Glossary of Terms
The following are terms that you may be unfamiliar with, or unfamiliar with as they apply to material found on this web site. We have provided this glossary for your convenience.
Abstract thinking
The ability to think in terms of ideas or concepts rather than facts.
Accommodations
Adaptations or adjustments provided to fit the particular needs of an individual because of their disability.
Achievement Test
A test of in core curriculum areas, such as reading or mathematics to determine a student's level of academic achievement.
Alternate Assessment
An evaluation process which uses non-traditional testing methods to asses a student's ability and/or knowledge which is appropriate to their specific needs and accommodates their disability.
Amygdala
A region in the forebrain involed in integrating and coordinating emotional behaviors.
Anosognosia
A lack of comprehension or awareness of the extent an individual's abilities and limitations.
Asperger's Syndrome (AS)
A developmental disability characterized by normal intelligence, motor clumsiness, eccentric interests, and a limited ability to appreciate social nuances.
Assistive Technology Device
The term 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 functional capabilities of a child with a disability.
Assistive Technology Service
The term means any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.
Association Areas
Regions of the cerebral cortex concerned with higher levels of processing.
Association Neurons
Cells that mediate interactions between neurons.
Attention Deficit Disorder (AD/HD)
A neurological-based condition which is characterized by distractability, short attention span, and impulsiveness.
Autism
A developmental disability with onset in infancy or early childhood, characterized by severe deficits in social responsiveness and interpersonal relationships, abnormal speech and language development, and repetitive or stereotyped behaviors.
Autoreceptors
Receptors found on synaptic terminals that are activated by the substances released by the terminals.
Axon Terminals
Branches of an axon near its site of termination. Synapses are typically made by axon terminals.
Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP)
A written intervention plan for a student whose behavior significantly interferes with his/her learning and/or the other students' opportunity to learn. The plan specifically addresses those behaviors which interfere with learning, and must include a functional analysis of the student's behavior, as well as nonpunitive methods for the child to acquire more acceptable replacement behaviors.
Bilateral Integration
The harmonious working relationship between the two sides of the body.
Body Image
An abstract internal representation of spatial and physical-mechanical properties of one's body (including muscle, skeleton, organs, and so on).
Broca's Area
An area (usually found in the left frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex) critical for the production of language.
Central Nervous System
Consists of the brain and spinal cord.
Cerebellum
A prominent hindbrain structure important for coordinating and integrating motor activity.
Cerebral Cortex
A layer of cells that covers the forebrain. Highly infolded in man, the cortex is divided into two hemispheres, which are further subdivided into four lobes, frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal.
Closure
Bringing together to form a conclusion - or the "whole" as it relates to the "parts" of a concept or situation.
Compensations
Alternative solutions or strategies to accommodate a disability in order to remove barriers created by the disability.
Comprehension
The act or ability of understanding - to get the meaning.
Coordination
The harmonious working together of muscle groups in performing complex movements.
Corpus Callosum
A thick band of axons found in the middle of the brain that carries information frome one side of the brain to the other.
Crystalized Intelligence
Storehouse of general information/knowledge; overlearned skills; rote "old" learning; information based on past learning.
Dendrites
Bushy branch-like structurs that extend from the cell body of a neuron and receive the synaptic input to the cell.
Development
The process of maturational growth.
Directionality
The projection of laterality (which developed within oneself) to outside oneself.
Discrimination
The ability to differentiate between two or more sensory stimuli.
DSM-IV
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (American Psychiatric Association).
Dysgraphia
A disability of the physical act of printing or cursive handwriting.
Diskinesia
An impairment of voluntary movement resulting in fragmented or incomplete movements; poor coordination.
Dyssemia
Difficulty in using and understanding nonverbal signs and signals; a nonverbal communication deficit.
Echolalia
The apparent meaningless repetition of exact words or phrases spoken by another, then used in place of original speech.
Etiology
The cause or source of a syndrome or disease.
Eye-hand Coordination
The integration of visual and tactile systems which enables the hand to be used as a tool of the visual processes.
Fine Motor Skills
The use of small muscle groups for specific tasks such as handwriting.
Finger Agnosia
The inability to recognize and interpret sensory impressions with fingers (generally the finger tips), caused by an impairment in the brain.
Forebrain
The most distal part of the brain, consisting principally of the thalamus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, and cerebral cortex.
Frontal Lobe
The most anterior portion of the cerebral cortex, concerned primarily with movement and smell.
Fluid Intelligence
Practical, hands-on intelligence; how well a person "thinks on his or her feet"; how quickly and how competently a person processes and utilizes the information at his or her disposal.
Free Appropriate Public Education
The term means 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 program in the state involved; and (d) are provided in conformity with the individualized education program required under section 614(d).
Frontloading
Providing "preview" materials to a student prior to the actual instruction of a unit or topic of study.
Full Inclusion
A placement in which a special education student receives instruction within the regular classroom setting for the entire school day.
Gestalt Perception
Deriving meaning from the "whole picture," without breaking it down into parts; "putting it all together"' a holistic view.
