CD | CD communication development | |
| CDA | CDA | Child Development Associate | |
| CDC | CDC | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | |
| CDE | CDE California Department of Education | |
| CDI | CDI Children’s Depression Inventory | |
| CDRC | CDRC Child Development and rehabilitation center | |
| CDS | CDS Child Development Specialist | |
| CEC | CEC | Council for Exceptional ChildrenA national organization focusing on issues related to children with disabilities. There is also a state chapter. | |
| CEIS | Coordinated Early Intervening Services | |
| CELF4 | CELF4 Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4th edition | |
| CESA | Cooperative Educational Service Agency | |
| CF | CF | Cystic Fibrosis | |
| CFLA | CFLA Community and family living amemdments | |
| CFR | CFR | Code of Federal Regulations | |
| CHAP | CHAP Child health assurance Program | |
| CHD | CHD Center on human development | |
| CHES | CHES Children’s Handwriting Evaluation Scale | |
| CHI | CHI Closed head injury | |
| CHINS | CHINS Child in Need of Services | |
| CI | CI Confidence Interval | |
| CIFMS | CIFMS | Continuous Improvement and Focused Monitoring System | |
| CIL | CIL Center for independent living | |
| CIM | CIM Certificate of initial mastery | |
| CLAS | CLAS Culturaaly and linguistically appropriate services | |
| CLASS | Classroom Assessment Scoring System | |
| CLD | CLD Culturally and linguistically diverse | |
| CMPH | CMPH Community and mental health program | |
| CNS | CNS Central Nervous System | |
| COE | COE County Office of Education | |
| COLA | COLA Cost of living adjustment | |
| COP | COP | Community of Practice | |
| CORP | Central Oregon Regional Program | |
| COSA | Confederation of Oregon School Administrators | |
| COTA | COTA Certified Occupational therapis assistant | |
| CP | CP | Cerebral Palsy | |
| CPPC | CPPC Cooprative Personnel Planning Council | |
| CPR | CPR Consolidated Program Review | |
| CPRC | CPRC | Community Parent Resource Center | |
| CPS | CPS Child Protective Services | |
| CPSE | CPSE Committee on Preschool special education | |
| CRA | CRA Civil Rights Act | |
| CREATE | Culturally Responsive Education for All: Training and Enhancement | |
| CRP | Columbia Regional Program | |
| CRT | CRT Criterion-Referenced Tests | |
| CSA | CSA Childhood Sexual Abuse | |
| CSE | CSE Case Study Evaluation | |
| CSEF | CSEF Center for Special Education Finance | |
| CSHCN | CSHCN | Children with Special Health Care Needs | |
| CSPD | CSPD | Comprehensive System of Personnel Development | |
| CSS | CSS Community Support Service | |
| CST | CST | Child Study Team | |
| CSTC | CSTC Child Study & Treatment Center | |
| CTBS | CTBS Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills | |
| CTONI | CTONI Comprehensive Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence | |
| CTT | CTT Community Transition Team | |
| D | deaf | |
| D/HH | Deaf/Hard of Hearing | |
| D&E | Diagnosis and Evaluation | |
| D&E | diagnosis and evaluation | |
| DAP | developmentally appropriate practices | |
| DARTS | Day and Residential Treatment Services | |
| DAS | DAS Differential Ability Scales | |
| DAS | developmental apraxia of speech | |
| DAW | DAW Developmentally Appropriate WASL | |
| DB | DB | Deaf-Blind | |
| DCD | developmental coordination disorder | |
| DCS | Division of Community Services, DHFS | |
| DCTF | Division of Care and Treatment Facilities, DHFS | |
| DD | Developmentally Delayed | |
| DD | DD | Developmental Delay | |
| DD | DD developmental disabilities | |
| DD ACT | DD Act | Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act | |
| DD Council | Developmental Disabilities Council | |
| DDC | Developmental Disabilities Council | |
| DDD | DDD Division of Develpmental Disabilities | |
| DHFS | Department of Health and Family Services. Formerly the Department of Health and Social Services; as of July 2008, split into the Department of Health Services and the Department of Children and Families. | |
| DHHAP | Deaf and Hard of Hearing Access Program | |
| DHR | Department of Human Resources | |
| DHS | Department of Human Services | |
| DI | direct instruction | |
| DIBELS | DIBELS | Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy | |
| DIS | DIS Designated Instructional Service | |
| DLSEA | Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy | |
| DNR | do not resuscitate | |
| DOC | Department of Corrections | |
| DoDDS | DoDDS | Department of Defense Dependent Schools | |
| DOE | Department of Education | |
| DON | determination of need | |
| DORF | DORF DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency | |
| DPI | Department of Public Instruction | |
| DRA | DRA Developmental Reading Assessment | |
| DREDF | Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund | |
| DRG | diagnostically related groups | |
| DS | DR direction service | |
| DS | DS | Down Syndrome | |
| DSB | DSB Department fo Services for the Blind | |
| DSHS | DSHS Department of Social and Health Services | |
| DSM | DSM | Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association | |
| DVR | Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in the Department of Workforce Development | |
| Dx | Diagnosis | |
| EALR | EALR Essential Academic Learning Requirements | |
| EAO | Epilepsy Association of Oregon | |
| EBD | Emotional Behavioral Disability (formerly ED) | |
| EBISS | Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support Systems | |
| EC | EC Early Childhood | |
| EC | EC Education Code | |
| EC | EC exceptional child[ren] | |
| ECE | ECE | Early Childhood Education | |
| ECI | early childhood intervention | |
| ECR | Electronic Corrections Report | |
| ECSE | ECSE | Early Childhood Special Education | |
| ECT | ECT early childhood team | |
| ED | Emotionally Disturbed | |
| ED | ED | Emotional Disturbance | |
| ED | ED | U.S. Department of Education | |
| ED | ED emotional disorder | |
| ED | ED Emotionally Disturbed | |
| EDGAR | EDGAR | Education Department General Administrative Regulations | |
| EEC | Education Evaluation Center, Western Oregon University | |
| EEN | EEN exceptional education needs | |
| EEs | Ees essential elements | |
| EFA | experimental functional analysis | |
| EHA | Education of the Handicapped Act | |
| EHA | EHA Education for All Handicapped Children Act (since 1990, known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]) | |
| EHDI | EHDI | Early Hearing Detection and Intervention | |
| EI | EI | Early Intervention | |
| EI/ECSE | early intervention/early childhood special education | |
| EIS | EIS | Early Intervening Services | |
| El | Early Intervention | |
| ELL | English Language Learner | |
| ELL | ELL | English Language Learner | |
| EMDR | eye movement desensitization and reprocessing | |
| EMH | EMH | Educable Mentally Handicapped | |
| EMR | EMR | Educable Mentally Retarded | |
| EMT | emergency medical treatment | |
| EOCA | Early and Ongoing Collaboration and AssistanceThis grant no longer exists, but some of the activities of this project were continued in the REACh grant. | |
| EORP | Eastern Oregon Regional Program | |
| EOTC | Eastern Oregon Training Center | |
| EPSDT | EPSDT | Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment | |
| EQ | exceptional quality | |
| ERC | Education Resource Center | |
| ERIC | ERIC | Educational Resources Information Center | |
| ESA | Education Service Agency | |
| ESC | education service center | |
| ESD | Education Service District | |
| ESD | ESD | Extended School Day | |
| ESE | exceptional student education | |
| ESEA | ESEA Elementary and Secondary Education Act | |
| ESL | ESL | English as a Second Language | |
| ESOL | English for speakers of other languages | |
| ESY | ESY or EYS | Extended School Year or Extended Year Services | |
| ETCH | ETCH Evaluation Tool of Children’s Handwriting | |
| ETP | effective teaching practices | |
| EYS | EYS Extended Year Services | |
| FAA | FAA Functioanl Analysis Assesment | |
| FACETS | Family Assistance Center for Education, Training and SupportThe Statewide Parent Training and Information Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Education | |
| FAE | FAE Fetal Alcohol Effects | |
| FAIP | functional assessment and intervention program | |
| FAPE | FAPE | Free Appropriate Public Education | |
| FAS | FAS | Fetal Alcohol Syndrome | |
| FAST | FAST functional academic skills test | |
| FBA | Functional Behavioral Assessment | |
| FBLA | Future Business Leaders of America | |
| FC | FC | Facilitated Communication | |
| FC | FC foster care | |
| FDAB | Fair Dismissal Appeals Board | |
| FEAT | Families for Early Autism Treatment | |
| FEOG | FEOG | Full Educational Opportunity Goal | |
| FEP | FEP Fluant English Proficiency | |
| FERPA | FERPA | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act | |
| FFA | Future Farmers of America | |
| FFH | FFH Foster Family Home | |
| FHA | Future Homemakers of America/Home Economics Related Occupations | |
| FIPSA | Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education | |
| FIPSE | Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education | |
| FLSA | Fair Labor Standards Act | |
| FM | FM Focused Monitoring | |
| FMLA | Family Medical Leave Act | |
| FMTA | FMTA Focused Monitoring Technical Assistance | |
| FOCI | Focus on College Issues | |
| FOIA | FOIA | Freedom of Information Act | |
| FR | Federal Register | |
| FRC | FRC Family Resource Center | |
| FSA | Family Support Act | |
| FSD | flexible service delivery model | |
| FSH | Foundation for Science and the Handicapped | |
| FSHA | first source hiring agreement | |
| FTE | FTE Full-Time Equivalent | |
| FY | fiscal year | |
| GAO | General Accounting Office | |
| GAPS | Guardianship, Advocacy, and Protective Services | |
| GE | GE | General Education | |
| GED | General Educational Development | |
| GFTA-2 | GFTA-2 Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2nd edition | |
| GGRC | GGRC Golden Gate Regional Center | |
| GLARRC | GLARRC Great Lakes Area Regional Resource CenterNow known as the NCRRC. This is now the North Central Regional Resource Center | |
| GLE | GLE Grade Level Equivalent | |
| GMFM | GMFM Gross Motor Functioning Measure | |
| GPO | Government Printing Office | |
| GPR | GPR General Program Revenue | |
| GPRA | GPRA | Government Performance and Results Act | |
| GSE | generic special education | |
| GT | GT | Gifted and Talented | |
| H/H | H/H Home/Hospital | |
| HBCU | historically black colleges and universities | |
| HCFA | Health Care Finance Administration | |
| HERO | Home Economics Related Occupations | |
| HFA | HFA High Functioning Autism | |
| HHS | Health and Human Services | |
| HI | HI | Hearing Impaired | |
| HKLB | Healthy Kids Learn Better | |
| HO | HO | Hearing Officer | |
| HOA | Health Occupations Administration | |
| HOE | Health Occupational Education | |
| HoH | HoH | Hard of Hearing | |
| HOSA | Health Occupations Students of America | |
| HOTS | higher-order thinking skills | |
| HOUSSE | HOUSSE | High Objective Uniform State Standards of Evaluation | |
| HQT | HQT | Highly Qualified Teacher | |
| HS | Head Start | |
| HS | High School | |
| HSC | high school completion | |
| HUD | Housing and Urban Development | |
| IA | IA | Instructional Assistant | |
| IAES | IAES | Interim Alternative Educational Setting | |
| IASA | Improving America’s Schools Act | |
| IB | IB International Baccalaureate | |
| ICC | interagency coordinating council | |
| ICD | international code of diseases | |
| ICDP | individual career development plans | |
| ICF | intermediate care facility | |
| ICFMR | intermediate care facility for mental retardation | |
| ID | ID | Intellectual Disabilities | |
| IDEA | IDEA | Individuals with Disabilities Education Act | |
| IDEIA | IDEIA Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act | |
| IDELR | Individuals with Disabilities Education Law Report (from LRP Pubs.) | |
| IED | intermittent explosive disorder | |
| IEE | IEE | Individualized Educational Evaluation | |
| IEP | IEP | Individualized Education Program | |
| IEPC | individualized educational planning committee | |
| IES | Interagency Educational Services | |
| IES | IES | Institute of Education Sciences | |
| IEU | intermediate educational unit | |
| IFA | individualized functional assessment | |
| IFSP | IFSP | Individualized Family Service Plan | |
| IHCP | individualized health care plan | |
| IHE | IHE | Institution of Higher Education | |
| IHO | impartial hearing officer | |
| IHP | individualized habilitation program or plan | |
| IHTP | individualized habilitation and treatment plan | |
| ILC | independent living center | |
| ILP | independent living plan | |
| ILT | instructional leadership training | |
| IMC | instructional materials center | |
| IML | instructional materials laboratory | |
| InD | intellectual disabilities | |
| Int D | Intellectual Disability | |
| IOM | Institute of Medicine | |
| IPC | Industry Planning Council | |
| IPE | individualized plan for employment | |
| IPL | initial program load | |
| IPOD | Interstate Project on Dissemination | |
| IPP | individualized program plan | |
| IQ | intelligence quotient | |
| IRCA | Immigration Reform and Control Act | |
| IRD | Intergovernmental Relations Department | |
| IRIS | Intergovernmental Research Information Services | |
| ISP | ISP Individual Services Plan | |
| ISS | in school suspension | |
| ITBS | ITBS Iowa Test of Basic Skills | |
| ITCA | ITCA | Infants and Toddlers Coordinators Association | |
| ITEA | International Technology Education Association | |
| ITED | ITED Iowa Tests of Educational Development | |
| ITH | intensive training home | |
| ITIP | instructional theory into practice | |
| ITP | ITP | Individualized Transition Plan | |
| JDEP | Juvenile Detention Education Program | |
| JDRP | joint dissemination review panel | |
| JJAEP | juvenile justice alternative education | |
| JOBS | job opportunities and basic skills | |
| JRP | Juvenile Rights Project | |
| JTPA | Job Training Partnership Act | |
| K-TEA II | Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement- 2nd Edition | |
| KABC II | Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children- 2nd Edition | |
| KLPA-2 | Kahn-Lewis Phonological Analysis- 2nd Edition | |
| KM-R | Key Math- Revised | |
| KPI | KPI Key Performance Indicators | |
| LA | language arts | |
| LAP | LAP Learning Assistance Program | |
| LCI | LCI Licensed Children’s Institution | |
| LD | LD | Learning Disability | |
| LDA | Learning Disabilities Association | |
| LDA | LDA Learning Disabilities Association of Washington | |
| LDP | language development program | |
| LEA | LEA | Local Education Agency | |
| LEDS | law enforcement data system | |
| LEITER-R | LEITER-R Leiter-Revised | |
| LEP | LEP | Limited English Proficiency | |
| LICC | local interagency coordinating council | |
| LIFE | living in functional environments | |
| LNF | LNF Letter Naming Fluency | |
| LoF | Letter of Finding issued by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) | |
| LPTA | Licensed Physical Therapy Assistant | |
| LRE | LRE | Least Restrictive Environment | |
| LSSP | licensed specialist in school psychology | |
| LTCF | long-term care facility | |
| LTCT | long-term care and treatment | |
| LWV | League of Women Voters | |
| M-V | M-V McKinney-Vento Act | |
| M/ED | mental or emotional disturbance | |
| MA | Master of Arts | |
| MA | MA Mental Age | |
| MBD | minimal brain dysfunction | |
| MBO | management by objective | |
| MD | MD | Muscular Dystrophy | |
| MD | MD| Multiple Disabilities | |
| MDC | multi-disciplinary conference | |
| MDG | MDG Multidisciplinary Group | |
| MDR | MDR | Manifestation Determination Review | |
| MDT | multidisciplinary team; manifest determination team | |
| MESC | migrant education service center | |
| MFCU | medically fragile children’s unit | |
| MH | Multiply Handicapped | |
| MHM | multihandicapped mainstream | |
| MHMR | mental health mental retardation | |
| MI | multiple intelligences | |
| MIS | MIS Management Information System | |
| MMR | MMR | Mildly Mentally Retarded | |
| MMS | mastery management system | |
| MOD MR | Mod MR | Moderately Mentally Retarded | |
| MORP | Mid-Oregon Regional Program | |
| MORS | Mid-Oregon Regional Services | |
| MOS | MOS Modified Observation Scale | |
| MOU | MOU | Memorandum of Understanding | |
| MR | MR | Mental Retardation | |
| MR/DD | mentally retarded/developmentally disabled | |
| MR/MED | mentally retarded and mentally or emotionally disturbed (sometimes referred to as dual diagnosis) | |
| MS | Multiple Sclerosis | |
| MSDD | multisystem developmental disorder | |
| MSO | Monitoring Systems and Outcomes | |
| MSRTS | migrant student record transfer system | |
| MST | multisystemic therapy | |
| MTU | MTU Medical Therapy Unit | |
| MVPT-R | MVPT-R Motor-free Visual Perception Test- Revised | |
| NAB | National Alliance of Business | |
| NAEP | National Assessment of Educational Progress | |
| NAEYC | National Association for the Education of Young Children | |
| NAGB | National Assessment Governing Board | |
| NAIS | National Association of Independent Schools | |
| NAS | National Academy of Sciences | |
| NASASPS | National Association of State Administrators and Supervisors of Private Schools | |
| NASBE | National Association of State Boards of Education | |
| NASDSE | NASDSE | National Association of State Directors of Special Education | |
| NASP | National Association of School Principals | |
| NASP | NASP National Association of School Psychologists | |
| NASSP | National Association of Secondary School Principals | |
| NAVE | National Academy for Vocational Educators | |
| NBPTS | National Board for Professional Teaching Standards | |
| NCE | NCE National Curve Equivalent | |
| NCEO | National Center for Educational Outcomes | |
| NCES | National Center for Education Statistics | |
| NCEST | National Council for Evaluation, Standards, and Testing | |
| NCLB; NCLBA | No Child Left Behind Act | |
| NCME | National Council on Measurement in Education | |
| NCOVE | National Council on Vocational Education | |
| NCRRC | NCRRC North Central Regional Resource CenterFormerly known as the GLARRC | |
| NCRVE | National Center for Research in Vocational Education | |
| NCSESA | National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment | |
| NDT | NDT Neurodevelopmental Treatment | |
| NEA | National Education Association | |
| NECTAS | National Early Childhood Technical Assistance System | |
| NEPSY | NEPSY Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment | |
| NERRC | New England Regional Resource Center | |
| NFB | National Federation of the Blind | |
| NGA | National Governors Association | |
| NICEM | National Information Center for Educational Media | |
| NICHCY | National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities | |
| NICU | neonatal intensive care unit | |
| NIDRR | National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research | |
| NIE | National Institutes of Education | |
| NIH | NIH | National Institutes of Health | |
| NIMAS | NIMAS | National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard | |
| NIMH | NIMH | National Institute of Mental Health | |
| NPRM | NPRM | Notice of Proposed Rule Making | |
| NPS/NPA | NPS/NPA Non-Public Schools/Non-Public Agencies | |
| NPTA | National Parents and Teachers Association | |
| NRC | National Research Council | |
| NRT | NRT Norm-Referenced Tests | |
| NSBA | National School Boards Association | |
| NSF | National Science Foundation | |
| NWAEA | Northwest Adult Education Association | |
| NWCCC | Northwest Curriculum Coordination Center | |
| NWEA | Northwest Evaluation Association | |
| NWREL | Northwest Regional Education Laboratory | |
| O&M | O & M | Orientation and Mobility | |
| OAAE | Oregon Alliance for Arts Education | |
| OABC | Oregon Architectural Barriers Council | |
| OAC | Oregon Advocacy Center (Formerly ODDAC) | |
| OACOA | Oregon Association of Central Office Administration | |
| OAD | Oregon Association of the Deaf | |
| OAESD | Oregon Association of Education Service Districts | |
| OAEYC | Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children | |
| OAR | Oregon Administrative Rules | |
| OARF | Oregon Association of Rehabilitative Facilities | |
| OASCD | Oregon Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development | |
| OASE | Oregon Association of School Executives | |
| OASSA | Oregon Association of Secondary School Administrators | |
| OATC | Oregon Advanced Technology Center | |
| OAVSNP | Oregon Association of Vocational Special Needs Personnel | |
| OBE | Oregon Board of Education | |
| OCA | Oregon Counseling Association | |
| OCCA | Oregon Community College Association | |
| OCCF | Oregon Commission on Children and Families | |
| OCCS | Office of Community College Services | |
| OCD | OCD | Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder | |
| OCDA | Oregon Career Development Association | |
| OCEA | Oregon Community Education Association | |
| OCEDC | Oregon Community Education Development Center | |
| OCEDHH | Oregon Coalition of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing | |
| OCIS | Oregon Career Information System | |
| OCPT | Oregon Congress of Parents and Teachers (formerly Parent-Teacher Association) | |
| OCR | OCR | Office of Civil Rights | |
| ODAS | occupational data analysis system | |
| ODC | Oregon Disabilities Commission | |
| ODD | ODD | Oppositional Defiant Disorder | |
| ODDAC | See OAC | |
| ODE | Oregon Department of Education | |
| OE | Open Entries | |
| OEA | Oregon Education Association | |
| OECD | Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development | |
| OED | Oregon Employment Division | |
| OEDD | Oregon Economic Development Department | |
| OFT | Oregon Federation of Teachers | |
| OH | orthopedically handicapped | |
| OHI | OHI | Other Health Impairment | |
| OHMAS | Office of Mental Health and Addiction Service | |
| OHP | Oregon Health Plan | |
| OHSPP | Oregon Headstart Pre-kindergarten Program | |
| OHSU | Oregon Health Sciences University | |
| OI | OI | Orthopedic Impairment | |
| OIEA | Oregon Indian Education Association | |
| OIT | Oregon Institute of Technology | |
| OJT | On the Job Training | |
| OMA | Oregon Mediation Association | |
| OMAP | Office of Medical Assistance Programs | |
| OMB | Office of Management and Budget (federal) | |
| OMEA | Oregon Multicultural Education Association | |
| OMI | other minorities | |
| OPB | Oregon Public Broadcasting | |
| OPEN | Oregon Public Education Network | |
| OPTA | Oregon Public Transportation Association | |
| OR-OSHA | Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division | |
| OrPTI | Oregon Parent Training and Information Center | |
| ORS | Oregon Revised Statutes | |
| ORSEEC | Oregon Special Education Employment Clearinghouse | |
| ORU | Oregon Riders Unlimited | |
| OSB | Oregon School for the Blind | |
| OSBA | Oregon School Boards Association | |
| OSCA | Oregon School Counselor Association | |
| OSD | Oregon School for the Deaf | |
| OSEA | Oregon School Employees Association | |
| OSEP | OSEP | Office of Special Education Programs | |
| OSERS | Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, US Department of Education | |
| OSERS | OSERS Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services | |
| OSHA | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Federal) | |
| OSL&P | Office of Student Learning & Partnerships | |
| OSNA | Oregon School Nurses Association | |
| OSO | Oregon Special Olympics | |
| OSPA | Oregon School Psychologists Association | |
| OSPI | Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction | |
| OSU | Oregon State University | |
| OT | OT | Occupational Therapy | |
| OTAP | Oregon Technology Access Program | |
| OTIS | Oregon Total Information Systems | |
| OTMC | Oregon Textbook Media Center | |
| OUS | Oregon University System | |
| OVSA | Oregon Very Special Arts | |
| OWA | Oregon Women for Agriculture | |
| OWLS | OWLS Oral Writtten Language Scales | |
| OYA | Oregon Youth Authority | |
| P and A | Protection and Advocacy (in Oregon, this is the Oregon Advocacy Center [OAC]) | |
| P&A | P&A | Protection & Advocacy | |
| PA | PA Phonectic Awareness | |
| PACER | parent advocacy coalition for educational rights center | |
| PALS | PALS | Peer-Assisted Learning System | |
| PASS | PASS | Plan for Achieving Self-Support | |
| PAT-3 | PAT-3 Photo Articulation Test- 3rd edition | |
| PAVE | Parents Advocating for Vocational Education | |
| PAVE | PAVE Parents Are Vital in Education | |
| PBIS | PBIS Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports | |
| PBS | PBS | Positive Behavioral Supports | |
| PCA | PCA | Personal Care Attendant | |
| PCD | perceptual communicative disability | |
| PCMR | Presidents Committee on Mental Retardation | |
| PD | PD | Physical Disability | |
| PDAS | professional development and appraisal system | |
| PDD | PDD | Pervasive Developmental Disorder | |
| PDD NOS | PDD NOS Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified | |
| PDMS-2 | PDMS-2 Peabody Developmental Motor Scales- 2nd edition | |
| PEATC | parent education advocacy training center | |
| PECS | picture exchange communication system | |
| PEDI | PEDI Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory | |
| PEI | PEI | Spanish acronym for the Individualized Education Program (Plan Educativo Individualizado) | |
| PEIMS | public education information management system | |
| PEL | present education level | |
| Perkins Act | Perkins Act | Carl Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act | |
| PERS | public employees retirement system | |
| PET | pupil evaluation team | |
| PIAT-R | PIAT-R Peabody Individual Achievement Test- Revised | |
| PIC | private industry council | |
| PIP | Parent Information Packet | |
| PIQ | performance IQ | |
| PL | Public Law | |
| PL 101-476 | 1991 Amendments (IDEA) | |
| PL 105-17 | 1997 Amendments (IDEA) | |
| PL 94-142 | The original Federal legislation authorizing the education of the children who have handicaps (Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1973). | |
| PL 99-457 | 1986 Amendments to PL 94-142 Reauthorization of Federal legislation guaranteeing children with handicaps the right to free public education and to include birth to 6 years. | |
| PLATO | programmed logic automatic teaching operations | |
| PLEP or PLP | PLEP or PLP | Present Level of Educational Performance or Present Level of Performance | |
| PLI | pragmatic language impairment | |
| PLOEP | PLOEP Present Level of Educational Performance | |
| PLOP | present level of performance | |
| PP | PP | Paraprofessional | |
| PPCD | preschool program for children with disabilities | |
| PPS | Portland Public Schools | |
| PPS | Pupil Personnel Services | |
| PPS | PPS Program Participation SystemThe electronic data system used to manage referrals of children from county Birth to 3 agencies to local educational agencies | |
| PPS | pupil personnel services | |
| PPVT-III | PPVT-III Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test- 3rd edition | |
| PR | PR Percentile Rank | |
| PRE-K | pre-kindergarten | |
| PROMISE | Providence Regional Outreach for Medically Impaired Students Education | |
| PS | PS | Preschool | |
| PSU | Portland State University | |
| PT | PT | Physical Therapy | |
| PTA | (See OCPT formerly Parent Teacher Association) | |
| PTA | physical therapist assistant; post-traumatic amnesia | |
| PTG | Parent Teacher Group | |
| PTI | PTI | Parent Training and Information Center | |
| PTSD | post-traumatic stress disorder | |
| PTT | planning and placement team | |
| PTWA | PTWA Physical Therapist Association of Washington | |
| PVS | Private Vocational Schools | |
| PVS | persistent vegetative state | |
| PWN | PWN Prior Written Notice | |
| PY | project year | |
| QAFB | questions about functional behavior | |
| QAP | QAP Quality Assurance Process | |
| QMRP | Qualified Mental Retardation Professional | |
| R & T | Research and Training | |
| R&D | research & development | |
| R&T | research and training | |
| RAD | reactive attachment disorder | |
| RCC | RCC Residential Care CenterFormerly known as CCI | |
| RCF | residential care facility | |
| RCH | Residential Care Home | |
| RCW | RCW Revised Code of Washington | |
| RDD | reading disorder-dyslexia | |
| REACh | REACh Responsive Education for All Children initiative | |
| READS | READS Reading Evaluation and Demonstration of Success Initiative | |
| REBT | rational emotive behavior therapy | |
| REI | regular education initiative | |
| RFI | RFI Request for Information | |
| RFP | RFP | Request for proposals | |
| RIO | Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon | |
| RLA | RLA Responsible Local Agency | |
| RMT | Regional Management Team | |
| RN | RN Registered Nurse | |
| RRC | regional resource centers | |
| RS | RS | Related Services | |
| RSA | Regional Service Agency, US Department of Education | |
| RSN | RSN Regional Service Network | |
| RSP | RSP Resource Specialist Program | |
| RTC | residential treatment center | |
| RTH | Residential Training Home | |
| RTI | RTI | Response to Intervention | |
| RTTT | RTTT | Race to the Top Fund | |
| RWQC | Regional Workforce Quality Committee | |
| S-B5 | S-B5 Stanford-Binet Fifth Edition | |