Glia
Supporting cells in the brain that help maintain neurons, regulate the environment, and form the myelin around axons.
Gray Matter
Those regions of the brain and spinal cord where neuronal cell bodies and dendrites are abundant.
Guidepost Neurons
Specialized cells found in the developing brain that guide axonal growth.
Hard Signs (neurological)
Refer to unequivocal, medically documented signs of brain damage, such as brain surgery, cerebral bleeding, hemiplegia, brain tumor or penetrating head injury (see also soft signs).
Hearing Impairment
A permanent or fluctuating hearing loss that significantly hinders educational performance.
Hemisphere (cortical)
Half of the cerebral cortex. The two cortical hemispheres are each subdived into four lobes.
Hyperlexia
A syndrome which interferes with speech, language, and social interaction. It may be accompanied by unusual or "different" behaviors. Children exhibit an intense fascination with letters, numbers, patterns, logos, etc., and a very precocious ability to read, spell, write and/or compute from as early as 18 months to before the age of five.
Hypothalamus
A forebrain region that contains nuclei concerned with basic acts and drives such as eating, drinking, and sexual activity. The hypothalamus also regulates the release of pituitary gland hormones and the autonomic nervous system, and it plays an important role in emotional behavior.
Inclusive Schooling
Educating all children, with and without disabilities, together in heterogeneous classrooms. Materials are adapted, modified and changed to accommodate the needs of individual students. Inclusive schooling allows disabled students to exercise their basic right to be educated in the same educational environment as their peers.
Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
An IEP is a written document stating a student's disability, educational goals, kind and level of services, modifications, and the present levels of performance. Every IEP must be approved by a special education committee usually consisting of at least a chairperson (who is often a school administrator), a school psychologist, and a parent.
Individualized Transition Plan (ITP)
A specific and formalized plan which addresses the issues necessary for a student's transition from high school to work, college or university, or community living. This is required for students 16 years of age or older, who qualify for special education services under PL 92-142 (IDEA).
Impairment
A neurological blockage or barrier to expected development.
Inference
Going beyond available evidence to form a conclusion.
Integration
A placement in which a special education student receives instruction within the regular classroom setting for the entire school day.
Intervention
The therapeutic and/or educational methods employed to aid a child once a disability has been diagnosed.
Intervention-Based Multifactored Evaluation
A collaborative, problem-solving process which focuses upon concerns which affect the learner's education progress within a learning environment.
Kinesthesia
The sensory knowledge and awareness of the body and body parts in space; includes awareness of balance and motion.
Laterality
The internal awareness an individual has of the two sides of his body.
Least Restrictive Environment
A term from PL92-142 (IDEA) requiring that, to the greatest extent possible, students with disabilities must be educated with their non-disabled peers.
Long-term Memory
Memories that last for long periods - weeks, months, or longer.
Low Incidence Disability
A severely disabling condition with an expected incidence rate of less than one percent of the total statewide enrollment for kindergarten through grade twelve.
Mainstreaming
Placing students with special needs in regular classroom settings with support services.
Midline
A line marking the middle of the body, running from head to toe, separating the right from the left side of the body.
Mind Blindness
The inability to take the perspective of another.
Modality
A sensory mode used by an individual to process information (i.e. auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic).
Monoamine
A type of substance released at synapses that functions mainly as a neuromodulator.
Myelin
An insulating layer of membrane formed around axons by glial cells - much like electrical wires are insulated.
Neuromodulator
Substance released at a synapse that causes biochemical changes in a neuron.
Neurons
Cells in the brain involved in the reception, integration, and transmission of signals.
Neurotransmitter
Substance released at a synapse that causes fast electrical excitation or inhibition of a neuron.
Nonverbal Learning Disorders (NLD)
A neurological condition believed to result from damage to the white matter connections in the right-hemisphere, which are important for intermodal integration. Three major categories of dysfunction present themselves:
- motoric (lack of coordination, severe balance problems, and difficulties with fine graphomotor skills)
- visual-spatial-organizational (lack of image, poor visual recall, faulty spatial receptions,and difficulties with spatial relations)
- social (lack of ability to comprehend nonverbal communication, difficulties adjusting to transitions and novel situations, and deficits in social judgement and social interaction)
Obsess
To fill the mind of - keep the attention of to an unreasonable or unhealthy extent.
Occipital Lobe
The most posterior portion of the cerebral cortex, concerned with visual processing.
Occupational Therapy
Therapy to improve, develop or restore functions impaired or lost through illness, injury or deprivation; to improve ability to perform tasks for independent functioning if functions are impaired or lost; to prevent, through early intervention, initial or further impairment or loss of function.
Orbitofrontal Cortex
An area found in the lower part of the frontal lobes, important for the expression of emotional behaviors.
Parallel Activity
An alternate assignment given to a student, in which the outcome achieves the same goal, but the methods and materials used to reach that outcome may be different.
Parietal Lobe
That region of the cerebral cortex between the frontal and occipital lobes concerned primarily with somatosensory information processing.