| S-BIV | S-BIV Stanford-Binet Fourth Edition | |
| SACCVE | State Advisory Council for Career and Vocational Education | |
| SACSE | State Advisory Council for Special Education | |
| SAP | SAP School Age Parent | |
| SAS | SAS | Supplementary Aids and Services | |
| SAT | scholastic aptitude test | |
| SB | SB | Spina Bifida | |
| SB L-M | Stanford-Binet, Form L-M (language/memory) | |
| SBD | SBD Severly Behaviorally Disabled | |
| SBE | State Board of Education | |
| SBE; SBOE | state board of education | |
| SBS | schoolwide behavior supports | |
| SC | SC Service Coordinator | |
| SCHIP | SCHIP | State Children’s Health Insurance Program | |
| SCSHN | Services for Children with Special Health Needs (formerly CCS) | |
| SD | SD Standard Deviation | |
| SDA | SDA service delivery area | |
| SDC | special day class | |
| SDE | self-directed employment | |
| SDFS | Safe and Drug Free School and Communities | |
| SDFSA | Safe and Drug Free School Act | |
| SDI | SDI Specially Designed Instruction | |
| SDS | Self-Directed Supports | |
| SDSD | Senior and Disabled Services Division | |
| SE | SE | Special Education | |
| SEA | SEA | State Education Agency | |
| SEAC | SEAC | Special Education Advisory Committee | |
| SECC | Special Education Child Count | |
| SECTION 504 | a part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 making it illegal for any organization receiving federal funds to discriminate against a person solely on the basis of disability | |
| SED | SED | Serious Emotional Disturbance | |
| SEDC | Special Education Data Collection | |
| SEHO | SEHO Special Education Hearing Office | |
| SELPA | SELPA Special Education Local Plan Area | |
| SEMS | special education management system | |
| SENCO | special education needs coordinator | |
| SENG | supporting the emotional needs of the gifted | |
| SEP | SEP Special Education PlanThe SEP was a district’s written plan for the provision of special education and related services, available for the public to read. See Wisconsin Statutes, section 115.77 (4). Discontinued as of July 1, 2006; replaced by the local performance plan. | |
| SERVE | secondary education reporting of vocational enrollment | |
| SET | Student Effectiveness Team | |
| SET Collection | Suspension, Expulsion, Removal & Truancy Collection | |
| SETC | SETC Special Education Coalition | |
| SH | SH Severe Handicap | |
| SHHH | Self-Help for Hard of Hearing | |
| SHI | Specialized Housing Inc. | |
| SI | SI | Sensory Integration | |
| SI | SI speech impaired | |
| SIB | SIB Scales of Independent Behavior | |
| SIB | SIB self-injurious behavior | |
| SICC | state interagency coordinating council | |
| SIG | SIG | State Improvement Grant | |
| SILP | Semi-Independent Living Program | |
| SIP | SIP | State Implementation PlanThe SIP was a statewide plan to improve educational outcomes of children with disabilities by focusing on collaborative partnerships, supports for learning, and quality staff. See Section 653 of the IDEA. Replaced in 2005-2006 by the SPP. | |
| SIS | Shared Information Systems | |
| SLC | structured learning center | |
| SLD | SLD | Specific Learning Disability | |
| SLI | SLI | Speech/Language Impairment | |
| SLP | SLP | Speech/Language Pathologist | |
| SLPA | speech-language pathologist assistant | |
| SLR | State Liaison Representative | |
| SNOW | SNOW School Nurse Organization of Washington | |
| SOI | Severe Orthopedic Impairment | |
| SOL | standards of learning | |
| SOP | SOP Summary of Placement; State Operated Programs | |
| SORP | Southern Oregon Regional Program | |
| SOSCF | state offices for services to children and families | |
| SOU | Southern Oregon University | |
| SPD | SPD seMantic pragmatic disorder | |
| SPD | SPD Severe Profound Disability | |
| SPDG | SPDG State Personnel Development ActThe SPDG replaced the State Improvement Grant (SIG). | |
| SPED | Special Education | |
| SPeNSE | study of personnel needs in special education | |
| SPH | SPH Severe Profound Handicap | |
| SPLD | semantic pragmatic language disorder | |
| SPOA | SPOA | Specific Power of Attorney | |
| SPP | Statewide Performance Plan | |
| SPP | SPP | State Performance PlanThe SPP replaces the SIP beginning with 2005-2006 | |
| SPR&I | Systems Performance Review & Improvement | |
| SRA | SRA Science Research Associates | |
| SS | SS Standard Score | |
| SSA | social security act; SSA Social Security Administration | |
| SSBD | septimatic screening for behavior disorders | |
| SSD | social security disability | |
| SSDI | SSDI | Social Security Disability Income | |
| SSI | SSI | Supplemental Security Income | |
| SSI | statewide systemic initiative; supplemental security income | |
| SST | SST | Student Study Team | |
| SST | SST student support team | |
| STAR | STAR State Testing and Reporting | |
| STO | short-term objective | |
| SWOCC | Southwest Oregon Community College | |
| T-TA | T-TA | Training and Technical Assistance | |
| TA&D | TA&D | Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) | |
| TAG | talented and gifted | |
| TANF | TANF | Temporary Assistance to Needy Families | |
| TAP | TAP Technical Assistance Paper | |
| TAPS-R | TAPS-R Test of Auditory-Perceptual Skills- Revised | |
| TASH | The Association for Persons with Severe Disabilities | |
| TBI | TBI | Traumatic Brain Injury | |
| TDD | TDD | Telecommunication Devices for the Deaf | |
| TDS | TDS Therapeutic Day School | |
| TESOL | teachers of English for speakers of other languages | |
| TFC | Together for Children | |
| TIMSS | Third International Math and Science Study | |
| TIP | Teacher Improvement Process | |
| TLC | Therapeutic Learning Center | |
| TLC-E | TLC-E Test of Language Competence-Expanded | |
| TMH | TMH | Trainable Mentally Handicapped | |
| TMR | TMR | Trainable Mentally Retarded | |
| TOLD | TOLD Test of Language Development | |
| TOPL | TOPL Test of Pragmatic Language | |
| TOPS | TOPS Test of Problem Solving | |
| TOVA | test of variable attention | |
| TPP | Teen Parent Program | |
| TPP | transition planning process | |
| TR | Teaching Research Division of Western Oregon University | |
| TS | TS | Tourette Syndrome | |
| TSPC | Teacher Standards and Practices Commission | |
| TTY | Teletypewriter (phone system for deaf individuals – see TDD) | |
| TTY | TTY | Teletypewriter (phone system for the deaf) | |
| TVMS-R | TVMS-R Test of Visual Motor Skils – Revised | |
| TVPS | TVPS Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills | |
| TWF-2 | TWF-2 Test of Word Finding- 2nd Edition | |
| TWWIIA | TWWIIA | Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act | |
| U of O | University of Oregon | |
| UAF | university affiliated facility | |
| UAP | University Affiliated Program | |
| UCE | university centers for excellence | |
| UCP | United Cerebral Palsy | |
| UNIT | UNIT Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test | |
| US DOE | United States Department of Education | |
| USDE | United States Department of Education | |
| USED | United States Education Department | |
| VAC | vocational adjustment counselor; vocational adjustment class | |
| VCD | volitional conduct disorder | |
| VEDS | vocational education data systems | |
| VI | VI |Visual Impairment | |
| VMI | VMI Developmental test of Visual-Motor Integration | |
| Voc Ed | Voc Ed | Vocational Education | |
| VR | VR | Vocational Rehabilitation | |
| VRD | vocational rehabilitation division | |
| VSA | very special arts | |
| VSAO | Very Special Arts – Oregon | |
| WAAS | WAAS Washington Alternate Assessment System | |
| WAC | work activity center | |
| WACCBD | WACCBD Washington Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders | |
| WACLD | WACLD Wisconsin Association for Children with Learning Disabilities | |
| WAEDHH | WAEDHH Washington Educators of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing | |
| WAIS-III | WAIS-III Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale- 3rd Edition | |
| WAIS-R | WAIS-R Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised | |
| WASDA | WASDA Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators | |
| WASL | WASL Washington Assessment of Student Learning | |
| WCBVI | WCBVI Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired | |
| WEAC | WEAC Wisconsin Education Association Council | |
| WESD-OTMC | WESD – Oregon Textbook and Media Center f/t Visually Impaired | |
| WESPDHH | WESPDHH Wisconsin Educational Services Program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing | |
| WIAT | WIAT Wechsler Individual Achievement Test | |
| WIAT II | WIAT II Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition | |
| WIC | WIC | Women, Infants and Children (Special Supplemental Food Program) | |
| WISC-III | WISC-III Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- 3rd Edition | |
| WISC-IV | WISC-IV Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- 4th Edition | |
| WISC-R | Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised | |
| WISC-R | Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised | |
| WJ-III | WJ-III Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement- 3rd Edition, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities- 3rd Edition | |
| WJ-R | WJ-R Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-educational Battery- Revised | |
| WMA | WMA Wisconsin Medical Assistance, DHS | |
| WOD | written output disorder | |
| WOTA | WOTA Washington Occupational Therapy Association | |
| WOU | Western Oregon University | |
| WPDM | WPDM Wisconsin Personnel Development Model | |
| WPPSI3 | WPPSI3 Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence- 3rd Edition | |
| WPPSIR | WPPSIR Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence- Revised | |
| WQC | Workplace Quality Council | |
| WQC | workplace quality council | |
| WRAML | WRAML Wide Range Assessment of Memory & Learning | |
| WRAML2 | WRAML2 Wide Range Assessment of Memory & Learning- 2nd Edition | |
| WRAP | wraparound program | |
| WRMT-R | WRMT-R Woodcock Reading Mastery Test- Revised | |
| WRRC | Western Regional Resource Center | |
| WSASP | WSASP Washington State Association of School Psychologists | |
| WSD | WSD Wisconsin School for the Deaf, Delavan | |
| WSEMS | WSEMS Wisconsin Special Education Mediation System | |
| WSHA | WSHA Washington Speech & Hearing Association | |
| WSNC | WSNC Washington State Nursing Association | |
| WSPEI | WSPEI Wisconsin Statewide Parent-Educator Initiative | |
| WSSB | WSSB Washington State School for the Blind | |
| WSSEC | WSSEC Washington State Special Education Coalition | |
| WSVH | WSVH Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped, Janesville | |
| WWC | WWC | What Works Clearinghouse | |
| YCEP | Youth Correction Education Program | |
| YLF | Youth Leadership Forum | |
| YTP | Youth Transition Program | |
Terms A to Z
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (back to top)
| Abstract reasoning deficit: | Difficulty with the ability to analyze, organize, and synthesize information—including making inferences. |
| Academic Achievement: | A child’s performance in academic areas (such as reading or language arts, math, science, and history). |
| Accessible Services: | Services that are affordable, located nearby, and open during evenings and weekends. Staff is sensitive to and incorporates individual and cultural values. Staff is also sensitive to barriers that may keep a person from getting help. For example, an adolescent may be more willing to attend a support group meeting in a church or club near home than to travel to a mental health center. An accessible service can handle consumer demand without placing people on a long waiting list. |
| Accommodation: | Supports that are provided to a child throughout the school day that do not significantly alter what is being taught or how the child participates in school activities. Examples of accommodations are preferential seating, extended time on tests, daily communication logs to share information between school and home, use of spell check and/or computer, enlarged print, and books on tape. See also Reasonable Accommodation. |
| Accommodations | Tools or strategies put in place to help a student complete tasks/achieve goals. (Nicholas receives accommodations such as extended time to take tests and a notetaker.) |
| Achievement Test: | A test that measures a student’s level of development in academic areas such as math, reading, and spelling. |
| Acquittal: | Judgment of the court, based on the verdict of a jury or a judicial officer, that the defendant is not guilty of the offense(s) for which he or she has been tried. |
| Active Range of Motion (AROM) | Refers how far a person can move a joint on their own. For example, if you straightened your knee as far as you could without anyone helping, it would refer to active range of motion. The opposite is passive range of motion (PROM), which refers to how much someone else can move the joint without your help. |
| Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): | Refers to the skills necessary to live independently, e.g., washing clothes, paying bills, cooking, etc. |
| Activity Center: | A day program where staff members assist adults with disabilities with activities emphasizing community skill training (e.g., learning to use public transportation) and vocational skill development. |
| Adapted Physical Education (APE): | A special education (remedial) program for students who require developmental or corrective instruction and who are precluded from participation in the activities of the general physical education program, modified general physical education program or in a specially designed physical education program in a special class. |
| Adaptive Behavior: | The extent to which an individual is able to adjust to and to apply skills to new environments, tasks, objects, and people. |
| Addiction: | Strong emotional and /or psychological dependence on a substance such as alcohol or drugs that has progressed beyond voluntary control. |
| ADHD: | See Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder |
| Adjudication Hearing: | Stage in juvenile court proceedings in which a judge presides on behalf of the juvenile to determine if he or she actually committed the alleged offense. If the judge rejects the allegations, the juvenile is released. The judge may believe the allegations to be true but withhold adjudication on condition that the juvenile agree to enroll in a community program that the court feels will help resolve the problem. |
| Administrative Review: | A review process whereby disagreements between parents and school systems may be resolved by a committee of school system individuals not directly involved with the case. Also called a conciliatory conference. |
| Adolescence: | Stage of growth and development ranging from about 11 or 12 years old to 17 or 18 years old in which major physiologic, cognitive, and behavioral changes take place. According to some theorists, important developmental tasks need to be accomplished (e.g., developing an identity, becoming independent, etc.). |
| Adult Day Programs: | Programs in which adults with disabilities receive training in daily living skills, social skills, recreational skills and “pre-vocational” skills. |
| Advocacy: | Speaking or acting on behalf of another individual or group to bring about change. |
| Advocate | One that pleads in another’s behalf; an intercessor: one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal |
| Advocate: | A person who speaks or acts knowledgeably on behalf of another individual or group to bring about change. |
| Affect: | Generalized feeling tone (usually considered more persistent than emotion, less so than mood). It is the external, observable manifestation of emotion (e.g., flat, blunted, constricted, expansive, labile, etc.). |
| Affective Disorder: | Any disorder that affects your mood (depression, bi-polar disorder, anxiety, panic). |
| Affective Psychosis: | A psychotic reaction in which the predominant feature is a severe disorder of mood or emotional feelings. Can be related to a major depressive or bipolar disorder. |
| Aged Out (Aging Out): | Refers to students with special needs who have reached the maximum age limit mandated in their state for special education and related services. |
| Agitation: | Restlessness, inability to concentrate or remain motionless. |
| Agnosia | (ag-no`ze-ah) The inability to recognize information that is reveived through one`s senses. The type of agnosia corresponds to the sensory system involved. For example, tactile agnosia is the inability to recognize objects by touch. There is also auditory (hearing) agnosia, gustatory (taste) agnosia, olfactory (smell) agnosia, and visual agnosia. |
| Agoraphobia: | Marked fear of being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing; fear of being out of control or fear of losing control when in a public place, e.g., a restaurant, shopping mall, or classroom. Fear of being in a place or situation in which help might not be available in the event of a panic attack. |
| Alcoholic: | One whose continued or excessive drinking results in impairment of personal health, disruption of family and social relationships, and loss of economic security. |
| Alcoholics Anonymous (AA): | A self-help organization that uses a 12-Step program to assist alcoholics in achieving and maintaining sobriety. Acknowledgment of loss of control over alcohol and willingness to seek help through a “higher power” are a major part of the organization’s program. |
| Alcoholism: | A chronic disorder characterized by dependence on alcohol, repeated excessive use of alcoholic beverages, development of withdrawal symptoms on reducing or ceasing alcohol intake, morbidity that may include cirrhosis of the liver, and decreased ability to function socially and vocationally. Currently believed by many to be a disease with strong genetic links. |
| Alternative Communication | A new/different type of communication that replaces another form of communication (speaking) (Mark is unable to speak. He has an electronic oard that talks for him. He types what he wants to say in his alternative communication device then hits “play” to have the device say what he wrote). |
| American Speech and Hearing Association | The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Their mission is to ensure that all people with speech, language, and hearing disorders have access to quality services to help them communicate more effectively. |
| Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): | An anti-discrimination law giving individuals with disabilities civil rights protections similar to those rights given to all people on the basis of race, sex, national origin, or religion. |
| Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): | Prohibits discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations and transportation, and providing telecommunication relay services. Provides a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities. |
| Anhedonia: | The inability to experience pleasure. In major depression, anhedonia is commonly noted as loss of pleasure in activities or experiences deemed as pleasurable or enjoyable by the client prior to the onset of the depressed episode. |
| Annual Goal: | Statement describing the anticipated growth of a student’s skill and knowledge written into a student’s yearly Individualized Education Program. |
| Annual Review: | A meeting held at least once a year to look at, talk about, and study a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). The purpose of the review is to make decisions about changes in the IEP, review the placement, and develop a new IEP for the year ahead. |
| Anorexia Nervosa: | An eating disorder primarily affecting adolescent girls and young adult women, characterized by a pathological fear of becoming fat, distorted body image, excessive dieting, and emaciation. No loss of appetite occurs until the late stages of the disease. |
| Antabuse (Disulfiram): | A drug given to alcoholics that produces adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, flushing, and tachycardia if alcohol is consumed. The drug’s effectiveness is largely due to its role as a deterrent. |
| Antidepressant Medication: | Any of three families of medicines (tricyclics, MAOIs, and SSRIs) used to take away or reduce clinical depression. Antidepressants are not stimulants or uppers, or “happy” pills. They are also not habit forming. (Imipramine, Nortiptyline, Doxepin are commonly used tricyclic antidepressants. Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil are commonly used SSRIs. |
| Anxiety: | Nonspecific, unpleasant feeling of apprehension, discomfort, and, in some cases, dread and impending doom that is manifested physically by such symptoms as motortension, autonomic hyperactivity, or hyperattentiveness. Symptoms prompt the person to take some action to seek relief. Anxiety can be communicated interpersonally. |
| Aphasia | Partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by injury or disease. |
| Aphasia | Total or partial loss of the ability to use or understand language—usually caused by stroke, brain disease, or injury. Learn more about aphasia. |
| Aphonia | Loss of the voice resulting from disease, injury to the vocal cords, or various psychological causes. |
| Aphonia | Complete loss of voice. |
| Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) | ABA is a science that involves using modern behavioral learning theory to modify behaviors. Behavior analysts reject the use of hypothetical constructs[1] and focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment. By functionally assessing the relationship between a targeted behavior and the environment, the methods of ABA can be used to change that behavior. Research in applied behavior analysis ranges from behavioral intervention methods to basic research which investigates the rules by which humans adapt and maintain behavior. |
| Applied Developmental Analysis (ADA) Therapy | ADA combines Developmental Psychology – which recognizes that people change across a lifetime of experience in unique ways – with a range of different therapeutic disciplines and approaches aimed to maximize growth. ADA includes data-driven interdisciplinary methods woven together in a therapeutic mosaic that fits each person individually in every phase of their life. |
| Appropriate Services: | Designed to meet the specific needs of each individual child and family. For example, one family may need day treatment, while another may need home-based services. Appropriate services for one child and family may not be appropriate for another. Appropriate services usually are provided in the child’s community. |
| Appropriate: | In free, appropriate public education provided by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), “appropriate” refers to an educational plan that meets the individual needs of a student with disabilities. |
| Apraxia | Inability to execute a voluntary movement despite being able to demonstrate normal muscle function. |
| apraxia | (ah-prak`se-ah) The inability to move in familiar ways or use familiar objects correctly. For example, a person who has lost the ability to put a shirt on correctly, may have apraxia. |
| Aptitude Test: | A test that measures an individual’s potential in a specific skill area, such as clerical speed, numerical ability, or abstract thinking. |
| ARD is the Admission, Review and Dismissal Committee | committee which makes decisions concerning the educational program of a student referred or placed in special education. Responsibilities of the ARD Committee include: [the following are bullets under above heading] -Review all diagnostic test results -Establish eligibility for special education services -Develop the Individual Education Plan (IEP) -Provide for educational placement in the least restrictive environment -Review all special services assignments annually to determine the need for continuation, change, reappraisal or dismissal -Ensure that alternatives are reviewed and additional services are discussed -Determine eligibility for Extended Year Services (EYS) |
| Articulation | Producing speech sounds (Amanda says the /s/ and /z/ sounds with a “lisp.” We work on her articulation, or pronunciation, in speech/language therapy sessions.) |
| Articulation Disorder | Characterized by the inability to produce individual speech sounds clearly and difficulty combining sounds correctly for words. |
| Articulation Disorders | Inability to correctly produce speech sounds (phonemes) because of imprecise placement, timing, pressure, speed, or flow of movement of the lips, tongue, or throat. |
| ASD: | See Autism Spectrum Disorder |
| Asperger Syndrome | Asperger Syndrome, also known as Asperger’s Disorder or Autistic Psychopathy, is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) characterized by severe and sustained impairment in social interaction, development of restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. These characteristics result in clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. In contrast to Autistic disorder (Autism), there are no clinically significant delays in language or cognition, self help skills or in adaptive behavior, other than social interaction. |
| Asperger’s Syndrome | A neurobiological disorder that may be characterized by delayed social, communication, and cognitive development. Asperger`s Syndrome is part of the Autism spectrum of disorders, however the difference between Asperger`s Syndrome & Autism is typically language skills. Children with Autism are frequently non-verbal, while children with Asperger`s Syndrome usually develop average oe slightly below average speech skills. Children with Asperger`s Syndrome often have difficulty responding to social cues, interpreting body language or facial expressions, and may perseverate on certain topics. |
| Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): | The treatment staff (Psychiatrist, Nurse, Case Manager, Therapist and/or Supportive Employment and sometimes others), based on the need of the consumer, goes to the consumer to provide treatment. |
| Assessment | Formal (e.g., standardized tests) and informal procedures used to identify a person’s unique needs, strengths, weaknesses, learning style, and nature and extent of intervention services needed. Assessment may be interchangeable with “Evaluation,” and it is at this clinic. |
| Assessment: | See Evaluation. |
| Assessment: | A process of individualized evaluation that comprehensively considers specific mental health or substance abuse problems and treatment needs of one person. An assessment is more thorough and focused than a screening, which serves more of a triage function. While particular assessments can be performed to address specific questions about an individual, typical assessments identify psychological needs and offer recommendations for consideration by the court, treating professionals, and correctional programs regarding needed interventions. |
| Assistive Devices | Tools and devices such as alphabet boards, text telephones, or text-to-speech conversion software used to help people with communication disorders perform actions, tasks, and activities. |
| Assistive Technology Device (ATD) | means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability. |
| Assistive Technology: | Any item, piece of equipment, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of children with disabilities; e.g., augmentative communication boards, computer input devices, special switches. |
| Assistive/Adaptive Technology (AT): | any piece of hardware which addresses the physical or cognitive needs of the user. |
| Associative Play | When children play with each other, sharing the same materials and activities in an unorganized way. At this level the children may be involved in play related to the same theme (e.g., playing blocks, playing “police/firefighter”) but not have organized scenarios with a common goal in their play. Each child purses his/her own unique ideas. Predominateds between 30-36 months. |
| Assymetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR) | |
| At-Risk: | Term used to describe children who are considered likely to have difficulties because of home life circumstances, medical difficulties at birth, or other factors, and who may need early intervention services to prevent future difficulties. |
| Ataxia | (ah-tak`se-ah) The inability to purposefully coordinate one`s muscles. |
| ATSR: | Assessment Team Summary Report. |
| Attention | Attention is a complex behavior that requires the integration of several areas of the brain. The first component of attention is “registration”, our initial awareness of a change in sensory stimuli. The second component of attention is “orienting”, an increase in our level of alertness. The final component is involves “effort” or exploration of the stimulus. For example, our effort might be to listen to or watch the stimulus. |
| Attention Deficit Disorder | ADD/ADHD in the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manuel) IV refers to 1) Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Combined Type, 2) Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder/Predominately Inattentive Type, or 3) Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder/Predominately Hyperactive-Impulsive Type. Overall, behaviors include hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention, depending on the diagnosis. These behaviors must occur to a degree, which is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level, and occur in at least two settings over a period of at least 6 months. These behaviors may interfere with speech/language learning, academic performance and social activities (e.g., making friends, sustaining friendships. The disorder is diagnosed before the age of 7, or symptoms were present before this age. There must also be the presence of related impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning. For examples of related behaviors and symptoms of ADD/ADHD, please click on “Understanding” and then “Other Impairments and Disorders” at the top of this screen. Scroll down to ADD/ADHD. |
| Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): | A biologically based mental disorder that typically has the following characteristics: short attention span, distractive behavior, difficulty following directions and staying on task, and an inability to focus behavior. The disorder compromises many skills needed for academic success. |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): | ADHD now incorporates what used to be abbreviated ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder — a condition where people have a hard time paying attention, staying focused, and often has a component of needing to be in perpetual motion. A behavioral inhibition disorder in which youth appear to have difficulty exhibiting control over their outward behaviors, typically displaying actions that appear louder, faster, and more powerful than the behaviors of their peers. |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): | A biologically based mental disorder in which a person has inappropriate degrees of inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. |
| Audiologist | A professional who specializes in the identification, testing, habilitation and rehabilitation of hearing loss and hearing related disorders (e.g., central auditory processing disorder). A person who is also extensively trained in the anatomy and physiology of the audtiory mechanism, counseling for hearing disorders, and diagnostic testing/fitting of hearing aids as well as assistive listening devices. |
| Audiologist: | A professional non-medical specialist who measures hearing levels and evaluates hearing loss. |
| Auditory Discrimination: | The ability to identify and distinguish among different speech sounds; e.g., the difference between the sound of “a” in say and in sad. |
| Auditory Impairment (AI) | is used synonymously with “hearing impaired” and both terms are understood to include “deaf” and “hard of hearing.” These students have been determined to have a serious hearing loss even after corrective medical treatment or use of amplification. |
| Auditory Perceptual Processing Disorder or Central Auditory | Also referred to as an auditory percetpual problem, central auditory dysfunction or central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). It can be defined as difficulty in listening to or comprehending auditory information, especially under less optimal listening conditions (e.g., background noise). It is a condition wherein a person does not process speech/language correctly. They may have difficulties knowing where sound has occurred and indentifying the source of the sound or in distinguishing one sound from another. Children and adults with CAPD are diverse and have difficulty using auditory information to communicate and learn. For more information, please click on “Understanding” and then “Auditory Perceptual Processing Disorder” at the top of the screen. |
| Auditory Processing | The auditory system, mechanism, and processes responsible for the following: sound localization and lateralization, auditory discrimination, auditory pattern recognition, temporal aspects of audition, and auditory performance with competing acoustic signals. |
| Auditory Processing | Auditory Processing is the ability to perceive & understand what is being heard. |
| Augmentative Communication | A device or tool that “adds to” or helps a person communicate (Josie only says a few words. She uses picture cards to communicate words she does not say. Using picture cards as augmentative communication helps her parents and teachers know what she needs and wants, “ince cream” for example). |
| Augmentative Devices | Tools that help individuals with limited or absent speech to communicate. These include communication boards, pictographs (symbols that look like the things they represent), or ideographs (symbols representing ideas). |
| Aural | Refers to the ear or the sens of hearing (Maggie’s classmates will listen to her presentation aurally). |
| Aural rehabiliation | Techniques used with people who are hearing impaired to improve their ability to speak and communicate. |
| Autism | Autism is a complex developmental disability that appears during the first three years of life. The result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, autism and its associated behaviors have been estimated to occur in as many as 1 in 500 individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1997). Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than girls and knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle, and educational levels do not affect the chance of autism’s occurrence. Per the DSM IV, autism includes delays and/or abnormal functioning (with onset prior to age 3) in at least one of the following areas: (1) social interaction, (2) language as used in social communication, or (3) symbolic or imaginative play. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett’s Disorder or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. Futher, for a diagnosis, a total of six or more items from A, B and C (below), and at least two from A and one each from B and C must be present. See “Autism–Diagnositc Criteria” A, B and C below. |
| Autism (AU) | is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. The result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, autism and its associated behaviors have been estimated to occur in as many as 1 in 500 individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1997). Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than girls and knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle, and educational levels do not affect the chance of autism’s occurrence. [paragraph break here) Autism impacts the normal development of the brain in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Children and adults with autism typically have difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities. The disorder makes it hard for them to communicate with others and relate to the outside world. In some cases, aggressive and/or self-injurious behavior may be present. Persons with autism may exhibit repeated body movements (hand flapping, rocking), unusual responses to people or attachments to objects and resistance to changes in routines. Individuals may also experience sensitivities in the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. |
| Autism Spectrum Disorder: (ASD) | Any disorder that falls under the category of “autism” from high functioning (often called Asperger’s Syndrome) to severe mental retardation along with specific characteristics of noninteraction in the social environment and developmental delays that are characteristic of autism. |
| Autism–Diagnostic Criteria “A” | A. Qualitative impairments in reciprocal social interaction: Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction. Failure to develop peer relatiohships appropriate to developmental level. Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest, or achievements with others. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity. |
| Autism–Diagnostic Criteria “B” | B. Qualitative impairments in communication: A delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime). Marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others despite adequate speech. Sterotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language. Lack of varied spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level. |
| Autism–Diagnostic Criteria “C” | Restricted, repetitive, and sterotyped patterns of behavior, interest, or activity, emcompassing preoccupation with one or more sterotyped and restricted patterns of interest, abnormal either in intensity or focus. An apparently compulsive adherence to specific nonfunctional routines or rituals. Sterotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, complex whole body movements). Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects. |
| Autism: | A developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3. |
| Autistic Spectrum Disorders | May also be referred to as pervasive developmental disorders. Autistic spectrum disorders include Asperger syndrome, autism, and pervasive developmental disorders–not otherwise specified. They are neurological in origin and symptoms appear in the first few years of life. The disorders share a set of behavioral characteristics, but each child/adult shows symptoms and characteristics very differently. Autism is referred to as a spectrum disorder to signify these differences among those sharing a common diagnosis. |
| Behavior Disorders (BD): | Disorders characterized by disruptive behavior in school, home, and other settings. They can include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, difficulty learning, and inability to establish satisfactory relationships with others. Such behavior is considered inappropriate, excessive, chronic, and abnormal. |
| Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP): | Implementation of procedures for the elimination of maladaptive behaviors, which are significantly interfering with the implementation of the student’s IEP. A systematic implementation of procedures, identified in the IEP, that result in lasting positive changes in the individual’s behavior. |
| Behavior Management Plan | A behavioral management plan tries to prevent maladaptive behaviors, teaches socially acceptable behaviors to take the place of unpleasant behaviors, and creates a crisis intervention plan. |
| Behavior Modification or Behavioral Therapy: | Treatment that focuses on modifying observable behavior. It focuses on the effects rather than the cause of behavior, such as how the youth is being reinforced by parents or peers for engaging in maladaptive behaviors. The focus is on educating a parent or other significant individuals in a youth’s environment on good behavior management. They learn to positively reinforce appropriate behaviors and ignore or punish maladaptive or inappropriate behaviors. Examples include token economies, in which a youth receives points for positive behavior and loses points for negative behavior. Incentives and sanctions in the juvenile justice system are another example. |
| Behavior: | Any observable, recordable, and measurable movement, response, or verbal or nonverbal act demonstrated by an individual. |
| Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP): | A plan that is based on a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to promote positive behavior for a student whose behavior impedes his or her ability to learn or is disruptive to others. |
| Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP): | A behavioral intervention plan is developed by the CCC (see Case Conference Committee) and describes what modifications, positive intervention strategies, and skill instruction will be used in an effort to change the student’s behavior. It is developed from the information in the FBA (see Functional Behavioral Assessment). |
| Behavioral Observation | : A systematic way of observing, recording, and interpreting the behavior of a student as he/she works on the job in order to gain a broad picture of the student’s interests and abilities. Part of a vocational assessment. |
| Behavioral Therapist | The Behavioral Therapist seeks to effect positive and lasting change by working with the client to modify their maladaptive thoughts and/or behaviors. |
| Bilateral Integration | Refers to the ability to use the two sides of the body together in a coordinated manner. Examples of bilateral tasks include: running, skipping and jumping with both feet together. |
| Bipolar Disorder I: | A consumer experiences at least one, and usually many more, manic times — going back and forth between mania and major depression. Psychosis may be present. |
| Bipolar Disorder II: | A consumer experiences periods of hypomania — going back and forth between hypomania and major depression. Hypomania does not cause as many problems as mania and psychotic symptoms are not present. |
| Bipolar Disorder: | An affective or mood disorder characterized by episodes of mania alternating with periods of depression, with normal mood intervals occurring between the manic and depressive states. |
| Blackouts: | Anterograde amnesia, most commonly experienced by alcoholics and persons suffering from an organic brain syndrome. Some believe blackouts are a result of dehydration of brain tissue. The individual retains consciousness with the memory loss. |
| Blind (Blindness): | Complete loss of sight. Educationally, individuals who have severe visual impairment or have no vision and must learn to read by braille, are considered blind. See also Legally Blind. |
| Blocking: | Difficulty in recollection or interruption of a train of thought or speech. |
| Blunted Affect: | An extreme restriction in emotional expression in which only minimal degrees of emotions are evident. Restrictions are not as severe as in flattened affect. |
| Body Awareness | There is an internal body “map” each of us has that allows us to know where we are, what position we are in, and how we are moving at any given moment. The body map allows us to move without relying on our visual system to guide each movement. The body map is created over time as we develop from infancy throughout childhood, via repeated accurate sensory inputs produced from our motion through space. Inaccurate sensory perceptions do not allow for the creation of accurate body maps. Children with inaccurate body maps typically rely heavily on their visual systems and have significant difficulty with many aspects of motor skill. |
| Borderline Personality Disorder: | A personality disorder with the essential feature being a pervasive pattern of unstable self-image, mood, and interpersonal relationships. Persons diagnosed with this disorder frequently display mood shifts directed outwardly toward staff to meet their own needs, a mechanism commonly referred to as “splitting.” Although many youth in the juvenile justice system display borderline traits, most do not meet DSM-IV criteria for borderline personality disorder. Youth with borderline personality disorder have a long-standing pattern of intense, turbulent relationships and are terrified to be alone. They often cycle between idealizing someone and then hating him or her. Their moods are often intense and erratic, and they frequently have outbursts of anger. Because of their lack of identity, these youth frequently change their goals, plans, and opinions. Self-mutilation and suicidal behaviors are common in youth who have borderline personality disorder. Because of their age, it is much more common for youth in the juvenile justice system to display borderline personality “traits” rather than the full-blown disorder. |
| Brachial Plexus | (bra`ke-al plecks-us) is a network of nerves that branch off of the spinal cord and travel through the armpit into the arm & hand. The brachial plexus is important as it supplies the nerves needed to move and have sensation in the shoulder, arm, and chest. Injury to the brachial plexus can result in devastating results as they affect movements and sensations of the upper limb. |
| Brain Stem | The part of the brain that connects to the spinal cord. The brain stem is responsible for many critical functions of the body, some of which include breathing, heart rate, & blood pressure. |
| Bruininks Otseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) | A standardized test administered on an individual basis to children between the ages of 4 1/2 to 14 1/2 years of age. It examines the areas of fine and gross motor skills. The child is given a score, which ranks them amongst same age peers and determines if their fine and gross motor skills are average, or above, or below the average for their age. |
| Buckley Amendment: | More commonly known name for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. The law gives parents and students (over age 18) the right to see, correct, and control access to school records. |
| Bulimia: | An eating disorder characterized by recurrent cycles of binge eating followed by episodes of purging. The individual suffers from persistent over-concern with body image and weight but lacks the body image distortion and degree of weight loss experienced by the person with anorexia nervosa. |
| C.F.R.: | Code of Federal Regulations. |
| California Speech and Hearing Association | The State of California’s professional, scientific, and credentialing association for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. |
| Career Education: | A progression of activities intended to help students acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that make work a meaningful part of life. Career education has four stages: 1) awareness/orientation, 2) exploration, 3) preparation, including vocational education, and 4) job placement/follow-up. |
| Caregiver: | A person who has special training to help people with mental health problems. Examples include social workers, teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and mentors. |
| Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act (1990): | A federal law stipulating that students with disabilities be guaranteed the opportunity to participate in federally funded vocational programs that are equal to those afforded to the general student population. |
| Case Conference Committee (CCC): | A case conference committee is the group of persons described in 511 IAC 7-27-3, including parents and school personnel, who are responsible for the following: (1) Reviewing evaluation data, identifying the existence of a disability, and determining a student’s eligibility for special education and related services. (2) Developing, reviewing, and revising a student’s individualized education program. (3) Determining the appropriate special education, related services and placement for a student and the setting or settings in which those services will be provided. (4) Determining other matters, including the provision of a free appropriate public education that are assigned to an IEP team by federal law or to a case conference committee by state law or any rule of the Indiana state board of education. |
| Case management: | A service that helps people organize appropriate services and supports. A case manager coordinates mental health, social work, educational, health, vocational, transportation, advocacy, respite care, and recreational services, as needed. The case manager makes sure that the changing needs of the child and family are met. (This definition does not apply to managed care.) |
| Case manager: | An individual who organizes and coordinates services and supports for children with mental health problems and their families. (Alternate terms: service coordinator, advocate, and facilitator.) |
| Case Manager: | See Service Coordinator. |
| Catharsis: | The release of tension and anxiety by recounting and/or acting out past experiences. |
| Cerebral Palsy | (ser`e-bral pal-sze) is a medical condition caused from damage to the brain of an infant. The damage may be due to illness of the mother before birth or the damage may be done during the birth process. The result of the damage is the inability to control and coordinate muscles and these difficulties may range from mild too severe. Exact symptoms may vary and can include extremely stiff or extremely floppy muscles, or a fluctuation between the two. There are several classifications of cerebral palsy but they all present with the movement difficulties. |
| Cerebral Palsy (CP) | is a loss or deficiency of motor control with involuntary spasms caused by permanent brain damage present at birth. |
| Chain: | A learned sequence of behaviors that are usually performed in the same order; all behaviors tend to be performed once the first behavior in the chain is completed. Getting dressed in the morning is an example. |
| Character: | In psychiatry, the sum of the relatively fixed personality traits and habitual modes of response of an individual. |
| Child Find: | A state and local program mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to identify individuals with disabilities between the ages of birth and twenty-one and to direct them to appropriate early intervention or educational programs. |
| Child Protective Services: | Designed to safeguard the child when abuse, neglect, or abandonment is suspected, or when there is no family to take care of the child. Examples of help delivered in the home include financial assistance, vocational training, homemaker services, and daycare. If in-home supports are insufficient, the child may be removed from the home on a temporary or permanent basis. Ideally, the goal is to keep the child with the family whenever possible. |
| Child Study Team or Screening Committee: | A local school-based committee, whose members determine if a student should be evaluated for special education eligibility. |
| Children and Adolescents at Risk for Mental Health Problems: | Children are at greater risk for developing mental health problems when certain factors occur in their lives or environments. Factors include physical abuse, emotional abuse or neglect, harmful stress, discrimination, poverty, loss of a loved one, frequent relocation, alcohol and other drug use, trauma, and exposure to violence. |
| Chronological Age (CA) | is the number of years a person has lived, used especially in psychometrics as a standard against which certain variables, such as behavior and intelligence, are measured. |
| Circumstantial Speech: | Inclusion of many nonessential details in a response. |
| Classification: | Process through which the educational, vocational, treatment, and security needs of an offender are determined. |
| Clinical Fellowship Year (CFY) | An important transitional phase between supervised graduate-level practicum and the independent delivery of services. It is designed to foster the continued growth and integration of the knowledge, skills, and tasks of clinical practice in speech-language pathology consistent with ASHA’s current scope of practice. The CFY lasts a continuous 9 months while maintaining full-time employment (30+ hours a week). |
| Clonus | (klo`nus) is repetitive involuntary movement of the toe, ankle, or wrist and is caused by quickly stretching the muscle. For example, if you bend the ankle quickly and hold the foot up, clonus looks like the individual is tapping their foot. The person is unable to control this movement. |
| Club Foot | An ankle or foot deformity that occurs in several different forms affecting 1 in 400 babies. In the most common form the foot is angled at the heel and points upward and outward. If both feet are ’’clubbed’’ the child`s toes point towards each other. Clubfoot is not painful, but will bother the baby once they begin to stand or walk. Treatment includes surgical and non-surgical interventions. Most commonly the child`s foot is splinted repetitively into a more neutral position so the foot will eventually be able to move normally. |
| Co-Occurring Disorders: | A consumer who has a mental illness and a substance abuse diagnosis at the same time. In some settings, the term co-morbid or dually diagnosed is used interchangeably with the term co-occurring disorder. |
| Cognition | Thinking skills that include perception, memory, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intellect, and imagination. |
| Cognition: | A term that describes the process people use for remembering, reasoning, understanding, and judgement. |
| Cognition: | Pertaining to the mental processes that include knowing, thinking, learning, judging, and problem solving. |
| Cognitive Therapy: | Cognitive treatment focuses on the thoughts that a youth has. It is important to identify if these thoughts are distorted or inaccurate, and how they contribute to maladaptive behaviors. Youth are educated on how their thoughts have an impact on feelings and behavior. A cognitive therapist incorporates contingency management and reinforcement techniques to teach self-regulation and new ways of coping and problem solving. Youth are taught alternative ways of solving interpersonal conflict and problems through modeling, practice, rehearsal, and role-play (Kazdin et al.,1989). |
| Commitment: | Action of a judicial officer ordering that a juvenile subject to judicial proceedings be placed in a particular kind of confinement or residential facility for a specified reason authorized by law; also, the result of the action, that is, the admission to the facility. |
| Communication | a. The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. b. Interpersonal rapport. c. communications (used with a sing. or pl. verb). The art and technique of using words effectively and with grace in imparting one’s ideas. |
| Communication Disorder: | A general term for any language and/or speech impairment. |
| Community Mental Health Center: | A community-based facility, or a complex of such facilities, for the prevention and treatment of mental illness. May include a full spectrum of services such as inpatient, outpatient, day hospital, night hospital, emergency, aftercare, rehabilitation, public education, consultation, and evaluation services. |
| Community Participation: | Activities by a person with disabilities within the community which contribute to the well-being and improvement of that community, such as volunteering at the hospital, planting trees, serving on the board of a nonprofit agency. |
| Community Reintegration Planning: | Preparation and strategy for each juvenile offender’s release from custody. The plan prepares the juvenile for return to the community in a law-abiding role after release. |
| Community Residential Program: | Program housed in a structure without the security fences and security hardware typically associated with correctional facilities, such as a converted apartment building or private home. Such a program is not constructed as or intended to be a detention facility. |
| Community-Based Instruction (CBI) | means working together with community businesses, to provide special needs students hands-on opportunities to acquire knowledge, develop skills for real jobs and learn appropriate social behaviors through interaction with co-workers that occurs naturally in a work setting. The student is not paid nor does he/she provide benefit or advantage to the employer. Students will earn high school credits towards graduation. |
| Competitive Employment: | Everyday jobs with wages at the going rate in the open labor market. Jobs can be either on a part-time or full-time basis. |
| Compliance File: | School records containing all reports of meetings, correspondence, and other contacts between parents and school officials. |
| Compulsion: | An uncontrollable impulse to perform an act or ritual repeatedly. A compulsion may be in response to an obsession (repetitive, persistent thought) as in obsessivecompulsive disorder. The compulsive behavior serves to decrease anxiety. Some examples of rituals are hand washing, cleaning, and checking. |
| Compulsive Ritual: | Series of acts repetitively carried out under compulsion. As with single compulsions, failure to carry out the ritual results in tension and anxiety. |
| Conduct Disorder: | A disorder of childhood that is characterized by a persistent pattern of conduct in which the basic rights of others and the rules of society are disrupted or violated. Many youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system have been aggressive or deceitful, have violated rules, or destroyed someone’s property. Such behavior is often the reason they were arrested. However, just because a youth has been arrested does not automatically mean the youth has conduct disorder. Youth with conduct disorder show a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that violates rules or the rights of others (e.g., aggression, theft, destruction of property). These youth typically have little empathy for other people and may lack feelings of guilt or remorse. They are often hostile and aggressive, and tend to blame other people for things they have done. |
| Confabulation: | The more or less unconscious, defensive “filling in” of actual memory gaps by imaginary experiences, often complex, that are recounted in a detailed, plausible way. Seen principally in organic psychotic reactions such as Korsakoff’s psychosis. |
| Confidential File: | A file having restricted access and containing records of a child’s evaluation and other materials related to special education (medical reports, independent evaluations, reports of eligibility meetings, etc.). |