Perception
The process by which patterns of environmental energies become known as objects, events, people, and other aspects of the world - insight, comprehension.
Perceptual Motor Disability
The child has trouble using a utensil and copying notes from the board. Handwriting is sloppy; the letters are improperly formed, not on the line much, and/or inconsistent pencil pressure is evident.
Peripheral Nervous System
Parts of the nervous system outside of the brain and spinal cord.
Perseverate
To continue or repeat an action after the stimulus or need for it has passed.
Position Emission Tomography (PET) Scanning
A method for detecting increases in activity of a part of the brain.
Pragmatics
The relation between signs or linguistic expressions and their users.
Primary Motor Area
The region of the cerebral cortex where fine movements are initiated. Found in the frontal lobes adjacent to the central sulcus.
Primary Sensory Area
Regions where sensory information is first processed in the cerebral cortex.
Proprioceptive Information
Sensory information from muscles, joints, and tendons of which we are not aware - it does not reach our consciousness.
Prosody
Tone, accent, modulation and all other features that characterize speech.
Psychomotor
Having to do with muscular activity directly related to or coming from mental processes - the brain controlling movement.
Pyramidal Cell
A prominent neuron found in all areas of the cerebral cortex.
Related Services
Related services means transportation and such developmental, corrective and other supportive services that are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education and includes: speech-language pathology and audiology services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. The term includes school health services, social work services in schools, and parent counseling and training.
Schizophrenia
A severe mental disease characterized by thoght and mood disorders, hallucinations, etc.
Semantics
The study of meanings in language - connotative meaning.
Sensory Integration
The brain's ability to take in and synthesize multi-modality experiences perceived by the senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, motion, and temperature).
Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT)
Developed by Dr. Jean Ayres, an occupational therapy treatment program consisting of exercises which encourage the individual to use as many nerve-cell connections as possible.
Sensorimotor
Having to do with both sensory and motor activity in the body.
Serotonin
A substance released at synapses that most often acts as a neuromodulator. Decreased levels of serotonin in the brain have been linked to depression.
Short-term Memory
The initial storage of memories that lasts for fifteen minutes or so. Short-term memories are labile and easily disrupted.
Social Perceptual Disability
The child is not adept at using non-verbal cues in a social setting.
Soft Signs (neurological)
Refer to minimal behavioral deviations in a child, reported by a neurologist, where traditional neurological examination shows no hard signs of brain damage or dysfunction. These indications, such as neuromuscular clumsiness, involuntary twitching movements in the hands, and poor directional sense, are strongly suggestive of abnormal functioning of the central nervous system.
Specific Learning Disability
The term means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.
Speech-Language Pathologist
A professional educated in the study of human communication, its development, and its disorders.
Speech-Language Therapy
Treatment of speech and language disorders, not limited to articulation problems, and including pragmatic language.
Strategies
Careful plans or methods employed towards a goal.
Synapse
The site of functional contact between two neurons or a neuron and muscle cell.
Syndrome
A group of signs and symptoms considered together as characteristic of a particular disease or disorder.
Tactile
Of or having to do with the sense of touch.
Tactile-kinesthetic
Relating to the sense of touch and the feeling of movement; touching and doing.
Temporal Lobe
The lateral-most part of the cerebral cortex, concerned with hearing and memory.
Thalamus
A forebrain region that relays sensory information to the cerebral cortex.
Visual Discrimination
Visual adeptness at perceiving likenesses and differences in geometrical figures, symbols, pictures, and words.
Visualization
The ability to picture, relate, and manipulate visions within one's mind.
Visual-motor
The relationship between visual input and motoric output, as in copying text.
Visual-motor integration
The coordination of visual information with motor processes.
Visual Perception
How an individual interprets the things he/she sees.
Visuospatial
Of the field of vision, especially as it involves the relationships of space and configuration of the object seen.
Wernicke's Area
An area in the left temporal lobe concerned with the comprehension of language and reading and writing.
Williams Syndrome
A developmental disorder affecting connective tissue and the central nervous system. Characteristics of this disorder include heart disease, dysmorphic facial features, and poor visual-motor integration.
WISC-III
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (third edition). Five subtests make up the verbal scale, and five subtests make up the performance scale. The WISC-III provides three IQs: verbal, performance, and full scale. (WISC-IV ? fourth edition with slight changes)
White Matter
Regions of the brain and spinal cord where there are abundant myelinated axons. The myelin gives the tissue its whitish appearance.
Working Memory
A memory maintained for a short time to enable a specific task to be accomplished. An example is remembering a phone number until it is dialed.
504 Plan
Section 504 of PL 93-112 ( the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) defines a disabled individual as anyone who experiences a "mental, psychological, or physiologic disorder which interferes with [that] individual's civil right to one or more major life activities." If a student has a disabling condition which interferes with his ability to learn or perform up to his ability in school, the school district must draw up a plan of appropriate CAMS to be implemented for this student. All special education students covered under PL 92-142 (IDEA) are automatically covered under Section 504 of PL 93-112. An IEP can serve in place of a 504 plan.
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