| Confidentiality: | The limiting of access to a child or family’s records to personnel having direct involvement with the child. |
| Confrontation: | A process by which a client is told something about himself or herself by a nurse or therapist that encourages self-examination. Also used to clarify an inconsistency or incongruence between what the client says and does. |
| Congenital | a. Existing at or before birth. b. Acquired at birth or during uterine. Developmental, as a result of either hereditary or environmental influences. |
| Congenital Strabismus | (kon-jen`I-tal strah-biz-mus) is a condition where a child`s eye turns either inwards, outwards, or upwards beyond their control. It can sometimes be known as a ’’crossed eye.’’ Treatment varies and may include placing a patch over the child`s stronger eye, eyeglasses, special exercises, or surgery. |
| Congenital Torticollis | (kon-jen`I-tal tor’’ti-kol`is) is a neck muscle deformity that children are born with. Torticollis causes the muscles of the neck to shorten resulting in a child`s neck always resting in a twisted position. Torticollis is treatable. |
| Congenital: | A term referring to a condition present or existing at birth. |
| Consent: | Parental permission, usually given by signing a letter or form, agreeing to let the schools take an action which affects a child’s education. Consent is required before a child can be evaluated or receive special education services under IDEA. |
| Constricted: | Narrowed or restricted range, as in emotion; for example, a “constricted affect.” |
| Constructive Play | Manipulation of objects for the purpose of constructing or creating something (Rubin, 1984). Children use materials to achieve a specific goal in mind that requires transformation of objects into a new configuration. Usually emerges around two years of age and predominates from age three on. |
| Consumer: | A person who has received or is receiving mental health or addiction services. |
| Contingency Reinforcement Contract: | A written agreement, which clearly and concisely explains the amount and type of work required of the child, and the amount and type of reinforcer he or she will obtain for the work. |
| Continuum of Care: | A term that implies a progression of services that a child moves through, usually one service at a time. More recently, it has come to mean comprehensive services. Also see system of care and wraparound services. |
| Contract Services: | services provided to students with disabilities by private service providers (private schools, institutions, therapists, etc.) when the school system is unable to provide the needed service. |
| Cooperative Play | When children plan, assign roles and play together it is referred to as cooperative play. Cooperative play is goal-oriented and children play in an organized manner toward a common end. Emerges around 36 to 48 months of age and continues through the school years. |
| Coordinated Services: | Child-serving organizations talk with the family and agree upon a plan of care that meets the child’s needs. These organizations can include mental health, education, juvenile justice, and child welfare. Case management is necessary to coordinate services. Also see family-centered services and wraparound services. |
| Coordination | Includes both motor control and praxis (motor planning). Motor control is the ability to move with precision and smooth quality. Praxis is defined below. |
| Coping Mechanisms: | Techniques that tend to help us deal with anxiety. Usually a conscious process that provides sufficient relief, e.g., exercise, humor. |
| Correctional Facility: | Facility for the incarceration of individuals accused or convicted of criminal activity. |
| Crisis Residential Treatment Services: | Short-term, round-the-clock help provided in a nonhospital setting during a crisis. For example, when a child becomes aggressive and uncontrollable, in addition to in-home supports, a parent can temporarily place the child in a crisis residential treatment service. The purposes of this care are to avoid inpatient hospitalization, help stabilize the child, and determine the next appropriate step. |
| Cultural Competence: | Services that are sensitive and responsive to cultural differences. Caregivers are aware of the impact of culture and possess skills to help provide services that respond appropriately to a person’s unique cultural differences, including race and ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical disability. They also adapt their skills to fit a family’s values and customs. |
| Culture: | The learned values, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors of specific groups of people. Nurses or therapists value cultural differences and recognize mental disorders within the context of their individual cultures. |
| Cumulative File: | A file containing report cards, standardized achievement test scores, teacher reports, and other records of a student’s school progress. |
| Cystic Fibrosis (CF) | (sis-tik fi-bro-sis) is a hereditary condition causing dysfunction to the glands that produce body fluids like mucous, and several body systems can be affected. If the sweat glands are affected, excessive sweating is present and dehydration and shock can result. CF also commonly affects the digestive tract. The excessive mucous in the tract doesn`t allow the breakdown of foods leading to poorly digested and absorbed nutrients. Thus children with this type of CF can have difficulty gaining weight and can become malnourished. When the lungs are involved, thick mucous can fill the lungs causing coughing and risk of infections. Pneumonia is a common symptom. Medical interventions are available to treat CF, but it is seldom cured. |
| Day Hospital: | A special facility or an arrangement within a hospital setting that enables the patient to come to the hospital for treatment during the day and return home at night. |
| Day Treatment: | Day treatment includes special education, counseling, parent training, vocational training, skill building, crisis intervention, and recreational therapy. It lasts at least 4 hours a day. Day treatment programs work in conjunction with mental health, recreation, and education organizations and may even be provided by them. |
| Deaf – Blind (DB) | means medically verified visual loss coupled with medically verified hearing loss that, together, interfere with acquiring information or interacting in the environment. |
| Deaf (Deafness): | A hearing impairment so severe that an individual cannot process sounds even with amplification such as hearing aids. |
| Deaf-Blindness: | The combination of visual and hearing impairments causing such severe communication and other developmental and educational problems that a child cannot adequately be served in a special education program solely for deaf or blind children. |
| Deficit | A deficiency or impairment in mental or physical functioning. |
| Delay | To perform below expected norms according to chronological age or grade level. |
| Delicate Touch | Delicate Touch refers to the ability to grade the amount of pressure applied through one`s fingers. This skill is important in developing a mature/efficient pencil grasp. |
| Delinquent Youth: | Also referred to as a juvenile delinquent or a criminal-type offender, a youth who has been charged with or adjudicated for conduct that would, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the offense was committed, be a crime if committed by an adult. |
| Delirium Tremens (DTs): | An acute, psychotic state usually occurring during reduction or cessation of alcohol intake after a prolonged or copious intake of alcohol; characterized by symptoms such as tremors, hallucinations, or seizures. Requires immediate treatment; may be life threatening. |
| Delirium: | A mental state characterized by disorientation and confusion. Anxiety, illusions, or hallucinations may also be present, e.g., the delirium of fever, delirium tremens, etc. |
| Delusion: | A fixed belief unrelated to a youth’s cultural and educational background, improbable in nature, and not influenced or changed by reason or contrary experience. Categorized as a thought disorder. |
| Denial: | A defense mechanism that is demonstrated by avoidance of disagreeable realities by the mind’s refusal to acknowledge them at a conscious level. May or may not be adaptive, depending on the information being denied. |
| Depersonalization: | An alteration in the perception or experience of the self in which one’s usual sense of reality is temporarily lost or changed. Feeling as if one is detached, in a dreamlike state, or an outside observer of one’s mind and body, rather than a participant. May lead to withdrawal. |
| Depression: | A mood described as feeling dejected and sad with a lowering of functional activity. A depressive disorder usually includes appetite and sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, and suicidal ideation. |
| Detainee: | Juvenile held in local, very short-term confinement while awaiting consideration for pretrial release, first appearance for arraignment, or disposition. |
| Detention: | Temporary care of a juvenile offender or a juvenile alleged to be delinquent who requires secure custody in a physically restricting facility pending disposition of the case. |
| Detoxification: | Structured medical or social milieu in which the individual is monitored for withdrawal from the acute physical and psychological effects of drug or alcohol addiction. |
| Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) | |
| Developmental Delay: | Term used to describe slower than normal development of an infant or child in one or more areas. |
| Developmental Disability | Developmental Disabilities in infants and toddlers are displayed as significant differences between expected level of development for age and current level of functioning. Children with developmental disabilities are those who have a delay in one or more of the following areas: cognitive development; physical and motor development, including vision and hearing; communication development; social or emotional development; or adaptive development. |
| Developmental Disability (DD): | Any severe disability, mental and/or physical, which is present before an individual becomes eighteen years old, which substantially limits his activities, is likely to continue indefinitely, and requires life-long care, treatment, or other services. Examples of developmental disabilities include Down syndrome, autism, and cerebral palsy. |
| Developmental Disability: | A condition a person is born with that causes him not to develop normally. They usually have a lower IQ than those not born with this condition. |
| Developmental Language Disorder | Children who do not develop language skills appropriately or according to language norms are language delayed or disordered. |
| Developmental Speech Disorder | Children who do not develop speech production skills appropriately or according to normative data are speech delayed or disordered. |
| Developmental: | Having to do with the steps or stages in growth and development before the age of 18. |
| Diagnosis | The act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation of patient history, examination, and review of other significant data. b. The opinion derived from such an evaluation. |
| Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV): | The book used by psychologists and psychiatrists to make mental health diagnoses and to differentiate one possible diagnosis from another. An official manual of mental health problems developed by the American Psychiatric Association. Psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other health and mental health care providers use this reference book to understand and diagnose mental health problems. Insurance companies and health care providers also use the terms and explanations in this book when discussing mental health problems. |
| Disability | The functional consequence of impairment |
| Disability: | A problem or condition which makes it hard for a student to learn or do things in the same ways as most other students. A disability may be short term or permanent. |
| Discharge Plan: | A formal written document that describes in detail the transition of the patient from one level of the mental health care system to another. |
| Discipline: | An educational process by which staff assist children and adolescents to develop the self-control and self-direction necessary to assume responsibilities, make daily living decisions, and learn to live in conformity with accepted levels of social behavior. |
| Discrete Trial Training | Discrete trial training (DTT) is a method of behavioral intervention. DTT programs generally involve several hours of direct one-on-one instruction per day over many months or years and teach specific skills in an intensive manner. The discrete trial method has four distinct parts (according to Anderson et al, 1996): (1) the trainer’s presentation, (2) the child’s response, (3) the consequence, (4) a short pause between the consequence and the next instruction (between interval trials). In general, DTT programs target skills that are broken down into finite, discrete tasks. The behavioral therapist typically uses repetition, feedback, and positive reinforcers to help the child master small tasks. Once mastered, basic skills are used as building blocks to develop more complex abilities. Behavioral excesses such as tantrumming, aggression, and repetitive behaviors, may also be addressed. Not all programs using DTT follow the same program sequences or curriculum. |
| Dismissal: | Decision by a court to terminate adjudication of all outstanding charges, an action justified when the pre-interview investigation and the facts disclosed in discussing the case with the juvenile and his or her parents indicate to the probation officer that the case is unfounded or when the evidence is untrustworthy or insufficient and does not warrant or sustain the charges (also referred to as nolle prosequi). |
| Disorder | An ailment or condition that affects the function of mind or body. |
| Disorientation: | Loss of awareness of the position of the self in relation to space, time, or other persons. |
| Disposition Hearing / Dispositional Hearing: | Hearing held subsequent to the adjudicatory hearing in which the judge determines what order of disposition should be made concerning a juvenile adjudicated as delinquent. A disposition may be probation, a warning or reprimand, some form of community service, a fine, or “home detention,” in which the juvenile continues to live at home but receives rigorous daily counseling. A more stringent disposition may include training school or group home placement. |
| Dissociation: | A psychological separation of “splitting off”; an intrapsychic defensive process, which operates automatically and unconsciously. Through its operation, emotional significance and affect are separated and detached from an idea, situation, or object. |
| Distractibility: | Inability to concentrate or attend to the task on hand; inattentiveness. |
| Diversion: | The official halting or suspension, at any legally prescribed point after a recorded justice system entry, of formal criminal or juvenile justice proceedings against an alleged offender. The suspension of proceedings may be in conjunction with a referral of that person to a treatment or care program administered by a nonjudicial or a private agency. |
| DOB | Date of Birth |
| Down Syndrome | A congenital disorder, caused by the presence of an extra crititical portion of the 21st chromosome in all, or some, of one’s cells. This additional genetic material changes the developmental course, causing the charateristics associated with the syndrome. Those affected usually have mild to moderate mental retardation. |
| Down's Syndrome | (downz) syndrome is also known as Trisomy 21 syndrome. It is a congenital condition resulting from a defect in a person`s Chromosome 21. Children & adults with Down`s Syndrome frequently have lower than normal muscle tone, joints that are loose or lax, & often have a lower level of intelligence. |
| Drug Testing: | Technical examination of urine samples to determine the presence or absence of specified drugs or their metabolized traces. |
| DSM: | See Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – Revision IV |
| Dually Diagnosed: | A consumer who has a developmental disability and a mental illness. In some settings, the term co-morbid disorder or co-occurring disorder is used interchangeably with the term dually diagnosed. |
| Due Process Hearing: | A formal session conducted by an impartial hearing officer to resolve special education disagreements between parents and school systems. |
| Due Process Hearing: | A term for a hearing at which parents have the opportunity to show that the school district is not properly educating their child. |
| Due Process: | A system of procedures ensuring that an individual will be notified of, and have opportunity to contest, decisions made about him. As it pertains to early intervention (Part C) and special education (Part B) of IDEA, due process refers to the legal right to appeal any decision regarding any portion of the process (evaluation, eligibility, IEP or IFSP, placement, etc.). |
| Due Process: | In the educational context, due process is a procedure initiated by a student’s parent, public agency, teacher, or the state educational agency and is conducted by an independent hearing officer when there is a dispute. |
| Dysarthria | Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that is due to a paralysis, weakness, altered muscle tone or incoordination of the speech muscles. Speech is slow, weak, efforful, imprecise or uncoordinated. Voice and breathing for speech may also be affected. |
| Dysarthria | Group of speech disorders caused by disturbances in the strength or coordination of the muscles of the speech mechanism as a result of damage to the brain, nerves, or muscles. |
| Dysfluency | Also known as “stuttering;” speech that is disruptd or “bumpy” (prolongatins, blocks, etc.); effortful speech (Jayson has trouble starting sentences when he is speaking. He says the first word of the sentence over and over. He has dysfluent speech). |
| Dysfluency | Disruption in the smooth flow or expression of speech. |
| Dysgraphia | |
| Dyslexia | Learning disability characterized by reading difficulties. Some individuals may also have difficulty writing, spelling, or working with numbers. |
| Dyslexia: | Learning disability affecting reading ability. Persons with dyslexia may have difficulty remembering, recognizing, and or reversing written letters, numbers, and words, might read backwards, and have poor handwriting. |
| Dysphagia | A disorder/condition that affects an individual’s ability to swallow. |
| Dysphagia | Difficulty swallowing. |
| Dysphasia | Impairment of speech and verbal comprehension; term often used when associated with stroke or brain injury. |
| Dysphonia | Any impairment of the voice or speaking ability. |
| Dyspraxia | |
| Dyspraxia of Speech | Partial loss of the ability to consistently pronounce words in individuals with normal muscle tone and coordination of the speech muscles. |
| Dysthymia: | A chronic disturbance in mood involving depressed mood for at least two years. Less intense than major depression. Characterized by a depletion of usual coping strategies and the tendency to feel worse as the day progresses, most likely due to inability to cope with accumulated stressors. |
| Early Intervening Services: | Services intended to give struggling students needed support as soon as a student’s needs become apparent. |
| Early Intervention | Early intervention applies to children prior to school age who are discovered to have or be at risk of developing a handicapping condition or other special need that may affect their development. Early intervention consists of the provision of services for such children and their families for the purpose of lessening the effects of the condition. Early intervention can be remedial or preventive in nature–remediating existing developmental problems or preventing their occurrence. |
| Early Intervention: | Providing services and programs to infants and toddlers (under age three) with disabilities in order to minimize or eliminate the disability as they mature. |
| Early Intervention: | A process used to recognize warning signs for mental health problems and to take early action against factors that put individuals at risk. Early intervention can help children get better in less time and can prevent problems from becoming worse. |
| ECSE: | Early Childhood Special Education. |
| Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA): | Public Law 94-142. Passed in 1975, which makes available a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for all disabled children in the United States. |
| Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA): | See Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). |
| Educational Advocate: | An individual who speaks or acts knowledgeably for the educational needs of another. |
| Educational Diagnostician: | A professional who is certified to conduct educational assessments and to design instructional programs for students. |
| Educational Model | Therapy focuses on intervention to improve the child’s ability to learn and function in the school environment. |
| Educational Therapist | A professional who uses educational and therapeutic approaches in working with clients of all ages with learning problems and learning disabilities. Educational Therapists perform professional work which requires applying the concepts, principles, and practices of education and rehabilitation therapy. |
| Efficient Pencil Grasp | The manner in which someone holds a pencil is called pencil grasp. Generally there efficient & inefficient pencil grasps. The term efficient is used because certain grasps allow greater movement & precison than others, resulting in better pencil control & ease. As children grow & develop, they will begin to use a more & more efficient grasp. Between the ages of 5 & 6 years, most children should be holding a pencil like an adult, & thus developed an efficient pencil grasp. One`s type of pencil grasp will affect the quality of their printing & writing, their speed, & the amount of effort required. Inefficient grasps include: power & pronated grasps. Efficient grasps include quadripod & tripod grasps. |
| Eligibility: | The determination of whether or not a child qualifies to receive early intervention or special education services based on meeting established criteria. |
| Emergency and Crisis Services: | A group of services that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to help during a mental health emergency. Examples include telephone crisis hotlines, suicide hotlines, crisis counseling, crisis residential treatment services, crisis outreach teams, and crisis respite care. |
| Emergency Detention: | A court order signed by a doctor and a judge stating that a person is a physical threat to himself or others or unable to care for himself. The person is brought to the hospital for up to 72 hours of observation. |
| Emotional Disability: | Emotional disability or Emotional disturbance typically refers to the manifestation of symptoms of a mental health disorder in a child or adolescent. In the educational context, an emotional disability is a condition that, over a long period of time and to a marked degree, consistently interferes with a student’s learning process and adversely affects the student’s educational performance. |
| Emotional Disorders (ED): | Disabilities characterized by their effect on an individual’s emotional state. They may cause anxiety, such as separation anxiety, phobias, and post traumatic stress disorder. Other emotional disorders are affective or mood disorders, such as childhood depression, or bi-polar disorder. |
| Emotional Disturbance (ED): | Students who exhibit one or more characteristics of a severe emotional disturbance as specified by law and whose condition has existed for a long period of time and to a marked degree. The condition must also adversely affect the student’s educational performance. A serious disturbance is to be distinguished from antisocial/socially maladjusted behavior, which is not a special education handicapping condition. |
| Emotionally Disturbed | A disturbance which can be characterized by: an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. If frequently affects the ability to learn. |
| Empathy: | Appreciation of another’s problems and feelings without experiencing the same emotional reaction. To be distinguished from sympathy, which is usually nonobjective and noncritical. |
| Employability Skills: | Personal habits and traits such as cleanliness, dependability, and punctuality that are necessary for successful employment; sometimes called “work adjustment skills.” |
| Enabler: | Family member or significant person in an alcoholic’s or drug addict’s life that contributes to the afflicted person’s continued use and abuse of the substance. Examples of enabling include making excuses for the afflicted person and/or supplying the person with the alcohol or drug. |
| English as a Second Language (ESL): | The term ESL is used frequently in the USA. If you maintain an EFL/ESL distinction, then ESL refers to English language learning in countries where English is the main and / or official language, and the student’s own native language (first language) is not English. This term is problematic when we consider learners for whom English is their third or fourth language. |
| Euphoria: | An exaggerated unrealistic sense of well-being. |
| Evaluation | An assessment of an individual’s abilities (i.e., speech and language, motoric, cognitive, etc.) in order to determine their strengths and weaknesses, and to see whether or not deficits are significant for intervention. It is usually the first thing that takes place to get a child qualified for service. The purpose is most often eligibility for a service(s). |
| Evaluation: | The process of collecting information about a student’s learning needs through a series of individual tests, observations, and talks with the student, the family, and others. Also, the process of obtaining detailed information about an infant or toddler’s developmental levels and needs for services. May also be called Assessment. |
| Expressive Language: | The ability to communicate through speech, writing, augmentative communication or gestures. |
| Expulsion: | An expulsion is the temporary removal of a student from the student’s current placement for more than ten consecutive school days. A student with a disability may be expelled for the same reasons as a student without a disability. |
| Extended School Year (ESY): | An individualized program, based on those goals an objectives on the IEP of the year preceding ESY, offered to special education students during all or part of the summer vacation period. ESY extends instruction beyond the conventional number of instructional days in the school year. |
| Extended School Year: | Special education provided during summer months to students found to require year-round services to receive an appropriate education. |
| Extinction: | A procedure in which reinforcement that previously followed a behavior is discontinued. |
| Extrapyramidal Side Effects: | A pathological condition that may occur as a side effect of certain psychotropic drugs. Usually characterized by muscular rigidity, tremors, and some peculiar, involuntary, movements or postures. |
| Family Care: | Care provided by individuals who are licensed by the state to provide family-like settings for adults with disabilities. |
| Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA): | More commonly known name for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. The law gives parents and students (over age 18) the right to see, correct, and control access to school records. |
| Family Psychotherapy or Family Therapy: | Family therapy is therapeutic contact with the patient’s family designed to enhance healthy reciprocal functioning, appropriate role behavior, and subsystem functioning and to increase interpersonal communication. The main idea behind family therapy is that problems of youth are an outcome of disordered relations within family systems. The therapist meets with the entire family and focuses on interactions between all family members. Family therapists emphasize communication skills, clarification of family roles, and boundaries and attempt to modify the family system to improve the behavior of the youth. Regardless of the treatment approach, mental health treatment of youth should always involve the youth’s family (which involves anyone the youth identify as their “family”). The chance of positive outcomes and maintenance of treatment gains is much more likely when significant individuals in the youth’s life are involved in the youth’s treatment. |
| Family Support Services: | Help designed to keep the family together, while coping with mental health problems that affect them. These services may include consumer information workshops, inhome supports, family therapy, parenting training, crisis services, and respite care. |
| Family-Centered Services: | Help designed to meet the specific needs of each individual child and family. Children and families should not be expected to fit into services that do not meet their needs. Also see appropriate services, coordinated services, wraparound services, and cultural competence. |
| FBA: | See Functional Behavioral Assessment. |
| Fear: | Responses to actual, present, external danger. |
| Figure-Ground | |
| Fine Motor Control | Involves development of manipulation skills in the hands to eventually allow for efficient and precise manipulation of objects. Sensory motor skills must be well developed for this to occur, including postural control, sensory modulation and praxis. |
| Fine Motor Skills | Fine motor skills are our ability to use our fingers, hands, & arms together to reach, grasp, manipulate small objects & use tools like forks, spoons, crayons & scissors. The coordination of Fine Motor Skills & integration with our abilities enable us to learn complex skills like fastening buttons & zippers, eating with a fork & knife, and printing, handwriting, typing & cutting. |
| Fine Motor Skills: | Body movements which use small muscles; for example: picking up a small object, writing, or eating. |
| Finger Isolation | Finger Isolation is the ability to move one finger at a time. When children start to use their hands, all fingers move at the same time. However as they grow & develop, they begin to be able to move individual fingers. This ability is very important in the development of fine motor skills. It contributes to developing an efficient pencil grasp, being able to fasten & unfasten buttons, & cut with scissors. |
| Flat or Blunted Affect: | A lack of emotional range or expression, also referred to as flattened affect. |
| Flight of Ideas: | Verbal skipping from one idea to another before the last one has been concluded. |
| Floor Play | Therapy where skills such as speech, language and play are developed through floor-based play involving toys, games, activities, etc. |
| Fluency | Speech that is clear, rhythmic, smooth; effortless or “easy” speech (Meg is working on using her “easy” speech in speech/language therapy sessions to help improve her fluency). |
| Form Constancy | |
| Fragile X Syndrome | A genetic condition caused by a spontaneous partial break in the long arm of the X chromosome. Measurement of testes in males and a chromosome analysis helps confirm the diagnosis. There are often very few outward signs of Fragile X syndrome. The spectrum of the syndrome ranges from normal development to developmental delay, learning disabilities, mild-severe intellectural disability, autistic-like behavior and attentional problems. The majority of children are mildy to moderately affected. |
| Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE): | Special education and related services that are provided in conformity with an IEP (see Individualized Education Plan). In order to comply with the requirement of providing a free appropriate public education, a school district must provide special education and related services that (A) have been provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge; (B) meet the standards of the State educational agency; (C) include an appropriate preschool, elementary, or secondary school education in the State involved; and (D) are provided in conformity with the individualized education program required under 20 U.S.C. S 1414(a)(5). |
| Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): | The words used in the federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to describe a student’s right to a special education program that will meet his or her individual special learning needs, at no cost to the family. |
| Free Appropriate Public Education(FAPE): | The federal provision for special education and related services for students at public expense; under public supervision and direction; and without charge to a parent, student or guardian. |
| Functional Analysis: | A procedure for analyzing behavior problems which are socially mediated in order to identify the multiple functions of behavior. |
| Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA): | A functional behavioral assessment is the organized collection and analysis of information about a student’s behavior. |
| Functional Behavioral Assessment: | A process to determine the underlying causes or funcitons of a child’s behavior that is keeping the child from learning or causing him to disrupt his peers’ learning. For example, is the child using the behavior to get attention? To escape from a situation that he finds overwhelming? Included in the assessment is identificaiton of when the behavior does and does not occu (what the antecedents are), what the chiold receives in return for the behavior (the consequences), ad possible ways of replacing those behaviors. An FBA is used to develop a behavioral intervention plan (BIP). |
| Functional Goals: | Goals that are designed to meet the needs of a child that result from the child’s disability and enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general educaiton curriculum or meet the child’s other educational needs resulting from his disability. |
| Functional Impairment | The cause of impairment in not known (Sadie has trouble pronoucing the /s/s, /z/, /l/, and /r/ sounds. We do not know of any physical reason why she has trouble with saying these sounds correctly. The cause of her speech errors is functional). |
| Functional Performance: | How the child’s disability affects his involvement and progress in the general educaiton curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum used for chikldren without disabilities). Or, for the preschool children, how the disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate activities. See Vocational Assessment. |
| Functional Play | May also be a term used for “relational play” (seen between 9-24 months) denoting use of objects in play for the purposes for which they were intended, e.g., using simple objects correctly, combining related objects (man in car), and making objects do what they are made to do. |
| Functional Vocational Evaluation. | |
| Gait | Gait is the medical term for walking. It refers to a person`s style & manner of walking. There are several types of gait. |
| General Education Diploma (GED): | A method for obtaining a diploma for adults who did not complete high school. GED tests, which measure achievement in writing skills, social studies, science, literature, and mathematics, enable individuals to demonstrate that they have acquired a level of learning comparable to that of traditional high school graduates. |
| Generalized Reinforcers: | Use of tokens, points, and money to reinforce behavior. |
| Goal: | See Annual Goal. |
| Grandiose Delusions: | A delusion in which the individual believes he or she possesses great importance, power, wealth, or intellect. |
| Grief: | Emotional response to an external and consciously recognized loss; self-limiting and gradually subsiding within a reasonable length of time. |
| Gross Motor Skills | Gross Motor Skills are our ability to use our large muscles to move. They include our ability to roll, crawl, walk, run & jump. Gross Motor Skills are importnat for the development of Fine Motor Skills & the ability to learn complex skills like fastening buttons & zippers, eating with a fork & knife, and printing, handwriting, typing & cutting. |
| Gross Motor Skills: | Body movements which use large muscles; for example: sitting, walking, or climbing. |
| Group Home: | A nonsecure residential program emphasizing family-style living in a homelike atmosphere. Program goals are similar to those for large community residential programs. Although group homes usually house youth who are court committed, they also house abused or neglected youth who are placed by social agencies. |
| Group Psychotherapy: | Application of psychotherapeutic technology to a group including utilization of interactions of members of the group. |
| Guided Participation: | The client first watches models engage in a goal behavior and then gradually imitates the model’s performance. |
| Habilitation | The process (therapy) to make suitable for specific use |
| Habilitation: | The process of helping an individual develop specific skills and abilities (e.g., dressing, eating, maneuvering a wheelchair) in order to become as independent and productive as possible. |
| Hallucinations: | Perceptions the person believes to be real despite evidence to the contrary, e.g., the person perceives something that does not exist. Seen in psychosis or acutely induced by such factors as drugs, alcohol, and stress. They may involve any of the five senses, but auditory and visual are the most common. |
| Hand Dominance | Hand dominance is the same as hand preference. The establishment of a hand dominance plays a very important role in a child`s fine motor development. It affects printing, cutting, & pencil grasp development. |
| Handicap | The loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the life of the community on an equal level with others. |
| Handicapped Children’s Protection Act: | The law providing for the reimbursement of reasonable attorneys’ fees to parents who win their cases in administrative proceedings under IDEA. |
| Hard of Hearing | Broad term covering individuals with hearing loss ranging from mild to profound (deaf). |
| Hard-of-Hearing: | Impaired hearing which can be corrected sufficiently with a hearing aid to enable an individual to hear and process sounds. Also used to describe hearing loss occurring after an individual has developed some spoken language. |
| Health Management Organization | A corporation financed by insurance premiums whose members, physicians and professional staff provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, geographic, and professional limits to enrolled volunteer members and their families. |
| Hearing Impaired | Broad term covering individuals with hearing loss ranging from mild to profound (deaf). |
| Hearing Impaired: | This term includes both individuals who are deaf and who are hard-of-hearing. The difference between deafness and hard-of-hearing is defined by amount of hearing loss. |
| Hearing Officer: | A person appointed by the state who acts as a judge in a special education due process hearing. |
| Hearing: | A proceeding to determine a course of action, such as the placement of a juvenile offender, or to determine guilt or innocence in a disciplinary matter. Arguments, witnesses, and evidence are heard by a judicial officer or administrative body in making the determination. |
| High Functioning Autism | Characteristics that are typically seen in individuals with “high functional autism” may include some of the following: average or above average IQ, superior vocabulary skills, higher rate of unusual obsessions, motor deficits (clumsiness), less impaired on “theory of mind” tests, and speech is less commonly delayed. |
| Hoarseness | Abnormally rough or harsh-sounding voice caused by vocal abuse and other disorders. |
| Home-based services: | Help provided in a family’s home either for a defined period of time or for as long as it takes to deal with a mental health problem. Examples include parent training, counseling, and working with family members to identify, find, or provide other necessary help. The goal is to prevent the child from being placed outside of the home. (Alternate term: in-home supports.) |
| Homebased Services: | Early intervention services provided to a child and family in their own home. |
| Homebound Instruction: | Educational instruction given in a student’s home when he is unable to attend school for medical or other reasons. |
| Homicidal: | A state characterized by one person’s verbal or behavioral threats to harm or kill another person. Requires immediate intervention. |
| Hoosier Assurance Plan: | State money that helps a consumer pay for some of their mental health and/or addiction treatment. |
| HRO: | Hearing Review Officer. |
| Hyper/Hypo Sensitivity | Hyper/Hypo Sensitivity refers to how sensitive one is to a sensation. Hypersensitivity means that one is overly sensitive & hyposensitivity means they are underly sensitive. Children with sensory integration or sensory processing difficulties are frequently hyper or hyposensitive to normal sensations. This can interfere with their ability to perform everyday tasks. |
| Hyper/Hypo-tonia | Hyper/Hypo-tomia refers to the amount of tension in a muscle at rest. Hypertonia is greater than normal tension & hypotonia is less than normal tension. The presence of either can greater affect one`s ability to move & coordinate their muscles. |
| Hyperactivity: | Restless, overactive motor movement and behavior. May be aggressive or destructive. Seen in children with hyperactive conditions or persons experiencing a manic episode. |
| Hyperlexia | A syndrome observed in children who have the following characteristics: an ability to read words, far above what would be expected at their chronological age, frequently an intense and early fascination with letters or numbers, significant difficulty in understanding/processing verbal language, abnormal social skills, and deficits in social/pragmatic communication abilities. Precocious reading abilities are developed spontaneously before the age of five; they are not taught. |
| Hypervigilance: | Increased state of guardedness or watchfulness; may be a sign of escalating anxiety or agitation. May involve scanning behaviors as well. |
| Hypo/Hyper Sensitivity | Hyper/Hypo Sensitivity refers to how sensitive one is to a sensation. Hypersensitivity means that one is overly sensitive & hyposensitivity means they are underly sensitive. Children with sensory integration or sensory processing difficulties are frequently hyper or hyposensitive to normal sensations. This can interfere with their ability to perform everyday tasks. |
| Hypo/Hyper-tonia | Hyper/Hypo-tomia refers to the amount of tension in a muscle at rest. Hypertonia is greater than normal tension & hypotonia is less than normal tension. The presence of either can greater affect one`s ability to move & coordinate their muscles. |
| Hypomania: | A mild form of mania. The consumer will experience increased energy, improved mood or irritability, increased talkativeness, decreased need for sleep, increased social or sexual activity, and increased spending. |
| I.Q.: | See Intelligence Quotient. |
| IBSEA: | Indiana Board of Special Education Appeals. |
| ICD Code | A universal billing system that utilizes a numeric format (codes) that differ as related to specific diagnosis. ICD stands for International Classification of Diseases. |
| IDEA: | Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. |
| IDELR: | |
| IEP: | See Individualized Education Program. |
| IFSP: | See Individualized Family Service Plan. |
| Immediate Detention: | A law enforcement officer signs a legal document stating they believe a person has a mental illness, addiction problem, or a developmental disability. The officer believes the person may hurt himself or someone else and the person needs a mental health evaluation. The person is taken to a hospital and will receive a psychiatric evaluation. The hold is good for up to 24 hours. |
| Impairment | An abnormality of structure or function |
| Impartial Hearing Officer: | Individual presiding over a due process hearing, appointed by the state education agency, and not connected in any way with either party in a dispute. |
| Inappropriate Affect: | Affect that is incongruent with the content of the client’s verbalizations or ideas. |
| Inclusion: | Ensuring that necessary supports and services are provided so that children with disabilities can participate with children who do not have disabilities in school, community, and recreation activities. |
| Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) | If a parent believes a school has not properly evaluated his/her child, the parent is entitled to an IEE at school’s expense under certain circumstances. The IEE is an evaluation a parent can request the school to pay for when they disagree with the school’s evaluation. It should be paid for by the school but performed by someone NOT associated with the school. |
| Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE): | An evaluation/assessment of a student conducted by one or more professionals not employed by the school system. The person(s) doing the evaluation must be fully trained and qualified to do the kind of testing required. |
| Independent Hearing Officers: (IHO) | The persons who are to be neutral parties and who conduct Due Process hearings (a protective safeguard under IDEA) and make decisions about educational procedures and programs — determining the appropriateness of the program and whether or not proper procedures have been followed. |
| Independent Living Services: | Support for a young person living on his or her own. These services include therapeutic group homes, supervised apartment living, and job placement. Services teach youth how to handle financial, medical, housing, transportation, and other daily living needs, as well as how to get along with others. |
| Independent Living Skills: | Basic skills needed by people with disabilities to function on their own, with as little help as possible. Skills include self-help (e.g., bathing, dressing), housekeeping, community living (e.g., shopping, using public transportation), etc. |
| Individual Education Plan (IEP) | A written plan for every student receiving special education services within the public school system. The plan contains information such as the student’s special learning needs and the specific special education services required by the student. |
| Individualized Determination Plan: | A written plan for each student who receives services, modifications, and accommodations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In some schools, it is referred to as a “504 Plan.” |
| Individualized Education Program (IEP): | A written plan for each student in special education describing the student’s present levels of performance, annual goals including short-term objectives, specific special education and related services, dates for beginning and duration of services, and how the IEP will be evaluated. |
| Individualized Education Program (IEP): | A written plan developed by a public school team to help an individual child. An IEP includes a statement of the child’s present levels of educational performance, measurable annual goals, and outlines specific services that will be offered to help the child meet those goals. |
| Individualized Education Program (IEP): | A written plan prepared at an IEP meeting that includes the student’s present level of educational performance, eligibility for special education, annual instructional goals and objectives, services to be provided, needed transition services, type of instructional setting, and provisions for integration /mainstreaming in regular education programs. |
| Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP): | A written statement for each infant or toddler receiving early intervention services that includes goals and outcomes for the child and family. It also includes a plan for making the transition to services for children over age 2. |
| Individualized Services: | Services designed to meet the unique needs of each child and family. Services are individualized when the caregivers pay attention to the needs and strengths, ages, and stages of development of the child and individual family members. |
| Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): | The authorizing federal legislation which mandates a free, appropriate public education for all children with disabilities. Formerly known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Part B of the act refers to special education services for children age three through twenty-one.Part C refers to the early intervention program for infants and toddlers with disabilities from birth through age two and their families. |
| Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): | This federal special education law, re-authorized in 1997, provides funding to states and sets substantive and procedural requirements for educational agencies. This law re-authorized and expanded discretionary programs, educational benefit, mandated transition services and assistive technology services to be included in the IEP and added autism and traumatic brain injury to the list of eligibility categories, among other items. It was originally titled the Education for All handicapped children Act and enacted as P.L. 94-142. |
| Inefficient Pencil Grasp | The manner in which someone holds a pencil is called pencil grasp. Generally there efficient & inefficient pencil grasps. The term efficient is used because certain grasps allow greater movement & precison than others, resulting in better pencil control & ease. As children grow & develop, they will begin to use a more & more efficient grasp. Between the ages of 5 & 6 years, most children should be holding a pencil like an adult, & thus developed an efficient pencil grasp. One`s type of pencil grasp will affect the quality of their printing & writing, their speed, & the amount of effort required. Inefficient grasps include: power & pronated grasps. Efficient grasps include quadripod & tripod grasps. |
| Infantile Autism | A spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication, and unusual and repetitive behavior. Typically occurs within the first three years of life. Some, but not all people with autism, are non-verbal. Please see Autism in this glossary for more information. |
| Informed Consent: | Disclosure of a certain amount of information to the patient about the proposed treatment and the attainment of the patient’s consent, which must be competent, understanding, and voluntary. |
| Initial Educational Evaluation: | An initial educational evaluation is conducted to determine the student’s eligibility forspecial education. |
| Inpatient Hospitalization: | Mental health treatment provided in a hospital setting 24 hours a day. Inpatient hospitalization provides: (1) short-term treatment in cases where a child is in crisis and possibly a danger to his/herself or others, and (2) diagnosis and treatment when the patient cannot be evaluated or treated appropriately in an outpatient setting. |
| Insight: | Self-understanding. The extent of a patient’s understanding of the origin, nature, and mechanisms of attitudes and behavior. More superficially, recognition by the patient that he or she has a psychiatric disorder. |
| Insurance Coverage | a. Coverage by a contract binding a party to indemnify another against specified loss/conditions in return for premiums paid. b. The sum or rate for which such a contract insures something. c. The periodic premium paid for this coverage. |
| Intake / Arrest: | Action of taking a juvenile into custody for the purpose of charging him or her with a crime. The juvenile justice process often begins with an investigation by a police officer, either because he or she observes a law violation or because a violation is reported. The police officer may release the juvenile to his or her parents with a warning or reprimand or on condition that the juvenile enroll in a community diversion plan, or the officer may take the juvenile into custody and refer the matter to the juvenile court’s intake officer for further processing. |
| Intake Hearing: | Early stage in juvenile court proceedings in which a court officer makes a legal judgment of the probable cause of the petition. Generally an intake officer receives, reviews, and processes complaints, recommends detention or release, and provides services for juveniles and their families, including diversion and referral to other community agencies. |
| Intellectual Disability: | A broad term describing delayed intellectual development resulting in delays in other areas, such as academic learning, adaptive behavior, communication, social skills, and physical coordination. This term is rapidly replacing the older term mental retardation as an eligibility category used in IDEA. |
| Intelligence Quotient | The ratio of tested mental age to chronological age, usually expressed as a quotient multiplied by 100. |
| Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.): | A measurement of thinking (cognitive) ability that compares an individual with others in his age group. |
| Intelligence Quotiente (IQ): | an intelligence test score that is obtained by dividing mental age, which reflects the age-graded level of performance as derived from population norms, by chronological age and multiplying by 100: a score of 100 thus indicates a performance at exactly the normal level for that age group. |
| Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP): | A treatment program that meets several times per week for several hours each day. The IOP provides ample group and individual treatment services to allow a client to experience benefits of an intense treatment program while still living at home. |
| Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC): | Federal, state, or local group consisting of parents, advocates and professionals who serve in an advisory capacity to plan and implement early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. |
| Intermediate care facility: | Licensed facilities operating under strict regulations and providing intensive support for people with disabilities in the areas of personal care, communication, behavior management, etc. |
| ISTEP: | Indiana State Test. |
| Itinerant Teacher: | A teacher who provides services to students in a variety of locations. |
| Job Coach: | A service agency professional who works with an individual with disabilities at the job site, providing support by helping the employee to improve job skills, interpersonal relations, or any other job-related needs. |
| Juvenile: | Person under the age of 21 years, or as defined in the local jurisdiction as under the age of majority. |
| Labile Affect: | A pattern of observable behaviors that express emotion characterized by repeated, rapid, abrupt shifts. |
| Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) | A disorder with seizures starting in childhood in which the patient loses skills, such as speech, and develops behavior characteristic of autism. |
| Language | The use by human beings of voice sounds, and often written symbols representing these sounds, in organized combinations and patterns in order to express and communicate thoughts and feelings. Language also includes other forms of communication as well, e.g., use of symbols, gesture, and sign. |
| Language | System for communicating ideas and feelings using sounds, gestures, signs, or marks. |
| Language Based Learning Disability | Disabilities which interfere with age-appropriate reading, spelling, and/or writing. Please see “Learning Disabilities” for a broader definition of learning disabiity. A language based learning disability is specific to language processing and use. |
| Language Comprehension | Also called Receptive Language. A person’s ability to understand and process language at the sound, word, phrase, sentence, multi-sentence and conversational levels. Involves understanding of vocabulary, concepts, grammar (morphology and syntax), and higher level language associated with processing more abstract language (e.g., inferences, idioms, verbal problem solving and abstract reasoning). Also involves the ability to retain linguistic information for the purpose of understanding and interpretation. Difficulties with receptive language can interfere with academic or occupational achievement or with social communication. |
| Language Disorders | Any of a number of problems with verbal communication and the ability to use or understand a symbol system for communication. |
| Laryngeal Nodules | Non-cancerous, callous-like growths on the inner parts of the vocal folds (vocal cords); usually caused by vocal abuse or misuse. |
| Laryngeal Paralysis | Loss of function or feeling of one or both of the vocal folds caused by injury or disease to the nerves of the larynx. |
| Laryngectomy | Surgery to remove part or all of the larynx (voice box). |
| Laryngitis | Hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds (vocal cords). |
| Larynx | Valve structure between the trachea (windpipe) and the pharynx (the upper throat) that is the primary organ of voice production. |
| LD: | Learning Disability. |
| Lead Agency: | State agency which has been designated by the governor to administer and implement a statewide comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency service delivery system for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. |
| Learning Disabilities | Disabilities affecting the manner one takes in information, retains it, and expresses the knowledge and understanding they have. Learning disabilities is a general term for a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in acquistion and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. They are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learning disability. Though learning disabilities may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions or with extrinsic influences, they are not the result of those conditions or influences (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1981, revised 1988). See “Learning Disabilities–Continued” for other frequent characteristics. Frequent characteristics of learning disabilities include, but are not limited to, a marked discrepancy between achievement and potential with uneven abilities within an individual, average to above average intellectual functioning, processing deficits (e.g., auditory and/or visual perceptual problems), and long/short term auditory and/or visual memory deficits. |
| Learning Disability | Childhood disorders characterized by difficulty with certain skills such as reading or writing in individuals with normal intelligence. |
| Learning Disability: | A disorder in one or more of the processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, resulting in difficulty with listening, thinking, speaking, writing, spelling, or doing mathematical calculations. This term does not include children with learning problems related to other disabilities such as mental retardation (intellectual disability). |
| Learning Disabled (LD): | pupils with specific learning disorders affecting educational performance. |
| Learning Disorders: | Many youth involved with the juvenile justice system suffer from one or more learning disorders. This means their level of achievement on standardized academic tests is significantly lower than what would be expected given their level of intelligence. For example, youth can have an IQ in the average or above-average range, but their reading skills are not near the same range and are much lower. A youth can have a learning disorder in reading, writing expression, or mathematics. Because learning disorders can significantly affect youth’s school performance, these youth can become very frustrated, feel bad about themselves, and may eventually drop out of school. |
| Learning Style: | The unique way that an individual learns best, for example, by playing games, imitating, reading a book, listening to a lecture, or handling materials. Most children learn through a combination of processes. |
| Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) | To the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities are educated with nondisabled peers. |
| Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): | Placement of a student with disabilities in a setting that allows maximum contact with students who do not have disabilities, while appropriately meeting the student’s special education needs. |
| Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): | A requirement in both state and federal laws that to the maximum extent appropriate, a student with a disability should be educated in classes with non-disabled peers. Separate schooling and other removal from the regular environment should occur only when the nature or severity of the disability prevents satisfactory education in regular classes even with the use of supplementary aides and services. |
| Legally Blind: | An individual is considered to be legally blind if his vision, even with corrective lenses, is 20/200 or less, which means being able to see at 20 feet what a person with normal vision sees at 200 feet. |
| Lethality: | The likelihood a behavior (e.g., suicide attempt) will result in death. |
| Local Educational Agency (LEA) | is (a) a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within a State for either administrative control of or direction of, or to perform service functions for, public elementary or secondary schools in: (1) a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a State; or (2) such combination of school districts or counties a State recognizes as an administrative agency for its public elementary or secondary schools; or (b) any other public institution or agency that has administrative control and direction of a public elementary or secondary school. |
| Local Educational Agency (LEA): | The local educational agency is a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted for either administrative control or direction of publicly funded schools, including school corporations and state-operated schools. |
| Loose Associations: | A communication pattern characterized by lack of clarity or connection between one thought and the next. |
| Magical Thinking: | The belief that one’s thoughts, words, or actions will produce an outcome that defies normal laws of cause and effect; the belief that one’s words have the power to make things happen. For example, a client may believe his or her thoughts can cause earthquakes. Occurs in schizophrenia. |
| Mainstreaming: | The concept that students with disabilities should be educated with nondisabled students to the maximum extent possible. |
| Major Depression: | A period of at least 2 weeks when you experience the loss of interest or pleasure in doing most things and have at least four of the following: change in appetite, weight, sleep, work; decreased energy; feelings of worthlessness or guilt; difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions; or recurrent thoughts of death or of killing yourself. |
| Major Depressive Episode: | Depressed mood and/or loss of interest in pleasure in all or almost all activities for a period of at least two weeks. |
| Major Life Activity | : Such activities as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning and working. |
| Malingering: | A conscious simulation of an illness (with no organic pathology present) used to avoid an unpleasant situation or for personal gain. |
| Managed care: | A way to supervise the delivery of health care services. Managed care may specify which caregivers the insured family can see and may also limit the number of visits and kinds of services that are covered by insurance. |
| Mandatory Release: | Release from an institution required by statute when an individual has been confined for a period equal to his or her full sentence minus statutory “good time,” if any. |
| Manic episode (Mania): | Period of behavior characterized by predominantly elevated, expansive mood, either euphoric or irritable, with a duration of at least one week. Accompanying behaviors may include increased activity, restlessness, talkativeness, flight of ideas, feeling of racing thoughts, grandiosity, decreased sleep time, short attention span, buying sprees, sexual indiscretion, and inappropriate laughing, joking, or punning. |
| Manifestation Determination: | This is a decision by the CCC (see Case Conference Committee) about whether a student’s misconduct is a manifestation of (caused by) the student’s disability, an inappropriate IEP, or the school’s failure to implement the IEP as written. |
| MDCFL: | Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning, 1500 Highway 36, West Roseville, Minnesota 55113-4266. Information: (651) 582-8200 |
| Mediation: | A formal intervention between parents and personnel of early intervention or school systems to achieve reconciliation, settlement, or compromise. |
| Mediation: | Mediation is a free dispute resolution process available to parents of children with disabilities. If you are in disagreement with the school district, you can ask for mediation. All schools have the forms for mediation. The process works like this. You request mediation by filling out the form and giving it to the school as well as sending it to the state mediation bureau. The state mediation bureau (affectionately called MNSEMS) will then assign a third party to act as a mediator and arrange a date and location for the meeting. At the meeting, the mediator’s role is to try and help the parties resolve the issue. The mediator is not a judge or arbitrator and cannot make any decision about the dispute. If the parties resolve their differences, a mediation agreement is written. If the differences involve IEP programming as is often the case, an IEP will need to be written or revised. The parties can have more than one mediation session. The school district must participate in at least one mediation. Parents are encouraged but are not required to participate in mediation. Mediation cannot be used to deny or delay a due process hearing or other rights. Mediation discussions are confidential. Mediation has been tried for several months in the Nordberg case. For more information about mediation, contact MNSEMS at 612-296-2633. |
| Medicaid: | A federal/state program that provides medical services primarily to individuals with low incomes. |
| Medicaid: | A joint Federal and State program that pays for health care for low-income people or for people eligible for other reasons. |
| Medical Model | Therapy focuses on treatment to cure or alleviate specific underlying medical conditions. |
| Mental Disorders: | Another term used for mental health problems. |
| Mental Health Problems: | Mental health problems are real. They affect one’s thoughts, body, feelings, and behavior. Mental health problems are not just a passing phase. They can be severe, seriously interfere with a person’s life, and even cause a person to become disabled. Mental health problems include depression, bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and conduct disorder. |
| Mental Health: | How a person thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life’s situations. Mental health is how people look at themselves, their lives, and the other people in their lives; evaluate their challenges and problems; and explore choices. This includes handling stress, relating to other people, and making decisions. |
| Mental Illnesses: | This term is usually used to refer to severe mental health problems in adults. A disease of the brain that causes unusual thoughts and emotions, including depression, feeling like you can do anything and/or not knowing the difference between reality and unreality. |
| Mental retardation | Impaired intellectual ability that is equivalent to or less than an IQ of approximately 70 with onset before age 18, and presenting with concurrent impairments in adaptive functioning. The condidtion is manifested typically by abnormal development, learning difficulties, and problems in social adjustment |
| Mental Retardation (MR): | Students with significantly below-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior. |
| Mental Retardation: | An eligibility category used in IDEA though most self-advocates, parents, teachers, and other professionals prefer the term intellectual orcognitive disablity. See Intellectual Disability. |
| Milestones | Milestones refer to a stage or an event in life. For example, many people refer to the developmental milestones of infants as when they first rolled, walked or talked. They can be used to evaluate a child`s rate & stage of development. |
| Milieu Therapy: | Treatment by environment. Physical surroundings, equipment, and staff attitude are designed in such a way as to enhance the effectiveness of other therapies and foster the patient’s rehabilitation. |
| Minimum Competency: | In order to receive a regular high school diploma, many states require students to pass a minimum competency test, demonstrating their academic skills to be at a state-defined level of achievement. |
| Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – Adolescent Version (MMPI-A): | A commonly used, complex, lengthy psychological test with 550 questions that yields a clinical picture of the client’s personality style. |
| Misarticulation | Inaccurately produced speech sound (phoneme) or sounds. |
| Modifications | Actual changes made in a task, routine, etc., to help an individual complete tasks/achieve goals to the best level possible within the general curriculum. (Sophie receives modifications such as shortened tests and reduced assignments in her regular classroom). |
| Modifications: | Changes made to instruction or the curriculum that fundamentally changes what the child is expected to learn. Examples of modifications include providing instruction to the child at a different academic level or testing him on different knowledge or skills than other students in the class. |
| Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor (MAOI): | Any of a group of antidepressant drugs that inhibit the action of monoamine oxidase in the brain and so allow monoamines to accumulate. |
| Mood Disorders: | The loss of the sense of control over the continuum of emotional experiences causing feelings of distress. People with elevated mood (mania) can show expansiveness, flight of ideas, decreased sleep, heightened self-esteem, and grandiose ideas. People with depressed mood (depression) can have a loss of energy and interest, feelings of guilt, difficulty concentrating, loss of appetite, and thoughts of death or suicide. |
| Mood Stabilizers: | Psychotropic medication used to treat bipolar disorder. This medication evens out mood swings in both directions. Lithium and Depakote (valproic acid) are the most commonly used. |
| Mood: | A feeling state or prolonged emotion that influences the whole of one’s psychic life. |
| Motor Planning | |
| Motor Planning | Motor Planning refers to your brain`s ability to develop the sequence or plan of muscle movements to move in an unfamiliar way. For example, if you try to walk through a crowd of people without bumping into anyone, your motor planning skills will help you plan your route. Many children with motor planning difficulties experience trouble learning to print, appear clumsy, or frequently bump into things. |
| Motor Speech Disorders | Group of disorders caused by the inability to accurately produce speech sounds (phonemes). |
| Multidisciplinary Evaluation: | The testing of a child by a group of professionals, including psychologists, teachers, social workers, speech therapists, nurses, etc. |
| Multidisciplinary Team | A group or team of disciplines that work, assess, report results, and/or deliver treatment to clients. |
| Multidisciplinary Treatment Team Approach: | Representatives from the disciplines of psychiatry, education, nursing, psychology, social work, recreational therapy, life skills, nutrition, and occupational therapy meeting regularly to develop, monitor, and evaluate a written, comprehensive, and individualized treatment description. |
| Multiple Disabilities: | An educational label given to students having a combination of impairments such as mental retardation and blindness or orthopedic impairments and deafness which cause such educational problems that they cannot be accommodated in programs for any one im�pairment. This term does not include children with deaf-blindness. |
| Muscle Tone | This refers to the tension in a muscle. Muscle tone should be high enough to hold a position against gravity, yet low enough to move a body joint through its full range of motion. Abnormal muscle tone would be either extreme tension or lack of tension in a muscle. |
| Natural Environment: | A term used in early intervention to describe the settings that infants and toddlers and toddlers would be if they did not have a disability such as home, day care, and other community environments. |
| Natural Homes: | Places that are generally thought of as dwellings for people, such as apartments, houses, townhouses, trailers, etc. |
| Negative Reinforcement: | Refers to an increase in the frequency of a response by removing an aversive event immediately after the response is performed. |
| Neurogenic Communication Disorder | Inability to exchange information with others because of hearing, speech, and/or language problems caused by impairment of the nervous system (brain or nerves). |
| Neuroleptic Drugs: | Sometimes called anti-psychotic or psychotropic drugs. These medicines help with hallucinations, delusions or paranoia. |
| No Child Left Behind (NCLB): | A law that sets high standards for all students, including students with disabilities and bases funding on a school�s adequate yearly progress. |
| Non-Categorical: | Term relating to programs based on instructional needs rather than on categories of disabilities. |
| Non-Public School Agency (NPA) | An approved, but unrelated, agency that provides a service to meet the needs/demands of a public school system. |
| Nondiscriminatory Evaluation: | An evaluation in which the materials and procedures used are not racially or culturally biased. In addition, an individual’s disability must be accommodated such as by allowing more time, using a computer, etc. |
| Nonresidential Program: | Program that provides services to juveniles who live at home and report to the program on a daily basis. Juveniles in such a program require more attention than that provided by probation and aftercare services. Often the program operates its own education program through the local school district. |
| Nonverbal Learning Disability | A specific pattern of neuropsychological assets and deficits that eventuates in the following: a specific pattern of relative assets and deficits in academic (well-developed single-word reading and spelling relative to mechanical arithmetic) and social (e.g., more efficient use of verbal than nonverbal information in social situations) learning; specific, developmentally dependent patterns of psychosocial functioning. |
| Noonan’s Syndrome | A grouping of specific abnormalities affecting both males and females, both sporadic in appearance but also reflecting a hereditary component (thought to be autosomal dominant). Symptoms may include webbed neck, sternum abnormalities (pectus excavatum, occasionally pectus carinatum), sagging eyelids (ptosis), wide-set eyes (hypertelorism), low-set ears abnormally shaped ears, undescended testicles, delayed puberty, mental retardation, short stature, and small penis. |
| Objective: | An objective is a short-term step taken to reach an annual goal. IEP objectives are the steps between a student’s present level of performance and an annual goal. IDEA previously required all IEPs to include objectives, but that requirement changed with the 2004 Amendments. |
| Obsession: | A persistent, repetitive, and unwanted thought. Cannot be eliminated by logic or reasoning. |
| Occular Control | Occular control is the ability to move one`s eyes. |
| Occupational Therapist | Provides evaluation and treatment of daily living skills for individuals with disabilities. Therapy emphasizes remediation of or compensation for perceptual, sensory, visual-motor, fine-motor, and self-care deficits. |
| Occupational Therapy (OT): | Activities focusing on fine motor skills and perceptual abilities that assist in improving physical, social, psychological, and/or intellectual development; e.g., rolling a ball, finger painting, sorting objects. |
| Occupational Therapy (OT): | A therapy or treatment provided by an occupational therapist that helps individual developmental or physical skills that will aid in daily living; it focuses on sensory integration, on coordination of movement, and on fine motor and self-help skills, such as dressing, eating with a fork and spoon, etc. |
| Olfactory Stimuli | Olfactory Stimuli refers to anything that can be detected by smell. |
| On-the-Job-Training (OJT): | Short-term training that enables a person to work on a job site while learning the job duties. |
| Open-Set Speech Recognition | Understanding speech without visual clues (speech reading). |
| Operant Behavior: | Behavior that is maintained by its consequences in the environment. That is, depending on what happens after one engages in certain behaviors, one may be more or less likely to engage in similar behavior in the future. |
| Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) | is a recurring pattern of negative, hostile, disobedient, and defiant behavior in a child or adolescent, lasting for at least six months without serious violation of the basic rights of others. |
| Oral | Refers to spoken language, or can refer to the mouth (Maggie has to give an oral presentation in er social studies class tomorrow). |
| Oral Motor | Referring to the oral motor structures for speech, e.g., lips, tongue, teeth, palate, larynx, and so forth. |
| Oral Motor | Oral Motor is the ability to control the muscles of your mouth & throat. |
| Organic impairment | The cause of impairment is known (Jimmy has cerebral palsy which affects his speech production. The cause of his speech errors is organic). |
| Orientation and Mobility (O&M) | is the educational process that prepares an individual to travel safely and independently in his or her surrounding environment. Orientation uses the remaining senses to establish one’s position and relationship to other significant objects in the environment. Mobility is the ability to move from a present position to a desired location or position in another part of the environment in a safe and efficient manner. |
| Orientation: | An individual’s awareness of self in relation to time, place, and person. |
| Orthon-Gillingham: | A form of instruction used with children who have dyslexia, Orton-Gillingham is a multi-sensory based form of phonetic instruction that is sequential and systemic in nature. |
| Orthopedic Impairment (OI): | An IDEA disability category that includesphysical impairments that adversely affects a student’s educational performance and are caused by congenital anomaly (for example, clubfoot or absence of an appendage); disease (for example, poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.); or from other causes (for example, cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contracture). |
| Orthopedic Impairment: | A physical disability severe enough to affect a child’s educational performance. Orthopedic impairments can be congenital, or caused by disease or injury. |
| OSEP: | Office of Special Education Programs. |
| Other Health Impairment (OHI): | Term used in IDEA to describe conditions that adversely affect a child’s educational performance and are not covered by other disability definitions (e.g., Learning Disabilities, Autism, etc.). This term is frequently used for various medical conditions such as a heart condition, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, leukemia, etc. It also includes ADHD and Tourett syndrome. |
| Other Health Impairments (OHI): | Limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to a chronic or acute health problem such as a heart condition, tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes. |
| Otitis Media | Inflammation of the middle ear, occurring commonly in children as a result of infection and often causing pain and temporary hearing loss. |
| Outpatient Services: | The services you get when you are not in the hospital. You usually go to a clinic to see your doctor, therapist or case manager. |
| P.L. 101-476 | SeeIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act. |
| P.L. 94-142 | SeeIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act. |
| P.L. 99-457 | SeeIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act. |
| Panic Disorder: | A stronger form of anxiety that may include sweating, heart racing, dizziness or feeling like one is going to die. This disorder may cause lack of sleep and paranoia to the point that the consumer does not want to go certain places or leave his home at all. |
| Panic: | In psychiatry, an attack of acute, intense, and overwhelming anxiety accompanied by a considerable degree of personality disorganization. |
| Parallel Play | The child plays near or beside another child using some or all of the same/similar materials as the other child without trying to modify or influence the other child and being mainly concerned with toy materials, not with relating to the other child. Predominates between 24-30 months. |
| Paranoia: | A belief that the actions of others is demeaning or threatening. It is characterized by feelings of being exploited or harmed by others, and questioning loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates. |
| Part B or Part C: | See Individuals with Disabilities Education Act |
| Partial Hospitalization: | Treatment individuals receive when not inpatients in the hospital that lasts for more than an hour and takes place several days per week. Usually involves groups, one-on-one counseling and education. |
| Passive Range of Motion (PROM) | Passive Range of Motion (PROM)refers how much a joint can move when someone else moves it for you. For example, if someone straightened your knee without you helping, it would refer to passive range of motion. The opposite is active range of motion (AROM), which refers to how much someone can move the joint on their own. |
| Pathologist | One who engages in the scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences. |
| Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS) | Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS)is a standardized test for children aged birth to 6 years & 11 months of age. This test evaluates gross and fine motor skills like running, jumping, balance, copying with a pencil, cutting, & fastening buttons. It is used to identify skills not yet developed, and evaluate the child`s current level of fine and gross function. The PDMS is tyically adminstered by Occupational & Physical Therapists. The second edition of this assessment is currently available & is called the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales – 2nd Edition (PDMS-2). |
| Perception | Perception refers to the ability to process the information you receive through your various sensory systems so that it makes sense & you can use the information. One type of perception is visual perception & it refers to the ability to make sense out of what you see. If you have perceptual difficulties, it is very hard for you to do everyday tasks. For example, if you cannot recognize a piece of clothing as a shirt, you will not know what to do with it. Likewise a child who cannot tell the difference between a ’’b’’ & ’’d’’ will trouble learning to spell and read. |
| Personality Disorder: | A nonpsychotic illness characterized by enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about oneself and the environment in ways that are maladaptive. The individual uses inflexible behavior patterns to fulfill his or her own needs and attain self-satisfaction, often at the expense of others and society in general. Results in significant functional impairment and/or subjective distress. |
| Pervasive Developmental Delay – Not Otherwise Specified: (PDD – NOS) | Basically a diagnosis of developmental delays that could be on the autism spectrum. |
| Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) | is a complex developmental disorder that includes children with symptoms associated with poor to severely impaired social skills, repetitive and often compulsive, ritualistic behavior (stereotypies) and to varying degrees of severity, a communication disorder. The hallmark disorder in this group is Autistic Disorder. Other conditions included with Autistic Disorder are Asperger’s Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified, Rett’s Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. |
| Pervasive Developmental Disorders — Not Otherwise Specified (PDD/NOS) | When children display similar behaviors to but do not meet the criteria for autistic disorder, they may receive a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD/NOS). It is a neurological disorder that affects such areas as a child’s ability to communicate, understand language, play, and relate to others. |
| Petition: | Application for court order or other judicial action. In juvenile proceedings, a petition is a document alleging that a youth is delinquent, a status offender, or a dependent child and asking that the court assume jurisdiction over the juvenile. |
| Phase / Level Program: | Behavior modification program that defines the responsibilities and privileges earned and denotes consequences for each resident. Indicates progress and reflects movement in achieving treatment goals. Movement can be forward or backward. |
| Phobia: | An obsessive, persistent, unrealistic fear of an external object or situation. |
| Phonics | Relationships between written letters and their spoken sounds (in her phonics lesson, Martie learned the “phone” is spelled with a /ph/, not an /f/ as in ‘fone.”). |
| Phonological Awareness / Processing | Phonological awareness is a person’s explicit knowledge of the sound segments (phonemes) which comprise words. Phonological processing skills include the ability to recognize and produce rhyming words or patterns of alliteration, segmenting or breaking apart words into syllables/sounds, identify where a specific sound occurs in a word, and blend sounds into words. Problems in these areas indicate a weakness in phonological processing/awareness. Other symptoms seen with a phonological processing deficit are difficulty with rapid-naming tasks and incorrect repetition of multisyllabic words. |
| Phonological Disorder | A disorder characterized by failure to use speech sounds that are appropriate for the individual’s age and dialect. Symptoms typically include but are not limited to failure in sound production and use, substitutions of one sound for another, and omissions of sounds. The pattern of errors may indicate use of inappropriate phonological processes/rules for the child’s age, e.g., final consonant deletion, or omission of final consonants in words when speaking. |
| Phonology | How speech sounds go together/follow patterns to make words (Joey says /t/ for /k/ and /d/ for /g/. His speech does not follow the patterns for how to correctly make the /t/ and /d/ sounds. We work on his phonology in speech/language therapy sessions.) |
| Phonology | Study of speech sounds. |
| Physical Therapist | Provides assessment and treatment for disorders related to physical and musculoskeletal injuries. Therapy emphasizes remediation of or compensation for mobility, gait, muscle strength, and postural deficits. |
| Physical Therapy (PT): | Services to individuals to prevent or minimize disability, develop and improve sensory and motor function, control postural eviations and establish and maintain maximum performance within the individual’s capabilities. |
| Pincer Grasp | Pincer Grasp refers to the manner in which you pick up small items. Specifically, if you were to pick up a small bead by pinching it between your thumb & index finger, you would be using a pincer grasp. |
| Placement: | The setting in which a child with disabilities is educated. Placement includes the school, the classroom, related services, community-based services, and the amount of time a student will spend with peers and others who do not have disabilities. |
| Plan of Care: | A treatment plan especially designed for each child and family, based on individual strengths and needs. The caregiver(s) develop(s) the plan with input from the family. The plan establishes goals and details appropriate treatment and services to meet the special needs of the child and family. |
| Polydrug (or Polysubstance) Use / Abuse: | The use or abuse of multiple drugs within the same time frame; includes the use of alcohol. |
| Positive Reinforcement: | In behavioral therapy, operant conditioning, and learning theory, an environmental event (such as reward or praise) that reinforces or increases the probability of a behavioral response. A technique often used with children and adolescents. |
| Positive Reinforcer: | An event that, when presented contingent on some behavior, increases the future likelihood of that behavior. |
| Post-Lingual | After the development of speech. |
| Postsecondary Education: | Education programs for students who have completed high school, such as community and junior colleges, four-year colleges and universities, trade and technical schools, and vocational programs. |
| Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): | Youth with PTSD have experienced a traumatic event and often have nightmares about the traumatic event or flashbacks where they feel like the event is happening to them again. They tend to avoid anything that reminds them of the traumatic event and may not remember important parts of what happened. They may feel detached from themselves or others and experience a limited range of emotions. Youth with PTSD may also have symptoms of increased arousal such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability/angry outbursts, and problems with concentration. These youth are usually hyperaware of their surroundings and are easily startled. |
| Postural Control | Refers to the ability to sustain the necessary background posture to efficiently carry out a skilled task, such as reading or handwriting. The ability to stabilize the trunk and neck underlies the ability to develop efficient eye and hand movements. |
| Praxis | This is the medical term used to describe motor planning. It is defined by Dr. A. Jean Ayres as “The ability of the brain to conceive of, organize and carry out a sequence of unfamiliar actions.” Inadequate praxis, Apraxia, is often a symptom of inadequate sensory processing. Long term problems noted in children with apraxia, include: clumsiness, difficulty performing motor tasks at age level, difficulty following directions and imitating movement. A child with apraxia may need extra practice and instruction to learn a new motor task. Once he learns something, he may refuse to try it another way and appear “stubborn”. |
| Pre-Lingual | Before the development of speech. |
| Precision Rotation | |
| Prehension | Prehension is a term that refers to the manner in which you hold something. For example, the way you hold a pencil would be considered a pattern of prehension. |
| Primitive Reflexes | There are movement reflexes that each baby is born with. These “primitive” reflexes assist the infant in successfully progressing through various stages of movement so they may learn to roll, crawl, sit and walk, etc. As a child matures, these the child is able to move without the need of these reflexes and they become more integrated and do not predominate or direct movement patterns. Sometimes a reflex continues to direct or dominant movement after an age where it is normally integrated. We would consider this an abnormal reflex pattern. |
| Probation: | Court-ordered disposition alternative not involving confinement through which an adjudicated delinquent is placed under the control, supervision, and care of a probation field staff member. |
| Procedural Safeguards: | In an educational context, procedural safeguards refers to notice of parental rights. |
| Prone | Prone refers to the manner in which someone is lying down. For example, if you are lying on your tummy, you are considered to be in a prone position. The opposite of prone is supine & this refers to lying on your back, face up. |
| Proprioception | This is the sense that allows us to know what position our body parts are in. For example, without looking at them, you can tell if your elbows or knees are bent or straight. This sense also tells us about the force of our movements. So if we see a cup and want to reach for it, we can judge how much force and speed we are reaching with so we can accurately get our hand to the cup without knocking it over or missing it. We can also tell how hard we need to hold on to lift the cup without squashing it or dropping it. It is primarily proprioception you are using when you walk a familiar flight of stairs in the dark and know exactly where to place your feet and how high the steps are by the feel of the movement of your legs. This sense is extremely important for body awareness and coordinated movements. |
| Proprioception | This is information that the brain receives from our muscles and joints to make us aware of body position and body movement. Proprioceptive makes a strong contribution to praxis, to the child’s ability to grade movement and to postural control. |
| Proprioception | (pro’’pre-o-sep`shun): is the information received from receptors in our joints (at the elbows, knees, & knuckles of the hands for example) that tell us about how our limbs are moving through space. The receptors in your muscles and joints also tell your brain when your muscles are tightening or relaxing or if your joints are bending or straightening. All this information allows us to know exactly where our body parts are in space without having to look at them. For example, if you had your eyes closed, you would be able to tell if your hands are open or closed. |
| Protective Responses | Protective Responses are the reflexive movements that we use to brace ourselves and protect our head when falling or losing our balance. For example, if you trip over something your hands automatically reach outward to brace you from falling and hitting your head on the ground. |
| Psychiatrist | A physician who specializes in psychiatry. (MD) |
| Psychiatrist: | A medical doctor with advanced training who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of emotional, behavioral, and mental disorders. |
| Psychiatry | The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental and emotional disorders. |
| Psychodynamic Therapy: | From the perspective of the psychodynamic treatment provider, the behavior that youth exhibit stems from basic psychosexual conflict. Treatment approaches are derived from the notion that youth are struggling with internal issues stemming from unresolved developmental conflicts from their childhood. Treatment is focused on uncovering the unconscious conflict by interpretation of dreams, play therapy, and other forms of indirect approaches, which try to help individuals gain insight into the origins of their conflict. The emphasis is on identifying the feelings that underlie maladaptive behavior. The primary means by which change is thought to occur is through a connected relationship between the therapist and youth. |
| Psychological Evaluation: | The portion of a child’s overall evaluation/assessment for special education that tests his or her general aptitudes and abilities, eye-hand coordination, social skills, emotional development, and thinking skills. |
| Psychologist | A person trained and educated to perform psychological research, testing, and therapy. Holds a Master’s degree or ph.D in the field of psychology. Since not an MD, they may not prescribe medications. |
| Psychologist: | A professional, not a medical doctor, with advanced training in the study of mental processes and human behavior. A school psychologist conducts various evaluations, especially aptitude and ability tests, and may work with students, classroom teachers, parents, and school administrators on behavior assessments and behavior management programs. |
| Psychomotor Agitation: | Agitated motor activity. |
| Psychomotor Retardation: | A generalized slowing of psychologic and physical activity, frequently occurring as a symptom of severe depression. |
| Psychopharmacotherapy: | The use of psychoactive drugs in the symptomatic treatment and management of psychiatric disorders. |
| Psychosis: | A state in which a person’s capacity for recognizing reality and communicating and interacting with others is impaired, thereby greatly diminishing the person’s ability to deal with life’s demands. May be associated with several mental disorders, and includes thought disorders (delusion), sensory perceptual alterations (hallucinations, illusions), and extremes of affect. |
| Psychotic Disorders: | Youth who are psychotic have an impaired sense of reality. They may have hallucinations: hearing or seeing things that are not really there. They may have delusions: holding on to irrational beliefs even though there is much evidence that the belief is not true. These youth may behave in bizarre ways and often have a difficult time relating to others. Psychosis can result from a variety of causes including schizophrenia, severe mood disorders, or a medical condition. Substance use can also result in psychotic symptoms. Some youth who use LSD report visual hallucinations even after discontinued drug use, and youth who use large amounts of drugs, particularly methamphetamines, can become extremely paranoid and develop delusions that people are after them. |
| Psychotropic Drugs: | Chemicals that alter feelings, emotions, and consciousness in a variety of ways; used in the practice of psychiatry to treat a wide range of mental and emotional illnesses. |
| Punishment: | Presentation of an aversive event or removal of a positive event following a response which decreases the frequency of that response. |
| Quadrupod Pencil Grasp | A quadrupod pencil grasp is characterized by pinching the pencil with your thumb, index, & middles fingers, while the pencil rests on your ring finger. It is considered to be an efficient grasp as the pencil is controlled with finger & wrist movement. A quadrupod pencil grasp should typically develop between 3 & 4 years of age. |
| Range of Motion (ROM) | Range of motion (ROM) refers to the amount of movement at a body joint & is measured in degrees. There are two types of ROM: active range of motion (AROM) & passive range of motion (PROM). AROM is how much you can move the joint & PROM is how much someone else can move the joint. |
| Rapport: | That conscious feeling of harmonious accord, mutual responsiveness, and sympathy that contributes to the patient’s confidence in the therapist (or other individual) and willingness to work cooperatively with him or her. |
| Rationalization: | A defense mechanism in which the individual attempts to justify or make consciously tolerable by plausible means feelings, behavior, and motives that would otherwise be intolerable. |
| Reading Disorders | Any of a group of problems characterized by difficulty using or understanding the symbol system for written language. |
| Reasonable Accommodation: | Changes a school is required to make to permit students with disabilities to participate in educational programs or extracurricular activities (for example, locating a classroom on the first floor is a highr floor is inaccessible to a student in a wheelchair). The concept also applies to the modificaiton of job requirements and equipment for workers with disabilities. Generally, reasonable accommodations must be made if they do not impose an unde financial burden. |
| Receptive Language: | The process of receiving and understanding written, gestured, or spoken language. |
| Recidivism: | Repetition of criminal behavior. |
| Reevaluation: | SeeTriennial Review. |
| Referral: | A formal notification to the early intervention system or local school that a child is experiencing difficulties which may require a full evaluation for early intervention or special education. A referral may be made by a family, teacher, or other professional. |
| Reflex | A reflex is an automatic movement or response mediated by the nervous system. It occurs without conscious control. For example, the knee-jerk reflex occurs when you tap below someone`s knee cap & their leg kicks outward. |
| Regional Centers | The Centers shall function as a leader and advocate in promoting the continuing entitlement of citizens with developmental disabilities to all services that enable full community inclusion. The Association shall also participate in the development of public legislative policy and serve as a focal point for communication, education, training and prevention services. |
| Regression: | Retreating to past developmental levels of behavior, generally in an attempt to reduce overwhelming anxiety. May be used as a defense mechanism. |
| Regulatory Disorder | Regulatory Disorder is a condition found in young children. Children with regulatory disorder can be described as over-or under sensitive to sensory stimulation. As a result, they can be fussy, dislike change, and may have difficulty with sleep/wake cycles. For example, some babies may not react to sounds or pictures unless they are very loud or bright versus some babies who are very frightened by a quiet noise or cry at any attempt to snuggle with them. There are four distinct behavior patterns that have been found in children with Regulatory disorders. They include the hypersensitive child who is fearful of sensory stimulation, the under-reactive child who is self-absorbed and often withdrawn, the child who seeks out sensory information and has poor control of their behavior, and the child who may display a combination of the above but does not fit directly into one of the categories exclusively. |
| Rehabilitation | To restore to good health or useful life, as through therapy and education. |
| Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504): | A nondiscrimination statute. Section 504 of the Act stipulates that individuals with disabilities may not be excluded from participating in programs and services receiving federal funds. It also prohibits job discrimination against people with disabilities in any program receiving federal financial assistance. |
| Reinforcer: | Anything that increases the strength of a behavior. |
| Relapse Prevention: | Strategy to train alcohol and other drug abusers to cope more effectively and to overcome the stressors or triggers in their environments that may cause relapse into drug use and dependency. |
| Related Services: | Those services a student must receive to benefit from special education; for example, transportation, counseling, speech therapy, crisis intervention, etc. |
| Related Services: | In the educational context, related services refers to services that are supplemental to the student’s instructional program and are necessary for the student to benefit from special education. They may be of developmental, corrective, or supportive nature. |
| Remediation | The act or process of correcting a fault or deficiency |
| Remission: | Temporary disappearance of symptoms. |
| Representational Play | Pretend play which emerges when a child begins to use familiar objects in appropriate ways to represent their world (i.e. pushing a toy lawn mower over the grass). Begins to occur between 12- to 21-months of age. |
| Residential Services: | The placement of a student in a setting that provides educational instruction and 24-hour care. |
| Residential Treatment Centers: | Facilities that provide treatment 24 hours a day and can usually serve more than 12 young people at a time. Children with serious emotional disturbances receive constant supervision and care. Treatment may include individual, group, and family therapy; behavior therapy; special education; recreation therapy; and medical services. Residential treatment is usually more long-term than inpatient hospitalization. Centers are also known as therapeutic group homes. |
| Resource Room: | A setting in a school where a student receives instruction for a part of the school day from a special education teacher. |
| Resource Specialist | Typically, a Resource Specialist provides support, pertinent information, consultant services, and direct intervention to individuals, their family, and staff members regarding educational/learning needs and issues. Frequently found within the public school setting. |
| Respite Care: | A service that provides a break for parents who have a child with a serious emotional disturbance. Trained parents or counselors take care of the child for a brief period of time to give families relief from the strain of caring for the child. This type of care can be provided in the home or in another location. Some parents may need this help every week. |
| Response to Intervention: | A process schools may use to identify students with specific learning disabilities. It involves universal screening for learning difficulties, providing instruction and interventions matched to students’ needs, frequent progress monitoring, and using data on students’ responses to make educational decisions. |
| Rett Syndrome | Rett Syndrome (RS) is a developmental disorder that affects almost exclusively girls and begins in infancy or early childhood. It is characterized by normal prenatal development and postnatal development up to 6-18 months. At 6-18 months of age, the child develops the following symptoms. Initially the child loses purposeful hand use followed by the development of characteristic hand movements such as hand wringing. The child also presents with severe difficulties with talking and understanding language as well as poor fine & gross motor coordination, and a slowing of head-size growth. Other problems can also include seizures and difficulty breathing while awake. Rett Syndrome occurs in various countries and its prevalence rate is 1:10,000 to 1:23,000 live female births. It is sometimes misdiagnosed as autism, cerebral palsy or non-specific developmental delay. |
| Righting Reaction | Righting Reaction is a reflex present from birth that allows the head and body to always be aligned during movements. |
| Schizophrenia: | A severe emotional disorder of psychotic depth characteristically marked by a retreat from reality with delusion formation, hallucinations, emotional disharmony, and regressive behavior. |
| Screening Committee: | A local school-based committee, whose members determine if a student should be fully evaluated for special education eligibility. |
| Screening: | A brief examination of a child designed to pick up potential difficulties and to identify children who need further evaluation and diagnosis. |
| Screening: | A brief process designed to identify individuals with an increased risk of having disorders that warrant immediate attention, intervention, or more comprehensive review. Screening is not intended to provide an accurate diagnosis, but to distinguish those individuals who are particularly troubled and may a more comprehensive evaluation in order to identify specific deficits. |
| Section 504: | See Rehabilitation Act of 1973. |
| See Vocational Assessment. | |
| Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI): | An antidepressant medication that typically decreases anxiety as well as depression (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil). |
| Self Regulation | Refers to the ability to attain, maintain and change your level of arousal appropriately for a task or situation. Arousal is considered a state of the nervous system and describes how alert someone feels. To attend, concentrate and perform tasks according to situational demands, the nervous system must be in an optimal state of arousal (or alertness) for the particular task. Adults use a variety of subtle sensory techniques to maintain their arousal levels. |
| Self-Advocacy: | The abilities required to take primary responsibility for one’s life and to make choices regarding one’s actions free from undue interference. Also called self-determination. |
| Self-Care | Self-Care refers to the collection of activities we do to maintain our well being. It frequently includes dressing, eating, grooming, hygiene, bathing, & toileting. |
| Self-Contained Classroom: | A classroom in which a group of students with disabilities receive their entire instructional program with little or no interaction with non-disabled students. |
| Self-Determination: | See Self-Advocacy. |
| Self-Esteem: | Feelings of self-worth stemming from the individual’s positive or negative beliefs about being valuable and capable. |
| Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: | A predetermined idea or expectation one has toward oneself that is acted out, thus “proving” itself. |
| Self-Mutilation: | Self-injurious behavior committed without the individual intending to die. |
| Semantics | Word meaning; vocabulary (Paul has trouble with semantics, particularly knowing the difference between literal and figurative language. In speech/language therapy, we are working on understanding figurative language such as the idiom “it’s raining cats and dogs.”). |
| Sensorimotor | |
| Sensory Defensiveness | Sensory defensiveness is a term coined by some OT’s to describe a group of oversensitivities to touch, vision, auditory, movement and smell sensations. Sensory defensiveness is just oversensitivity to certain input. With the term defensiveness, a range of behaviors is implied. These behaviors are the things we can observe that indicate that a sensory input is aversive. |
| Sensory Integration | The process of the brain organizing and interpreting sensory information. |
| Sensory Integration | “Is the organization of sensations for use. Our senses give us information about the physical conditions of our body and the environment around us. Sensations for into the brain like streams flowing into a lake.” ….”The brain must organize all of these sensations if a person is to move and learn and behave normally.”(Dr. A. Jean Ayres, Sensory Integration and the Child, Western Psychological Services, 1981, pg.5.) |
| Sensory Integration | Sensory Integration refers to one`s ability to receive, organize, process, & use the informaton being received through their sensory systems. The process of sensory integration allows children to make sense out of what they see, feel, hear, smell, & taste. Frequently children with sensory integration difficulties have trouble learning at school, sitting still, communicating with others, or appear clumsy & awkward. |
| Sensory Integration Dysfunction | Sensory integration dysfunction is the inability to process certain information received through the senses. |
| Sensory Integration Therapy | The term “Sensory Integration” is be used to reflect the theory developed by A. Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist, as well as for the intervention strategy that was based on that original theory. Sensory Integration is used to describe certain processes that go on in our brain, allowing us to make sense of the information we get from our environment and act on it. The term refers to the process by which the brain interprets and organizes various sensory experiences including sight, sound, smell, touch, movement, body awareness, and the pull of gravity. Sensory integration is a normal phenomenon of central nervous system functioning and provides a foundation for more complex learning and behavior. For some individuals sensory integration does not develop as efficiently as it should. Sensory integration dysfunction can result in motor development difficulties, learning difficulties, or behavioral concerns. |
| Sensory Modulation | is the ability to regulate our responses in a manner proportional to the sensory stimuli. There are children who have an increased level of arousal and seem to be over responsive to sensory input. This is described as sensory defensiveness. Children at the other end of the spectrum have a decreased level of arousal and seem to be under responsive to sensory input. This is referred to as sensory dormancy. Both extremes of modulation may be seen in one child to the same type of stimuli, but generally, one extreme tends to dominate. Both, cause the child to have difficulty with allocation of attention and interfere with the development of sensory processing skills. |
| Sensory Processing | Sensory Integration is used to describe certain processes that go on in our brain, allowing us to make sense of the information we get from our environment and act on it. The term refers to the process by which the brain interprets and organizes various sensory experiences including sight, sound, smell, touch, movement, body awareness, and the pull of gravity. |
| Serious Emotional Disturbances (SED): | Diagnosable disorders in children and adolescents that severely disrupt their daily functioning in the home, school, or community. Serious emotional disturbances affect one in 10 young people. These disorders include depression, attentiondeficit/ hyperactivity, anxiety disorders, conduct disorder, and eating disorders. These are childhood disorders that affect the child on a daily basis, causing problems with relationships as well as difficulty concentrating and adjusting to change. The illness is generally lasts at least 12 months. |
| Serious Mental Illness (SMI): | An adult disorder that cannot be cured and causes difficulty with daily living (taking care of themselves), has problems with relationships, difficulty concentrating, and adapting to change. The illness is expected to last at least 12 months. Examples: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. |
| Service Coordinator: | Someone who acts as a coordinator of a child’s and family’s services and works in partnership with the family and other service providers. |
| Service: | A type of support or clinical intervention designed to address the specific mental health needs of a child and his or her family. A service could be provided only one time or repeated over a course of time, as determined by the child, family, and service provider. |
| Services Provider: | Mental health centers or hospitals that have been approved by the Division of Mental Health and Addiction to provide mental health and/or addiction treatment, as well as mental health centers in the private sector. |
| Shaping: | Involves reinforcing behavior already in the repertoire of the individual, which approximates the goal. Use of positive reinforcement for successive approximations and operant extinction for other behaviors to establish the new learning. |
| Shelter Care: | Any nonsecure public or private facility designated to provide either (1) temporary placement for alleged or adjudicated status offenders prior to the issuance of a disposition order or (2) longer term care under a juvenile court disposition order. |
| Sheltered Workshop: | A work setting in which employees with disabilities do contract work, usually on a piece-rate basis, such as preparing bulk mailings or refinishing furniture. |
| Shoulder Girdle Stability | Shoulder Girdle Stability refers to the strength of the muscles surrounding your shoulder joint. It involves chest, neck, back, & arm muscles. Adequate shoulder girdle stability is very crucial to fine motor development. Frequently children who experience difficulty printing or handwriting, fastening buttons & zippers, & cuting with scissors have poor shoulder girdle stability. |
| Sign Language | Method of communication for people who are deaf or hard of hearing in which hand movements, gestures, and facial expressions convey grammatical structure and meaning. |
| Social Impairment | Verbal and/or nonverbal difficulties in socializing and relating with peers. |
| Social Investigation: | Investigation into the background and character of a delinquent that assists the court in determining the most appropriate disposition. |
| Social Reinforcer: | Usually approval or positive attention, but not infrequently other kinds of social behavior. A person may continue to bother others as a consequence of attention received as a result of their behavior. Insults and displays of negative emotion are social reinforcers for these people. |
| Social Worker: | A professional who may provide services to the family including: arranging or attending parent-student conferences; providing family counseling, family education, information, and referral; writing a social-developmental history; and/or conducting a behavioral assessment. Social workers sometimes conduct parent education in the school and community. |
| Sociocultural Report: | The portion of a child’s overall evaluation/assessment for special education that describes a child’s background and behavior at home and at school. It is usually completed by a social worker. |
| Sociodramatic Play | Play involving acting out scripts, scenes, etc. (i.e., from a favorite cartoon or book or from daily life). Children take/assume roles using themselves and/or characters (dolls, figures) as they interact together on common themes. A faciliator may assist ideas for characters, settings or props and use the children’s ideas for a story. Typically occurs between 3 – 4 years of age. As a child matures, themes, sequences, plans, problem solving, characters and so forth become more rich and they begin to organize other children for role play with independence (around 5 years of age). |
| Solitary Play | The child plays alone with toys that are different from those used by the children within speaking distance and makes no effort to interact with other children. The child plays alone without concern for the activties of those around him/her. Seen by 15-18 mos up through 2 yrs. |
| Sound Vocalization | Ability to produce voice. |
| Spasticity | Spasticity is the degree of tightness or spasm found in a muscle when it is strecthed. It feels like resistence and can greatly interfere with voluntary movement. |
| Special Education | Resources, services, classes, etc. for students with special educational needs. The public school system is involved with the identification of students with special needs, ages three on up. They provide assessment and, if appropriate, intervention services for those who qualify. Specific procedures are involved in assessment and intervention. If identified with special needs, an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) is written for the child to address learning needs. |
| Special Education File: | See Confidential File. |
| Special Education: | Specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, as defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. |
| Special Needs: | A term to describe a child who has disabilities, chronic illness, or is at risk for developing disabilities and who needs educational services or other special treatment in order to progress. |
| Specialized Nursing Homes: | Licensed facilities operating under strict regulations and providing intensive support for people with disabilities in the areas of personal care, communication, behavior management, etc. |
| Specific Learning Disability (SLD): | See Learning Disability. |
| Speech | a. The faculty or act of speaking. b. The faculty or act of expressing or describing thoughts, feelings, or perceptions by the articulation of words. |
| Speech | Making definite vocal sounds that form words to express thoughts and ideas. |
| Speech Disorder | Any defect or abnormality that prevents an individual from communicating by means of spoken words. Speech disorders may develop from nerve injury to the brain, muscular paralysis, structural defects, hysteria, or mental retardation. |
| Speech Impairment (SI): | A communication disorder such as stuttering impaired articulation, a language and voice impairment. |
| Speech Impairment: | A communication disorder involving poor or abnormal production of the sounds of language. |
| Speech Pathology | The study of speech and language defects and disorders |
| Speech Therapy: | Activities or routines designed to improve and increase communication skills. |
| Speech-Language Differences | Distrinct or different variations of a language (related to speech productin — an accent or dialect for example) (Lingling just moved here from China. She is learning to speak English. She has a speech difference.) |
| Speech-Language Disorder | Impairment; atypical language usage as compared to a person that is the same age. (Juan just moved here from Mexico. He had trouble with grammar in Spanish and saw a Speech-Language Pathologist in Mexico to work on his language skills. He also has trouble with grammar in English. He has a language disorder.) |
| Speech-Language Pathologist | A professionals who is educated to assess speech and language development, treat language and speech disorders, and help people with swallowing disorders. Requires at least a Master’s Degree, state, and national credentials. |
| Speech-Language Pathologist | Health professional trained to evaluate and treat people who have voice, speech, language, or swallowing disorders, including hearing impairment, that affect their ability to communicate. |
| Speech-Language Pathologist: | A professional who evaluates and develops programs for individuals with speech or language problems. |
| Splitting: | Involves dissociating positive and negative aspects of oneself and others, and compartmentalizing them into “all good” or “all bad” images. People who use splitting see themselves and others in black-and-white terms, dividing the world into “good guys” and “bad guys.” Term also used when an individual asks one staff person for something, then goes to another staff person if answer is not what he or she wanted. |
| Stability | |
| Standardized Tests: | In a vocational assessment, standardized tests are used to predict how a student is likely to perform in jobs calling for certain interests and skills. |
| Status Offender: | A youth who has been charged with or adjudicated for a status offense, which is conduct declared by statute to be a crime for children but which would not be a crime if committed by an adult under the law of the jurisdiction where the offense was committed. |
| Stay-put: | If the parent and school disagree on a child’s program, the child “stays put” in the last program agreed upon while the parties litigate. The purpose of this is to protect the child from being moved around during litigation. |
| Stereognosis | |
| Stroke | A group of brain disorders involving loss of brain functions that occur when the blood supply to any part of the brain is interrupted. |
| Stroke | Also known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA); caused by a lack of blood to the brain, resulting in the sudden loss of speech, language, or the ability to move a body part, and, if severe enough, death. |
| Student Progress Monitoring: | A scientifically-based practice used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. |
| Stuttering | Excessive repetition of parts of words, involutary prolongation of sounds in words, and/or struggle to “get words out.” A certain amount of dysfluent speech may be normal as a child learns to talk, and determination of stuttering is based on such information as the type, amount, and severity of the dysfluencies, the amount of struggle and tension during speech, and the length of time a child has been dysfluent. Stuttering tends to run in families. It is seen more in males than females. There is evidence that stuttering may be associated with some neurological deficits. There can also be a strong psychological component. Stuttering may persist into adulthood. Early intervention is important. |
| Stuttering | Frequent repetition of words or parts of words that disrupts the smooth flow of speech. Learn more about stuttering. |
| Subluxation | Subluxation is the condition of a joint when it is partially but not completely dislocated. For example, if your shoulder joint has been pulled apart & is not dislocated, it would be considered subluxed. |
| Substantially Limits | (a major life activity): Refers to a disability that restricts the conditions, manner, or duration under which activities can be performed in comparison to most people, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. |
| Suicidal Ideation: | Having thoughts of killing oneself. |
| Suicide Attempt: | Engaging in a life threatening behavior with the intent of ending one’s life. |
| Supervised Living Arrangements: | Homes or apartments for persons with disabilities that are managed by public or private agencies. Paid staff supervise the residents and assist them with budgeting, food preparation, transportation, etc. |
| Supine | Supine refers to the position of your body when lying down. If you are lying on your back, face-up, you are ’’in supine.’’ The opposite of supine is ’’prone,’’ and this refers to lying face down or on your tummy. |
| Supplemental Security Income (SSI) | is a federal program that provides money to low-income people who are aged, blind or disabled. You may be able to get SSI even if you don’t qualify for Social Security disability or retirement benefits. |
| Supplemental Security Income (SSI): | A federal program administered through the Social Security Administration that provides payments to individuals who are elderly and/or have disabilities. Children may be eligible for SSI if they have disabilities and are from families with low income. In addition, children who are hospitalized for 30 days or more and have a disability expected to last 12 months or more may receive SSI. |
| Supported Employment: | Paid employment for workers with disabilities in settings with people who are nondisabled. A job coach provides support by helping the employee to improve job skills, interpersonal relations, or any other job-related needs. |
| Suspension: | A suspension is the unilateral, temporary removal of a student from the student’s current placement by the public agency. A student with a disability may be suspended for up to ten consecutive school days for the same reasons as a student without a disability. |
| Swallowing Disorders | Any of a group of problems that interferes with the transfer of food from the mouth to the stomach. |
| Symbolic Play | Symbolic, or dramatic, play is when children begin to substitute one object for another. For example, using a hairbrush to represent a microphone. The child may pretend to do something (with or without the object present or with an object representing another object) or be someone. They may also pretend through other inanimate objects (e.g., has a doll pretend to feed another doll). Dramatic play with sequence of pretend acts predominates after 2 years of age. |
| Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) | |
| Syntax | Grammar (Harry works on his syntax in speech/language therapy sessions. He is learning how to use regular and irregular verbs properly.) |
| System of Care: | A method of delivering mental health services that helps children and adolescents with mental health problems and their families get the full range of services in or near their homes and communities. These services must be tailored to each individual child’s physical, emotional, social, and educational needs. In systems of care, local organization work in teams to provide services. |
| Table Top Play | Organized play that occurs at a table or related location. For example a board game, cards, etc. |
| Tactile | This refers to our sense of touch. The sense of touch is a child’s first way to learn about the external world. It is a critical sense to developing relationships with primary care givers and to giving comfort. The sense of touch plays a very important role in the child’s development of body awareness and is critical in the development of praxis (motor planning). |
| Tactile Defensiveness | |
| Target Behavior: | Behavior defined explicitly (avoiding general terms) so that it can be observed, measured, and agreed upon by individuals administering the program. |
| Teacher of Record (TOR): | This term is used to designate the single special education teacher to whom a student with a disability is assigned. |
| Test of Visual Motor Skills-Revised (TVMS-R) | |
| Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-Revised (TVPS-R) | |
| The Individual Transition Plan (ITP) | is created in conjunction with students who are 16 and above. This plan assists in the student’s transition from school to adulthood. |
| The Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities (PPCD) | is designed to provide coordinated assistance, training and other services to regional programs serving identified students with disabilities ages 3-5. |
| Theory of Mind | A “Theory of Mind” (often abbreviated as TOM) is a specific cognitive ability to understand others as intentional agents, that is, to interpret their minds in terms of theoretical concepts of intentional states such as beliefs and desires. It has been commonplace in philosophy (see Davidson 1984; Dennett 1987) to see this ability as intrinsically dependent upon our linguistic abilities. After all, language provides us a representational medium for meaning and intentionality : thanks to language we are able to describe other people’s and our own actions in an intentional way as in : “Ralph believes that Mary intends him to persuade George that p”. According to this view, the intentionality of natural language, that is, its suitability for expressing meanings and thoughts, is the key for understanding the intentionality of our theory of mind. |
| Therapist | One who specializes in the provision of a particular therapy. |
| Therapy | Treatment of illness, disability, or delay. |
| Thought Disorder: | Thinking characterized by loosened associations, neologisms, and illogical constructs. Includes disturbances in the form, structure, and content of thought. |
| Throat Disorders | Disorders or diseases of the larynx (voice box), pharynx, or esophagus. |
| Time Out: | A nonpunitive, unlocked area, as well as a period of time, which provides an individual with the opportunity to regain control of behavior or attitude. |
| Tone | Tone is the amount of tension in a muscle when it is at rest. There are generally 4 types of muscle tone. High tone is when the muscle is stiff or harder than normal at rest & low tone is when the muscle is loose or softer than normal at rest. This is called hypertonicity & hypotonicity respectively. Another type of tone is fluctuating tone. Flucuating tone is present when then muscle tone varies between high, normal, & low. The last type of tone is normal tone. Disorders such as Cerebral Palsy affect the amount of tone found in one`s muscles. High tone, low tone, & fluctuating tone make it very difficulty to move in a coordinated fashion. |
| Tongue | Large muscle on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. It is the main organ of taste, and assists in forming speech sounds. |
| Tourette Syndrome | Neurological disorder characterized by recurring movements and sounds (called tics). |
| Tourette’s Syndrome | A severe neurological disorder characterized by multiple facial and other body tics, usually beginning in childhood or adolescence and often accompanied by grunts and compulsive utterances, for example, interjections and obscenities. Also called Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. |
| Trade and Technical Schools: | Schools which prepare students for employment in recognized occupations such as secretary, air conditioning technician, beautician, electrician, welder, carpenter, etc. |
| Training Schools, Camps, and Ranches: | Nonsecure residential programs providing services to youth. Training schools are also known as youth development centers, youth villages, youth treatment centers, youth service centers, or schools or homes for boys or girls. Camps and ranches are generally located in relatively remote or rural areas. Camps have structured programs that emphasize outdoor work, including conservation and related activities. Typically, ranch residents participate in a structured program of education, recreation, and facility maintenance, including responsibility for the physical plant, its equipment, and livestock. |
| Tramatic Brain Injury | An acute assault/injury on the brain that can range from mild to severe. |
| Transference: | In psychoanalytic theory, an unconscious phenomenon in which the client projects onto another person (such as the therapist) attitudes, feelings, and desires originally linked with early significant persons. The individual onto whom the client projects typically represents these figures in the client’s current life. |
| Transition Coordinator: | School personnel chosen to manage transition services for students with disabilities. |
| Transition Planning Team: | The people who are involved in transition planning for a student, including the student, parents, school personnel (teachers, guidance counselor, vocational coordinator, school administrator), adult service agency representatives (vocational rehabilitation counselor, independence living center staff). |
| Transition Planning: | Careful preparation by the student, parents, educators, and other service providers, for the time when the student leaves high school. The plan is written in the Individualized Transition Plan. |
| Transition Services: | A coordinated set of activities for a student that promotes movement from school to post-school activities, including postsecondary education, vocational training, integrated employment, continuing and adult education, adult services, independent living, or community participation. |
| Transition: | The process of moving from one situation to another. Frequently used to mean moving from preschool programs into elementary school or from school to work and the community. |
| Transition: | In the education context, transition refers from a child’s adaptation from school life to adult life. At the age of 14, earlier if the CCC (see Case Conference Committee) determines it appropriate, the CCC must begin to plan for the student’s transition. Schools are responsible to provide transition services to assist a child with disabilities to successfully access the adult world, through work experiences and/or through postsecondary options and related. Transition services must be individually tailored to the child’s needs and skills. |
| Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): | An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas such as; cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem-solving, sensory, perceptual and motor ability, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or brain injuries induced by birth trauma. |
| Traumatic Brain Injury: | An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force causing a disability which affects a child’s educational performance; e.g., cognition, memory, language, motor abilities. |
| Traumatic Brain Injury: | A category of disability under the Individuals with Disasbilities Education Act (IDEA) |
| Treatment Plan | An organized course of action, involving goals/objectives and methods for treatment of a patient. |
| Tricyclics: | A group of chemically related antidepressants. |
| Triennial Review: | Every three years, a student in special education must be given a completely new evaluation/assessment to determine the student’s progress and to make a new determination of eligibility for continued special education services unless the parent agrees that no new evaluation is necessary. The school must also re-evaluate the child at parent request, as long as it has been at least one year since the last evaluation. |
| Tutor | A person charged with the instruction and guidance of another. Used to describe one who assists another with homework and teaches academic subjects to pupils who require individual instruction. They do not test, remediate or deal with the social-emotional problems typically associated with learning disability. They may not have specialized training in the field of learning disabilities. |
| U.S.C.: | United States Code. The United States Code is available online at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ |
| Unbroken Contact: | Early, thorough, and substantial alcohol and other drug abuse treatment intervention delivered in an unbroken manner throughout the entire juvenile case-handling process, from intake through the sentence. The components of the system must transfer not only the juvenile but also the cumulative record of what the system has learned and what it has done. |
| Velopharyngeal Dysfunction | Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) is also known as velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) or even velopharyngeal incompetence (VPI). The most common cause of velopharyngeal insufficiency is a history of cleft palate or submucous cleft. However, other causes include a short velum, poor pharyngeal wall movement, cranial base anomalies, a history of adenoidectomy, surgery for midface advancement, enlarged tonsils, and irregular adenoids. Neuromotor disorders can cause poor velopharyngeal movement, resulting in velopharyngeal dysfunction. Frequently, hypernasality is perceived. |
| Verbal Dyspraxia | Motor speech disorder where the speaker shows reduced efficiency in accomplishing the oral postures necessary for phoneme production and the sequences of those postures for production of syllables, words, sentences, and/or conversation. The speaker may show groping behaviors and struggle to initiate, organize and carrythrough speech movement. It is a motor planning problem for speech. Generally, unlike dysarthria, there is nothing wrong with the speech muscles themselves. |
| Verbal Expression | Also called Expressive Language. Refers to a person’s ability to express themselves at the word, phrase, sentence, multi-sentence and conversational levels. Includes ability to use age appropriate vocabulary, concepts and grammar to communicate needs, wants, desires, thoughts, and ideas. Verbal expression refers to the use of oral language for communication. However, expressive language includes the use of alternative or augmentative communication to include gestures, sign language, and simple to complex augmentative devices (for example, picture boards, alphabet boards, computerized systems with or without voice). Difficulties with expressive language can interfere with academic or occupational achievement or with social communication |
| Vestibular | This is the sense that allows us to recognize how we are moving in relationship to gravity. Receptors in our ears sense if we are upright, upside down, moving sideways, spinning, etc. As a result of this sensory input, we make adjustments to posture and to our eye movements. Vestibular sensation has a strong impact not only on posture and eye movements, but also on: balance, coordination of the two body sides, and emotional control. Accurate vestibular processing is essential for the development of praxis. |
| Vestibular System | Sensory integration is a normal phenomenon of central nervous system functioning and provides a foundation for more complex learning and behavior. For some individuals sensory integration does not develop as efficiently as it should. Sensory integration dysfunction can result in motor development difficulties, learning difficulties, or behavioral concerns. |
| Visual Closure | Visual Closure is the ability to recognize or identify a shape or form when it is not complete. For example, if you can tell that a shape is a square before it is completely drawn, this would be due to visual closure skills. |
| Visual Discrimimation | |
| Visual Impairment (VI): | A visual impairment, which, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. |
| Visual Impairment: | Having a mild to severe vision disorder, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance. |
| Visual Memory | Visual Memory is a perceptual skill that allows you to remember what you see. Children with visual memory difficulties will experience difficulty copying from the board, learning to read, & remembering what they have read. Occupational Therapists are trained in evaluating visual memory. |
| Visual Motor Skills | Refers to the development of smooth and efficient eye movements to allow for tracking of objects, focusing on specific targets and shifting gaze from one object to another. |
| Visual Motor Skills | Visual Motor Skills refer to the ability to coordinate one`s hands with their eyes. The difference between visual motor skills & eye hand coordination is that eye hand cordination generally refers to large movements like catching & batting. Visual motor skills refers to smaller movements like copying shapes, words, & numbers, cutting along a line, & threading a needle. At school visual motor skills affect a student`s ability to copy from the board, form letters neatly and with good formation, & write between the lines. |
| Visual Perception | Refers to the brain’s ability to interpret and make sense of visual images seen by the eyes. |
| Visual Perception | Visual Perception is the ability to make sense out of what you see. It inlcudes being able to see the difference between objects, remember what you saw, find a shape when it is mixed in with a bunch of other shapes, & identify a shape even though it may be missing a piece or not complete. There are many visual perceptual subskills and they include: visual discrimination, visual memory, visual spatial relationships, visual sequential memory, visual foreground, & visual closure. Visual perceptual skills play paramount roles in learning mathematics, reading, printing, & handwriting. |
| Visual Sequential Memory | Visual Sequential Memory is a perceptual skill that allows you to remember the order or sequence of items you see. For example, remembering the order of letters in a word or the order of words in a sentence. Children with visual sequential memory difficulties will experience difficulty copying from the board, learning to read, & remembering what they have read. Occupational Therapists are trained in evaluating visual sequential memory. |
| Visual-Motor Integration: | The extent to which an individual can coordinate vision with body movement or parts of the body; e.g., being able to copy words from the blackboard. |
| Vocal Cord Paralysis | Inability of one or both vocal folds (vocal cords) to move because of damage to the brain or nerves. |
| Vocal Cords (Vocal Folds) | Muscularized folds of mucous membrane that extend from the larynx (voice box) wall. The folds are enclosed in elastic vocal ligament and muscle that control the tension and rate of vibration of the cords as air passes through them. |
| Vocal Folds | See Vocal Cords above. |
| Vocational Assessment (Evaluation): | A systematic process of evaluating an individual’s skills, aptitudes, and interests as they relate to job preparation and choice. Assessments include work sampling, standardized tests, and behavioral observation. |
| Vocational Education: | Formal training designed to prepare individuals to work in a certain job or occupational area, such as construction, cosmetology, food service, or electronics. Also called vocational training and vocational program. |
| Vocational Education: | Vocational education is an organized educational program that is directly related to the preparation of individuals for paid or unpaid employment. |
| Vocational Rehabilitation: | A comprehensive system that assists individuals with temporary or permanent disabilities in the areas of assessment, counseling, training, physical rehabilita�tion, and job placement. |
| Voice | Sound produced by air passing out through the larynx and upper respiratory tract |
| Voice Disorders | Group of problems involving abnormal pitch, loudness, or quality of the sound produced by the larynx (voice box) |
| Voice Disturbance | In general, there are five categories that characterize the underlying causes of the majority of voice disorders; in decreasing order of frequency, these are: 1.Infectious and inflammatory conditions 2.Vocal misuse and abuse syndromes 3.Benign and malignant growths 4.Neuromuscular diseases 5.Psychogenic conditions. It is common for multiple factors to be involved in the development of a voice disorder. An example is a patient with Reinke’s edema, a term used to describe very swollen vocal cords. These patients almost always are heavy, long-term smokers, most of whom have gastroesophageal reflux as well. Another example of a voice issue is a patient with vocal nodules. This condition is always associated with signs of increased laryngeal muscle tension. Since voice disorders are often multifactorial, appropriate diagnosis and treatment in each case depends upon identification and correction of all of the underlying factors. |
| WISC test: | Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) |
| Withdrawal: | Process of retreating from society and relationships with others. Usually includes lack of interest in social activities and difficulty in communicating with others. |
| Word Salad: | A mixture of words and phrases that lacks comprehensive meaning or logical coherence. |
| Work-Study Programs: | Education programs in which the student receives employment training and earns credit toward graduation through employment. |
| Wraparound Services: | A comprehensive approach to developing help that meets the mental health needs ofindividual children and their families. Children and families are provided with community support that is coordinated with full treatment services in order to facilitate the effectiveness of the intervention. |
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